#went to jupiter got stupider

[rhinco]

i thought of a funny tumblr post while i was driving but i forgot it before i could type it out can you guys just reblog this and pretend i said something profound and hilarious

[godbirdart]

clueless. not a single brain cell to be had.

[iamnot-theboynextdoor]

every three months i come to the end of my t cycle and become Extremely Fatigued. and every three months, without fail, i forget why and question why i feel like i'm running on fumes and want to sleep for 15 hours a day.

[omtai]

wait jhave a question. what music do u think ants would listen to.. what is ant music like

this question intruiged me so i searched it up and found this. I think they would like this to be honest ... and the video is very informative i love the ant guitar solo and the ants stranded on saturn

[tiramiiswu]

ੈ✩‧₊˚ indomitable

⋆⭒˚. invincible x green lantern!reader ⭒˚.⋆

✦ masterlist || next ✦ imagine: local delinquent girl acts as the one and only green lantern of earth and who just so happens to have a distinct disdain for a certain half-viltrumite she has the displeasure of meeting ✦ pairings: mark grayson x reader ✦ warnings: n/a ✦ a/n: reader is a sort of magical girl inspired green lantern in the sense that i keep picturing her hero costume to be reminiscent of the pretty guardian sailor moon sailor senshi outfits, specifically sailor jupiter’s since she’s already green. her personality is bit of a mix of makoto kino from pgsm and kyoko sakura from puella magi madoka magica when it comes to inspiration because i love my bastard daughter, but i think it definitely evolved in a way that doesnt really align with that as well anymore ✦ originally this was meant to be longer but im not super used to the like? headcanons bulleted list style of formatting this imagine is in and i tend to like ramble and get off my initial thought so hopefully this cut version is readable enough, i might make multiple parts to this just to get some of my other headcanons out because i did really like some of the extra ones i just didn’t think they fit that well with the main ones (i also just want to write about gl!reader and her beloved punching bag ^^;; )

edit: I FORGOT THE OTHER HALF OF MY DRAFT FUCK.

✦ mark grayson was a fucking loser

✦ that was something you were sure of

✦ he’s some stupid dweeb with a dorky interest like seance dog who’s not even worth looking at over the gum stuck to your shoe

✦ you’ve known him since you were kids, when he was an annoying little boy with a gap in his teeth

✦ your parents trying to set up playdates with him and his family after moving into the neighborhood some time before you developed your powers

✦ before everything went to shit

✦ at twelve you were sought out by the green lantern’s ring, unsure as to why it chose you or how you were considered worthy

✦ maybe it was due to your childish belief that evil could be thwarted by the power of love and justice, like the pretty guardians and magical girls in the boxsets your mother let you read with her and the old vhs tapes you watched sitting in her lap growing up

✦ maybe it was your stubborn resolve when it came to protecting your friends on the schoolyard from snotty little boys who tried to pick on them (you were sent to the principal’s office due to your quick response to slug your tiny little fists at some stupid brat’s mouth enough to be on a first name basis with them, much to your father’s dismay)

✦ whatever it was, you were over the moon with your newfound abilities

✦ through sheer willpower you were able to construct anything your imagination thought of, you could fly, and (most importantly to your 13 year old self) your ring could create any hero costume design to anything your heart desired, complete with a dazzling transformation sequence to boot

✦ at first it was everything you ever wanted, days at school spent wanting to do nothing but go out and fight the forces of evil with your totally awesome magical powers (sort of)

✦ for a while you even wondered when you’d get your own team (all magical girls had a team comprised of their friends to fight off evil, so obviously you would get one eventually, right?)

✦ you spent a lot of time in class doodling what you thought your team would be like, which of your friends were bound to be chosen next and join your side (in the back of your notebook you even had some little doodles of you and some masked phantom thief type character that you could no longer pin who your kid self was thinking of at the time when you stumbled upon your old notebook)

✦ but of course, life wasn’t that simple

✦ you never got that team of magical girls, or other lanterns to come to your aid and help you fight off evil

✦ you didn’t have a moment where a kind older teammate you picked up along the way reassured you and comforted you when your body ached from being thrown around like a rag doll by some super powered freak trying to destroy a city block

✦ no one else was there to help you when your ring faltered and your constructs fell apart because you were just a little girl fighting for love and justice against real monsters, bad guys who wanted to break your bones or worse, ones who couldn’t be magically defeated with a magic tiara or a special transformation power-up

✦ it was you who had to do all of that

✦ it was you who had to choke back tears and lick your wounds just to push all of that fear down into the pits of your stomach and pull yourself back onto your feet to hit the bastard who broke your rib ten times as hard

✦ your constructs were tougher, brighter even, they no longer shattered after one heavy hit against the body of a big bulky target

✦ but it wasn’t your courage making them stronger—

✦ it was the unwavering resolve that you were going to punch and claw your way out of each hell you got into and survive, even if you had to die trying

✦ at some point you quit sticking your neck out for other people

✦ you stop searching for fights to start and to prevent crime before it escalates with regular patrols of the city

✦ you only ever came to the aid of civilians when danger was making itself present in big conflics, it gives you more time to be a regular girl and live your life

✦ by eight grade you had had to switch schools for fighting other students

✦ mark noticed that before your expulsion you seemed to have quit picking fights to protect your friends (friends who gradually started to drift away from you late seventh grade) and now you seemed to just be starting fights out of nowhere

✦ you needed to let off steam from your hero work, taking it out on some annoying boy in class was the closest thing you had to a goon or grunt

✦ he didn’t see you again until late into high school

✦ or, really he didn’t see you until he ran into eve after getting his powers

✦ because you saw him immediately after transferring back to the same school district and getting enrolled in the same high school as him

✦ somehow the world couldn’t be smaller

✦ you saw him the first day of senior year

✦ how could you forget, you punched him in the jaw at your parents’ funeral nearly four years ago

✦ you basically ignored him as much as you could

✦ i mean really he’s the same as he was as all those years ago as a stupid kid— dorky and innocent

✦ it was almost insulting the way he didn’t recognize you at first, but to be fair you gave him the cold shoulder and pushed past him in the halls whenever you could

✦ he often saw you smoking under the bleachers during breaks

✦ you still got into fights sometimes, he’s seen you throw a mean right hook whenever one of the other students were bothering you, so he generally he keeps his distance (still, he found himself looking at you over his shoulder every time he did notice you, something about the bad girl delinquent vibe gave you an allure of some kind)

✦ so now imagine being you, taking a night off for once from beating crooks bloody and waiting for civilians to get into trouble before swooping in to save them (again), loitering around Burger Mart and using your lantern ring to make a lighter to light a cigarette (you left your lighter at home— a nice vivienne westwood that belonged to your mom)

✦ you’re minding your own business when you see a familiar face come out from the back of the restaurant

✦ your brows scrunch up identifying the boy in uniform as your least favorite regular human on the planet as he’s hauling two trash bags over to the dumpster

✦ you groaned at the sight of him and rolled your eyes, going back to lighting your cigarette when you see him fidget with the bags for a moment before fucking chucking one of them into the fucking stratosphere

✦ you just sort of stare at him from where you were sat with wide, furious eyes

✦ because no way this loser gets powers out of fucking nowhere

✦ no fucking way you have been busting your ass for years getting stronger, learning how to suppress your fear and push yourself to be stronger, faster, more durable, everything to survive when you’re doing your rounds as Earth’s only green lantern

✦ and mark fucking grayson gets to throw massive heaps of trash into fucking space like it was nothing

✦ if there was a God somewhere, you were sure he’s laughing right at you

✦ you’re there when mark— sorry, when invincible makes his debut as a hero, during the initial flaxan invasion,

✦ you’re exceptionally more irritated than usual

✦ the others chalked it up to your usual grouchiness, but atom eve (your one and only friend) caught onto your ire rather quickly with just how aggressive you seemed to be that day

✦ when mark approached eve in the halls at school afterwards you didn’t do anything to hide your scowl, appearing behind her like a shadow

✦ it took him a second to notice you and he’s not all to proud to say your sudden arrival made him jump a little

✦ scared for a second that he was talking loud enough for someone to have heard him reveal his identity when he remembers you as one of the heroes who he fought beside during the flaxan invasion

✦ you’re annoyed when eve offers to lend an ear to mark, call it jealousy or just you being territorial of your only friend, but there was no way mark grayson gets one rocky start as a hero and immediately gets to be reassured by someone

✦ he gets his powers without needing to prove anything, he gets support from the get go by another hero like eve as soon as he doubts himself, it made you sick— HE makes you sick

✦ from then there on you just couldn’t shake this guy off you

✦ you ran into him more often at school, or at the store, hell you were getting put on the same assignments by cecil

✦ you’re sick of him

✦ sick of his stupid face and that dorky grin of his

✦ how he’s always checking in on you when you go down during a fight and how his voice sounded a bit softer when he spoke to you

✦ the way he makes your face heat up and made your stomach flip when he looked at you—

✦ oh…

✦ oh hell no.

✦ you needed to hit something and you needed to hit something hard (preferably mark)

✦ you were already pretty standoffish and kind of mean when you had to interact at school, but now?

✦ whenever you’re paired with him for missions half of it is spent barking at him and calling him stupid for not being careful enough

✦ he doesn’t even really know what gets you so heated sometimes but he’s getting better at dodging your punches when you start wailing on him post fight

✦ you hate how much effort you have to put just to keep up with him sometimes

✦ he makes you put in the work when he’s barely breaking a sweat

✦ you want to hit him with your hardest construct sometimes just to see him get skipped like a stone. he’s durable, he’ll live

✦ seeing you in action is something else

✦ your costume hasn’t really changed since you were younger (really the sailor scout uniform was just too good to switch up)

✦ but the duality of the cute bows on your leotard and the short pleated skirt compared to the sight of you slamming a heavy green mallet over some poor supervillain’s head always draws his attention to you

✦ you fight so effortlessly in mark’s eyes, you’re quick on your feet and there’s a unique power behind your punch that make him feel the earth beneath his feet shake when he sees you clock someone in the jaw

✦ you always looked so cool with your stoic, determined expression and he admires how ✦ you seem so put together, you barely stagger between attacks, it’s as if you’re just going through the motions

✦ watching you ring-sling is such a sight to see

✦ you’re so quick to adapt your light constructs he can’t imagine how fast you must be thinking for you to be able to switch as naturally as you do, almost like breathing

✦ he’s seen you combo your ring-sling constructs with your raw strength, hitting them with a green baseball bat before the same light construct stretched into a tether or a lasso to yank them back into your ring bearing fist— which by then had some brass knuckle or gauntlet wrapped around it to bust up their jaw

✦ you do surprisingly well at keeping up with him, you’re nowhere near as fast or durable as he is after he starts getting deeper and deeper into being invincible, but your willpower wasn’t something to laugh at

✦ he admired your courage and strength, even if he was at the end of some of those punches

✦ the two of you were such a strange pair

✦ both of you seemed oblivious to the way you looked at each other

✦ maybe it was the goggles on his costume but mark never seemed to realize that the scowl on your face wasn’t the same as your usual resting face (though he found the scrunch of your nose and the furrowing of your brows very cute)

✦ and you (despite your observational skills and general common sense) couldn’t tell that the sheepish puppy dog look on his face when he talked to you wasn’t just how his stupid face looked

✦ you also didn’t seem to realize that thinking about him as consistently as you did wasn’t something you’re supposed to do about someone you claimed to despise

✦ eve is at her wits end with you guys, especially since she was most often the one left to mediate between the two of you

✦ rex tried to do that once, but seeing as you were strongly aligned with eve and hold grudges longer than anyone else you still weren’t giving him any civilized response that didn’t involve chucking him into a lamppost ever since eve confided to you about him cheating

✦ also he used your spare lighter as ammunition once and he was still feeling the pain in his arm from when you broke his wrist after that

[spiribia]

The saying is “girls go to college to get more knowledge, boys go to Jupiter to get more stupider” but I actually went to college and got more stupider and I presume if you went to Jupiter you’d actually gain a kind of knowledge

[outofuse-sorry]

SPOILER FOR PJ

I’m probably not the first person to figure this out, but it just clicked for me. Percy Jackson never technically made a decision that would be the rise or fall of Olympus on his 16th birthday, he made one the day before. This is because he never actually turned sixteen. He, multiple times, got stuck in places where time was warped, like the lotus casino, and calypso island. He physically, never turned sixteen.

Instead, at the beginning of SoN, where he finds Juno (Hera) he makes the big choice of going into the water into safety or bringing her to Camp Jupiter. Thats roughly 2months after the Battle of Manhattan, as we don’t know how long went by before he went missing. In SoN, he said he’d been on the run for 2 months. If you go and add up the times where he was frozen in time, like calypso and the casino those two are 3 weeks, probably a little over a month including the Labyrinth.

This is a strong hypothetical, but if you went back and added up all the times he was frozen, my hypothesis assumes that they would add ip to, or near the rough two months between SoN and TLO. Don’t quote me on this, this is a stupid theory I’ve thought about before. Also, First post of Tumblr!

[cupcakeslushie]

For your brainwash au, do we get so see exactly how Donnie got captured by Kendra? And would this au be a full comic or just bits and pieces here and there? (Not pressuring just curious) Love the au and I hope you’re having a good day! :)

Don’t know why, but I felt like writing this part out instead of drawing it! (Sorry for bad grammar. I wrote this lying in bed, sleep deprived and did no editing)

——

The sad, pained look on his little brother’s face is enough to set off that dark protective fire in Donatello’s belly. And Michael has been a tiny storm of negative emotions since Leo slapped the small cast on his ankle. Donnie may not be able to pick apart and decipher all of the subtitles his brother is feeling right now, but he knows he’s in pain, and that’s enough.

“How many strips of bacon do you think we can get from Meat Sweat’s corpse?” Donnie ponders as he wraps an arm around his little brother’s shoulders, and carefully pulls him closer. Mikey lets out a quiet huff, but the joke doesn’t land the way Donnie had been hoping.

“Michael?”

“I’m okay,” Mikey assures. Then a hesitant second later adds, “it’s stupid.”

“Oh well if it’s stupid, allow me to grab ‘Nardo. He might be able to help you better.”

That gets the laugh he was looking for.

“I’m not in pain or anything. It’s just, tonight was the midnight signing of Joshua Bear’s new cook book. He’s a YouTuber chef that I’ve been following for years, and I went to his first release…I really wanted the second for my collection.”

Donatello does vaguely remember Angelo telling Raph something about this event last night, during dinner. He’d been so excited, and now he looks crushed at the idea of missing it.

“What if I went?” At the suggestion, Mikey’s face becomes brighter than a super nova, almost too bright for Donnie to stare at directly. It takes a moment for Michael to really calm down enough to speak.

“You’d really go wait in line for three hours? Just to get a book?” Donatello laughs at the question. Any opportunity in which his brothers were interested in the world of literature, no matter the subject (except maybe geology) was a time to be supportive.

Mikey pulls him in for a tight hug, and holds up his phone to snap a picture of them. Donnie snorts and slides out of his little brother’s hammock, careful not to disturb it too much. Mikey is already bouncing enough that he’s in danger of falling out.

“Yes, yes. Sing my praises on all your media socials. Let the world know how I’m your favorite older sibling!” Mikey drops the phone to his chest and holds his arms up, practically vibrating for one more hug. Donnie complies. He’s long given up maintaining his bad boy image when it’s just the two of them.

“You’re the best, Donnie! Really!” The words do a hell of a job replacing that previous fury he’d been harboring, the smile and warmth coming from Mikey, now fully restored. The proper order of the universe righted with a simple solution. This was what he loved most about being a brother. Fixing his siblings problems, in any way he could. And if healing the broken bone outright was (for now) out of his control—at least he could do this.

Donnie glances at his watch and notes he should get going if the turn out is going to be as big as Angelo predicts. He sneaks past the living room where he can hear his other two brethren yelling over a game of Mario Kart. He has zero interest in either of his brothers tagging along. He loves them, but neither are suited to standing in a long line for hours. For the last Jupiter Jim reboot, Donatello was seconds away from a double fratricide before they were even allowed into the theater.

Besides. He’s practically 18 (in four weeks). He can run up to the surface for a few hours, without having to call upon the archaic buddy system.

———

He’s in line for about an hour, when he sees suspicious movement out the corner of his eye. A young woman, parting the line a little ways ahead from where he stands, walks quickly into the closest alley. That alone might be no cause for alarm—maybe it’s a short cut. But the tall, hooded creep trailing after her, has his metaphorical hackles rising. It’s a clear case of sinister intentions. He quickly glances around to see if anyone else has witnessed this, but he’s the only one who seems to be showing any type of concern. Typical New York.

“What a town” Donnie sighs. He doesn’t bother asking the old man behind him to save his spot, seeing as he’s practically at the end of the line, and quickly races to the alley to play hero.

It’s a deep one, the lights of the street not quite hitting all the eerie nooks and crannies. Plenty of blind spots.

“Hello there? Stalker and or damsel in distress? Is anyone in need of assistance? Anyone hopefully bear maced and in need of a being escorted to the nearest precinct?”

No answer.

The non-existent hairs on Donnie’s arms stand straight up. Just as he’s reaching for his ninpo to materialize a bo-staff, something thick wraps around his neck from behind. The arm is almost as big as Raphael’s, if lacking in the muscle department.

But before his can break the hold, the solid feeling of a needle slides into the meat of his neck and something rushes into his veins. Within seconds he’s released and stumbling from the lack of support.

Someone is talking to him. It takes a second of his gaze bouncing around to pick them out. Mildly embarrassing, considering they’re standing right in front of him now. Out of all the colors popping in and out of his vision, Donnie only just catches the same turquoise hoodie that seemed to belong to the unassuming young woman.

A honey pot trap, he realizes, stumbling and falling pathetically backwards on his own ass.

He sees pink hair and is almost relieved, if humiliated. With all their enemies, the Purple Dragons are D tier. But the chances he can free himself before his brothers even notice his absence is high. Just the thought of the savage teasing he would be forced to endure if his brothers found out—Donatello is not eager to hear any of it.

As the nauseating colors finally bleed away, and start to leave black growing in their wake, Donatello swears to cause a big explosion on his way out.

[ineedseveretherapy]

Truth or Dare

TW: mentions of suicide

Donnie walked into the living room to find Leo reading a Jupiter Jim comic on the couch. Donnie stared at his twin, he'd been really worried about him ever since the invasion, although he only showed it through the occasional jumpscare checkup and late-night stalking. Donnie walked over and sat down on the couch and out of the corner of his eye he saw Leo's head perk up from his comic.

"Heyyy Dontron! Need something?"

"No..."

Donnie looked down and started fidgeting with his fingers as Leo shrugged and went back to reading.

"Uhm- actually yes, there is something..."

Leo looked up once again from his comic with a puzzled look on his face.

"Uhh okay...? Shoot."

"I wanna play a game!"

Leo sat up feeling even more confused,

"A game...? Did Mikey put you up to some sibling bonding activity or something?"

Donnie glared at his brother, this was hard enough for him as it is, he didn't need to make it worse.

"No. I'm just bored and,"

He paused and took a breath.

"Can't I just play a game with my brother without a entire interrogation?"

Leo couldn't tell if he was conducting some experiment or if he was being genuine, but it was a chance to hang out with Donnie, which he hasn't done a lot of since the invasion, so he wasn't complaining.

"Alright, what game do you wanna play?"

"Truth or Dare."

"Wow, you sure thought about this haven't you? Alright, truth or dare?"

"Truth."

"Did Mikey put you up to this or are you actually telling the truth and you actually wanna spend time with me~?"

"No Mikey did not put me up to this, I do want to spend time with you Nardo. Truth or Dare?"

"Hmm... Dare."

"um... I dare you to... uh..."

"Do you need a minute?"

"I'm thinking!"

"Ok~"

"I dare you to eat mustard on an ice cube."

"EW WHAT!?"

"Do it."

"Ugh fine."

Leo grabbed one of his Katannas that was laying against the couch and made a portal to the kitchen, a moment later he came out with an ice cube with some mustard on it. In one quick motion he bites down and swallows it sending a shiver down his spine. He sat down again glaring at Donnie and the petty smirk on his face.

"Truth or dare, jerk."

"Truth."

"Your in the mood for a conversation, you normally pick dare. Hmm... Why do you keep following me in the middle of the night?"

"Whaaaaaaattt? I-I'm not following- ugh fine. I don't know... Raph and Mikey aren't up, so I thought it's my shift to watch over you?"

Leo rolled his eyes,

"Oh great, you guys are taking shifts now..."

"Yeah, we are. Truth or dare."

"Truth."

"Why do you insist that we stop taking care of you? We're all just worried Leo."

"Because I can take care of myself, I held my own with the krang mech didn't I!?"

"YOU GOT THE SHIT BEAT OUT YOU LEO!"

"CAN WE JUST STOP TALKING ABOUT THIS!? TRUTH OR DARE!"

"DARE! AND NO!"

"I DARE YOU TO GET OFF MY ASS!"

"OH WELL TOO FUCKING BAD NARDO, SHOULD'VE THOUGHT OF THAT BEFORE YOU CAME BACK FROM THE PRISON DIMENSION WITH A SHATTERED SPINE! TRUTH OR DARE!"

Leo hesitated, he wasn't dumb, he could see the general direction of where this was going, and both options seemed to get pretty bad results.

"Look, let's just talk about this later, please?"

Leo almost sounded like he was begging, which made Donnie withdrawal the yelling, he nodded, he wasn't being serious, he just needed to wait until Leo said-

"Truth."

Donnie spoke so fast he almost cut Leo off,

"Why did you throw yourself into the Prison dimension?"

There was a beat of silence and Leo's eyes widened, whether in surprise or in fear he couldn't tell.

"Donnie-"

"You said truth, now tell me the truth."

"Donnie, can we not do this ri-"

"No. Answer the question."

Donnie's face was stone cold, he wasn't backing down from this. Leo put a hand over his face and chuckled to himself which just confused Donnie.

"God... I'm so fucking stupid you know that? And y'know for a second, I actually thought you wanted to spend time with me! But of course not, you just came to interrogate me. Fine... You wanna know why I did it Donnie!? Because you CLEARLY forgot! I THREW MYSELF INTO THAT FUCKING HELL HOLE TO SAVE YOU- TO SAVE EVERYONE! IT'S THE SAME THING I'VE TOLD EVERYBODY DONNIE! THE REASONS HAVEN'T CHANGED!"

Leo paused once he realized he was yelling, he took a deep breath and leaned back.

"I'm sorry for yelling Don, it's just- you didn't need to lie about wanting to spend time with me, could've just asked, my answer would've been the same but this just seems like overkill."

There a bitterness in Leo's voice that caused Donnie to feel guilty. Leo was right, and it wasn't like he'd been doing a good job of spending time with his brothers lately, he knew he'd been distant. He decided to keep pressing, he could apologize later.

"Your still not telling me everything Leo."

Leo hesitated and he didn't do a good job at hiding it.

"Donnie, I really don't know what your talking-"

"You know I can hear you every night right? In your bedroom?"

Leo froze,

"What...?"

"Those things you mutter to yourself in tears late at night, when you think no one else can hear you? I hear it."

Leo's heart started to race, he could practically hear the pounding in his chest.

"You need to stop it with the spying Don-"

Donnie didn't stop at the pathetic excuse at escaping the conversation.

"I hear you talking about how the invasion was all your fault!"

"Dee."

"About how we'd be better off without you!"

"Don!"

"ABOUT YOU DESERVED TO DIE IN THE PRISON DIMENSION!?"

"Donnie!"

"DO YOU SERIOUSLY BELIEVE THAT!?"

"DONNIE!"

Donnie stopped slightly taken aback by the anger in Leo's voice. He'd never heard it before, at least not directed at him. It took a second before he suddenly realized that he was slightly shaking and so was Leo. The twins stared at each other, unsure of what to do before Leo finally stood up with a grunt. He was going to leave before Donnie finally spoke in a soft tone.

"Do you... believe that...?"

He put a hand over his forehead and let out a big sigh, and sat back down on the couch. He looked up at Donnie, who had an angry expression on his face but Leo saw it for what it really was, fear. He put his legs up almost covering his face and folded his arms, making sure to avoid eye contact with Donnie.

"Maybe... I don't know..."

"How can you not know!?"

Leo flinched as Donnie raised his voice.

"Sorry..."

They sat in silence once again for a couple minutes, Donnie's mind was spiraling, going through all his memories of his brother, noticing signs that he hadn't noticed before.

"Do you... want to kill yourself...? And be honest! I don't want anymore of your bullshit excuses."

Leo sighed, and put his legs down so Donnie could see him.

"I-... I uh... ugh!"

He buried his head in his knees as wrapped his arms around his legs. He turned his head to the side at stared at one of the sewer walls.

"Yes..."

His voice was barely above a whisper but it was enough for Donnie to hear. Donnie started scratching his arm, he didn't know what to do, his mind was racing. Leo looked at Donnie who was practically frozen in place.

"Are you okay...?"

Donnie's head snapped up. He took a deep breath and tried to compose himself.

"Dumb question... Yeah, i'm fine."

Donnie scooted closer to Leo and took his hand.

"We love you Leo, you know that, right?"

"Yeah I know..."

"But you still think we'd be better off without you?"

Leo squeezed Donnie's hand, which was enough of a response for Donnie. Donnie took a deep breath,

"You know i'm going to need to tell Raph and Mikey about this right?"

"Yeah... I figured... Any chance I can talk you out of it?"

"No."

"Figured..."

They sat in silence for bit as Donnie assessed what to do next.

"Before I go tell the others, there's two more things I want to do."

"What's that?"

Donnie sighed and held up one of his hands.

"First off, I want your katanas."

"What!? I'm not"

"I'm not arguing about this Leo!"

"But why?"

"Because frankly I don't trust you with them at the moment, now give me the katanas."

Leo sighed and grabbed his katanas, that were leaned up against the couch, by their blue hilts and handed them to Donnie. Donnie laid them against his side of the couch and looked back up at Leo.

"Secondly... I want a hug."

Donnie held out his arms and Leo just stared blankly at the request before putting on a grim smirk.

"Donnie, It's okay really. I don't need a hug."

"Were you the one asking for one?"

Leo hugged Donnie, although he was hesitant at first.

"I know you don't like hugs Dee..."

"Well right now I do."

It took him a moment but Leo eventually warmed into the hug, squeezing Donnie tighter. He didn't know why, but for some reason, it caused his eyes to start welling up. Donnie could hear him sniffle and his grip became tighter, he was almost afraid to let go, as if Leo would disappear if he did.

"I don't need a hug he said."

"Shut up."

Leo choked on his tears as he began to break down in Donnie's arms. It was a comfort he never knew he missed until he had it. As scared as he was right now, Leo had oddly never felt safer.

"I forgot how good your hugs were... I missed them..."

"It's a blessing and a curse."

Donnie's squeezed Leo as his he felt a knot in his stomach get even tighter at the sound of his twin's sobs. How long has he felt like this? Was just because of the invasion or was it before that? How had no one noticed? He took a deep breath,

"I love you Leo."

"I know Dee..."

"No. I'm being serious so listen to me Nardo... I. Love. You."

Leo chuckled through his tears.

"I love you too."

"And you ever think that Raph, or Dad, or Mikey, or April, or ME! Would be better- or even happier without you, then I'm gonna kick your ass so hard that your vertebrae will pop out of your mouth like a PEZ dispenser."

Leo laughed at what was supposed to sound like a threat. A couple moments later Donnie finally pulled back and looked at Leo who had the same dim smile as him.

"I'm going to go get Raph and Mikey, okay...?"

Leo's weak smile faded as he looked down and nodded.

"Yeah... okay."

Donnie got up, grabbed the katanas, and started to walk out the door.

"Hey!"

Donnie stopped,

"Yes?"

"Thank you Dee..."

"Sigh... of course Nardo."

Leo watched Donnie leave the room and suddenly everything felt colder. This was a good thing, he'll finally get to open up, that's good right? So why was he so scared? Why did he feel even emptier then he did before? Leo sighed and buried his in knees once more. They were bound to find out sooner or later...

OK! WOW! This fanfic is so random like I just had the idea while scrolling through disaster twins stuff on tumblr. Anyways I hope you guys liked it and... idk should I make a part two surrounding the family meeting? I am curious as to how you guys think Raph and Mikey would react to this information? I'd love to hear it down in the comments!

pt.2

[rhinco]

nobody expects the gelatinous rectangular prism

[11queensupreme11]

Girrlll this line😭😭😭😭😭

“He turned to her, his golden eyes smoldering. "What sort of woman chooses a MORTAL over a GOD?!"”

I HAVE to to know how Apollo would react to learning that Percy’s mom, a human, essentially choose a human man over Poseidon😂😂😂

And a life of “poverty” over the underwater castle lifestyle Poseidon offered?!

lol I can just image his face rn!

Great chapter btw!!!!

TO BE FAIR....

it was a wise ass move cuz literally NOTHING good happens to mortals who stick close to a god, let alone accept their gifts/offers 😭😭

hades constantly stuck around maria and their kids? BOOM (literally, lol) maria got blown up and hades lost his shit and cursed the oracle which led to a whole other mess(es) 💀

pluto swore on the river styx to give marie anything she wanted and she asked for all the riches of the underworld and BOOM she got a cursed daughter (hazel 🥺) with years of childhood trauma who accidentally revived gaia's son, alcyoneus, which eventually led to BOTH of their deaths (and more messes) 💀

beryl grace got obsessed with the attention from zeus/jupiter and craved for more? BOOM she's dead from a drunken car crash with one kid a tree and another one raised by wolves 💀

hermes always coming by to visit may and luke? BOOM may went crazy, luke started a revolution, and hermes now has years of depression to unpack because he tried desperately to change luke's fate despite knowing it was pointless 💀

sally jackson fucked poseidon, got a kid out of it and that was it. she was spared from any horrible terror that the other mortals went through (thank gods for that). can you imagine if she had actually accepted that offer???? with zeus' stupid "gods can't interact with their mortal children" rule AND his burning hate-boner for poseidon (and eventually percy) AND with percy being a forbidden kid destined to have a shitty life because she's the product of a broken vow AND the fact that she decided to stay close to a god AND accept his gift/offering AND there's the fact that poseidon would've done ANYTHING to try and save them from any bad fate (and fail just like hermes)???? oh the fates would've cooked up a HORRIBLE ending for her and percy 😭😭

literally i think every single character that stuck too close to a god or accepted their gifts/offering got a tragic end or one of the most traumatizing backstory ever or at least horribly affected someone close to them (like their kids), meanwhile the worst percy had to deal with was bullying in school and some level of physical abuse from gabe before The Plot happened 😭😭

the ror gods would definitely give sally jackson shit for daring to reject a god (and even chose a human over one), but that's the thing: they're gods, arrogant and cruel. most of them wouldn't understand the depth of tragedy that they cause (or care)

smarter and more empathetic gods like hestia, buddha, sun wukong, etc. would notice the subtle details and realize that sally jackson made a VERY smart move because holy shit, everything SUCKS for any mortal who gets too close to a god in that universe💀💀💀

honestly, because most of the greek myths are just fanfics in ror verse, the whole "tragedy is a part of the greeks" isn't really the same for the ror!greeks, only the pjo!greeks because those tragedies were REAL for them, and some are even repeated. so most of the ror gods wouldn't get just how TRAGIC things are for those in the pjo universe, at least not right away 😭

(also, i'm starting to see why zeus made the whole "no interacting with ur kids" rule because DAMN terrible shit keeps happening whenever they do it too much and get attached 💀💀💀)

[somewhereincairparavel]

I think the reason Rick fumbled with writing Jason's abilities/personality is because he was too focused on Jason existing as Percy's rival to focus on Jason as an individual character. And the funniest thing is, in the end, Jason was not considered satisfactory rival to Percy by the fandom either, which is ironic since that was the whole point of his character.

Rick seemingly screwed up the whole rivalry thing because, though he wanted someone to challenge Percy's power, he didn't want that person (Jason) to be more powerful than Percy or more enjoyable than Percy either, in the fear that the audience might start enjoying Jason more.

When you write a rival, you have to make sure that the rival character has equally powerful personality and strength/abilities compared to the person that they're rivalled with.

But Rick? The way he wrote Jason was like a half done updo. He dumped all the cool power on Percy (like potentially implying that Percy has bloodbending,can control water inside of someone, making sure Percy wins ALMOST every fight (and i mean, almost, there is a very rare time Percy ever loses) while limiting his power with Jason in every way possible, making the stupid brick jokes to make sure Jason always passes out in a fight, the whole "I only get one lighting bolt a day from my father" (it's a dumbass logic too, Jason should've been able to summon that much power of lighting on his own, he does NOT need his dad for that shit c'mon now) like it's an obvious effort to make jason appear weaker. Rick did all of this while lazily trying to shoehorn Jason's achievements in the plot by implying it but not actually showing it, like a "yeah he did this cool shit once ig" which makes it less impressive compared to Percy's achievements, which is something we've actually witnessed firsthand. Rick intentionally never brought up or expanded upon Jason's achievements much. He only emphasized everyone's awe of him being the son of Jupiter, which made it seem like Jason had the 'big three child privilege' where people didn't give a fuck about his efforts but instead his position.

Alright Rick, don't give him power, but atleast give him a personality? Nope he isn't getting that either. Jason had the potential to make DARK jokes about his controlled millitary life in Rome, and explore his past. Like I badly wanted a passage of Jason getting his memories back in fragments, Rick could've added flashbacks of Jason's past in his pov in a way that he gets his memories back. Instead he went "yeah yeah jason got all his memories back, it's all good" like SHOW us that wtf?? sure let's make sure he's as stale as possible to the audience, we can't have anyone liking the underdog over Percy Jackson!

He also made sure that Jason had it super hard in life aswell but never emphasized it or gave him anything good compared to Percy.

Don't get me wrong, percy definitely had it rlly hard, but Atleast Rick made sure Percy had a loving mom and a stepdad, a loving girlfriend and a cute adorable sister that he could play and spend time with, he got to celebrate birthdays with Sally, he got to eat her tasty blue food, and he actually had an ambrosia taste. You mean to tell me that Jason's sister barely had time for him, that he hasn't had a single birthday and that ambrosia tastes like sawdust for him while you give the other members of the seven, delicious ambrosia taste? 😤

Jason Grace has gotten the worst life in his own story, he wasn't "powerful" enough for a child of Zeus, he was "boring" , nobody properly trusted him, he died painfully, he didn't have parents, he barely talked to his sister, he didn't have a childhood, he was abandoned to blood thirsty animals when he was TWO, he didn't have a birthday, he didn't have an ambrosia taste, his girlfriend dumped him, he never got to see his best friend before he died, and he is terribly hated by the fandom who are simply turning a blind eye to his struggles because "no Percy will always be better in every way" yeah. I could go on and on.

[latenightbreezeinheaven]

Solar return chart observations (2019)

Scorpio rising at 29 degrees

🌪️That year was my most traumatic year.

🌪️There were countless transformations (mostly endings and also new life-changing beginnings) in that year.

🌪️I lost many friends. I got gossiped by the whole class. The whole class didn’t talk to me. I was slut-shamed and they even spread rumors about me being pregnant while I was just gaining some weight. I was notorious with bad reputation in my school. My first love left me. I tried to run away with my first love. My parents caught me and grounded me for several months. I was literally in solitude. I had no one by my side. Both emotionally and physically. I can even write a whole damn book about this year.😭

🌪️However, I learned how to stay alone happily in that year. (It was not an option. The universe was like BAM you need to encounter THIS to achieve THIS success or whatsoever😃).

🌪️My whole personality before and after that year was so different that no one couldn’t recognize me after that year when I went back to school.

Moon in 1st house conjuncts ascendant (in Sagittarius at 0 degrees)

🌪️Maybe due to these traumatic events, my emotions were running high all the time.

🌪️Even though I tried to hide my pain and act like a typical scary silent scorpio rising, people still attacked me because I looked so vulnerable.

🌪️I cried almost everyday in that year.

🌪️Also I gained weight like A LOT MY FACE WAS LIKE AN ENORMOUS MEAT DUMPLING👹👹👹

**I also notice that I gained weight so easily last year when I had scorpio rising even though my moon was in 7th house in Taurus. Might be because of Taurus moon but Idk, scorpio rising year scares me hell a lot now.😺**

Jupiter in 1st house (in Sagittarius at 18 degrees)

🌪️I gained tons of weight because of my only coping mechanism : binge eating and also due to covid and quarantine.

🌪️I felt like food was the only escape in my life and I gained like 60 lbs.🤦🏻‍♀️

🌪️However, I had lucky academic opportunities.

🌪️I had to change my tuition because everyone including the teachers slut-shamed me and only because of that transformation, I finished high school with high marks and now I’m in medical school.

🌪️Thanks to my new teachers from new tuition and also those stupid bitches who believed everything they heard without clearly thinking as grown-up adults.😍

Saturn conjunct Pluto in 2nd house (in Capricorn)

🌪️My self-esteem declined so low that I rarely even went out in that year.

🌪️I felt like no one wanted me and I questioned about my worth like thousand times.

🌪️Throughout the year, transformations related to self-worth and self-love questioned my existence.

🌪️I was always thinking like “do I even deserve to eat this or go to this or be friends with them?” every damn time my mom asked me what I needed and every time someone approached me.

Neptune and Lilith in 4th house (in Pisces)

🌪️My whole family was very confused about me.

🌪️They even thought I was possessed by some ghost because I acted very unusual eg I couldn’t control my anger and I kinda self-sabotaged and I just bursted out and cried so suddenly when I was at home (that was just my trauma response I mean I don’t really know how they expected me to act after all those punishment they gave me and personal attacks received from my ex-mates)😺.

🌪️My parents kept really close eyes on me because they were worried that I would commit su-ici-de and they also had their respective assumptions about me but at the same time, they also outcasted me and thought I was really a slut who slept with lots of men because I did many reckless things without thinking about consequences.

🌪️I also often had intense vivid dreams and nightmares.

🌪️I was addicted to vapes and used them secretly in my room in that year.

🌪️So effed up🔫

Chiron in 5th house (in Aries)

🌪️My first love broke my heart.

🌪️My first serious heartbreak.

🌪️I had to take about 9 months to fully move on from him.

🌪️My inner child got hurt and my creativity and self-expression left my soul in that year.

🌪️I lost my silly child-like spirit in that year.

Uranus in 6th house (in Taurus at 5 degrees)

🌪️At first I was planning to study really hard to prepare for my matriculation exam but due to covid, there were huge unexpected changes in my routines and habits.

🌪️My plans got ruined.

Venus in 7th house conjuncts Amor (in Gemini)

🌪️Amor asteroid represents soulmate.

🌪️I met my first love and fell in love with him like a fool.

🌪️Everyone warned me because they saw red flags🚩🚩🚩🚩but I was blindly in love and was like “I’m gonna marry him”😭😭.*dies of embarrassment*

🌪️That was my first time that I gave actual commitment to someone and I felt like he was my soulmate.

🌪️I couldn’t let go of him for so long.

🌪️I wrote songs about him.

🌪️I wrote short stories about him.

🌪️It was bitter-sweet but now it’s just a memory.🌌

Sun in 7th house (in Gemini)

🌪️My main focus was on relationships relationships RELATIONSHIPS and I strongly desired to build meaningful social connections rather than superficial ones in that year.

🌪️My hidden enemies also pulled their masks off lmao I had to deal with them the whole year because they kept saying things about me that I didn’t even know I did.😩

Mercury conjunct mars in 8th house (in Cancer)

🌪️I remember that I was fully in my hermit mode the year I had this placement.

🌪️I searched articles about how to attack those arseholes spiritually but didn’t really take an action because I believed in karma.🧘🏻‍♀️

🌪️I was always reading books about magic, detective, occult and death and I even thought about committing a su-ici-de because I was severely depressed.

🌪️I was alone but also so blunt (I think I was just trying to protect myself) every time someone tried to befriend me.

🌪️I cursed a lot and my anger issues were like high up in the sky that one time, the wall cracked because I punched while I was angry and I’m just A GIRL🎀💕🥰).

Vertex in 9th house (in Leo at 15 degrees)

🌪️Maybe because of all of this, I started to pray to Buddha every single day in that year.

🌪️I suddenly became so religious and I felt like I only had him by my side.

🌪️My beliefs about religion expanded and I started to learn about other religions too in that year.

🌪️Also fated events occurred at my school so yeah vertex can say a lot about your upcoming year.

🌪️Immediately CHECK YOUR VERTEX IN YOUR SOLAR RETURN CHART RIGHT NOW!!!🥱

My scorpio ascendant was in my natal 5th house

🌪️My main focus was on relationships and dating as I’ve already said.

🌪️I also think I was so fertile in that year or maybe horny?

🌪️I wanted to get pregnant with my first love and I was only 14 at that time💀💀💀 (I know I was so silly but I was just a kid so I forgive myself for that *dies of embarrassment again*).

🌪️Sex education and vapes and drugs might be normal for teenagers in western countries but in my country, they’re like really taboo topics and parents biggest nightmare was their drug addict children getting pregnant😭.

🌪️Almost everyone did not dare to discuss about those openly in those days.

🌪️Also I was just 14 at that time so it’s not my parents’ fault that they stopped me and restricted me too much but however, their punishment was directed in a wrong way and that’s why I had to find other ways to suppress my pain. I don’t know who to blame, myself or those so-called friends or my parents😭.

So in conclusion, it was a very hard year and very life-changing and unforgettable but it shaped me into who I am today so I’m really happy to receive all of those new experiences. English is not my first language so please bear with me if I made some mistakes.🫰🏼💕

Also you can ask me about two placements (maximum) you want from your solar return chart. I’ll answer them as soon as I get free time.❤️

My mood in 2019 as GIF be like:

[ninainthetardis]

Given that it's completely beyond me how a character like Jason Grace can be hated by so many people within the fandom, I've decided to try and figure this absurd bullshit out. It turns out it's not just an unnecessary desire to boost Percy by diminishing Jason's character. A thing that I hate, because I think that diminishing/bashing some characters to appreciate others is quite the opposite of validation, as I believe a character can only be truly defined by their own actions/words/personality and hence, should be appreciated for those aspects, not by unnecessary/non sensical comparisons with other characters.

So I'm currently rereading HoH, and I've just noticed that, basically, all the Jason haters simply use Piper's words about him and take them for granted. Which speaks volumes and is also one of the reasons why I've never liked them together.

And no, it's not that "she knows him better than anyone else" because that is bullshit. She never even bothered to really get to know him. All she wanted was to make that Mist induced fairytale their reality, mainly because she thought he was hot, and strong and cool, and liked the Mist version of Jason. A version that was not even real. She knew that, yet she was constantly making comparisons between that and reality, and whining about it. And this in particular would be even fair if she wasn't the one out of the two of them who was completely obsessed with getting together for real in the first place, despite knowing he might have someone waiting for him at Camp Jupiter. A thing Jason constantly thought about in TLH.

We don't get to see how they really start their relationship. All we are shown is Piper threatening Drew - and by association anyone else in cabin 10 - and saying that "Jason was hers even if he didn't know it yet" (seriously, what would you think if their roles were reversed?).

But somehow, they got together later on. We don't know what made Jason change his mind about them. Piper gave a tantrum every time he mentioned Reyna (even when he was just talking about information that was useful for their quest and hence, you know, saving the world). And then we even get the "boys are so stupid" line when it's actually Piper who is being unreasonable here, letting her own insecurities put their mission to save the world at risk. Insecurities that are legit and prove she is aware that she pushed things between her and Jason when she should have just realised the damn memories she had were fake and let go. And that's on her, not on Jason. She was pushing from the very beginning. He was holding back because he wasn't sure it was the right thing to do, considering he didn't remember anything.

Again, think about all this as if their roles were reversed. Doesn't look good, uh?

Piper also knew she was potentially putting an end to something that could be meaningful for Jason, yet she kept pushing anyway despite being pretty clear that she was just obsessed with the idea of him/having him as a boyfriend.

And then she just went and blamed Hera, saying she forced them together because of the Mist thing. Bfr.

She wanted that from the very beginning and during all the time they have been together. Her povs were almost all about that, for most of the time.

She never truly took into account Jason's feelings, or the difficulties he was going through due to his memory loss, completely disregarded his trauma and his insecurities, and she even influenced his thoughts and emotions with her powers because she was scared of his past life. As if him being in a vulnerable position when she did all she could to get together with him wasn't bad enough without her use of her charmspeaking abilities. And she admitted multiple times of using it on him and the other demigods on the Argo II, deliberately and unintentionally. Even Jason, in his own pov, suspected she used her powers on him, making her the only thing he could think of whenever he mentioned Reyna. This isn't normal. This isn't romantic. "He supposed it was not the worst sort of revenge". Boy, you shouldn't even be blamed for having a pre Piper life at all!!!

So yeah, she didn't know him. How could she, when he didn't even know himself?

It's also the way she describes him: boring, distant, rules centred, closed off, always serious. She even compares him to Percy, and their relationship to Percy and Annabeth's. A weird way to describe the guy you claim to love. A weird way to prove your love to someone, complaining about him "being distant" when you know damn well he's trying so hard to retrieve his memories. A way bigger, existential deal to cope with than romantic drama, don't you think? Hadn't she pushed so hard, I'm not sure he would have started their relationship at all.

Anyway, we then move back to Jason's pov and he claims that he doesn't like rules, that they actually annoy him, that he's always tried to change things a Camp Jupiter but had to take it slow due to the Romans' attachment to tradition, that he always does the opposite of what he is told/suggested (except, clearly, when it come to be summoned for a quest). And he claims all that on the basis of the few memories he got back. And he makes jokes, too. He has sarcastic comebacks, too. THIS IS THE REAL JASON, these are the elements that need to be taken into account when trying to figure out who he truly is, not Piper's biased perception of him. And people would know those things, if they had actually read his povs.

Also, I don't think that reading the rest of the books (ToA) will change my mind about any of this. Honestly, it is too much to get past to. And I don't even want to do that. I think it can only get worse, from the few things I know about ToA.

[clonehighdoublehelix]

APRIL COMMUNITY POST

This month on a very special Double Helix…

Gandhi is all alone in the world, CJ gets accepted to his clone-fathers dream school and there are more Sheepmen than you can shake a tenured position at.

Now let’s take a look at what the fools had to say in April:

Gandhi's return

Yeah but that's not the image they'd like for a national hero. Same reason they cut Jesus' teen years out of the Bible. I hear he was a bit of a shark at the dom-jot tables and got into a fight he couldn't finish with some Nausicaans.

Sheesh, you tease fridging him a couple dozen times and people start to get paranoid!

Cinnamon Junior

I should have known the hissing alleycat child would activate a parental instinct in some. He's free to a good home! Hell, a bad one too. I need that mangy thing out of my home, pronto.

Okay but let's cut you some slack: you figured it out within about six hours of the update. You're ready for the PXJT's!

I've been on Tumblr long enough; I walked right into that one.

I love the Futurama conceit that robots are basically hollow inside. They're just magic metal people like the Tin Woodsman, no matter what Marge says.

Shadowy Figure

It's always fun to imbue inanimate things with character. The monitors can move around based on the Shadowy Figures mood.

Sheepmen

Imagine if every workday was also a family reunion plus a reckoning with the self. How have the Sheepmen not succumbed to a fatal case of the Mondays.

JFK returns

JFK's one of those guys who needs to be certain that he could pull any guy in school. "Just to be cleah, you considah me hawt, right?"

You couldn't have planned it but this setup and punchline took me out 💀💀💀

I don't think Gabe knows what year it is most of the time. The inner machinations of his mind are an enigma...

Miscellaneous Feedback

If anyone asks, I put a reference to Zeus with Caesar and Jupiter with Helen of Troy to agitate Classics majors.

The lesson here is you can get away with murder if you're at least funny about it.

The pithy joke comments are all very well but this is what I really do it for: being told directly and unequivocally that I am good at this.

The drawing in question is pure unleaded goober, how did it invite such a divine comment!

Oh hey, that's my real-life friend Róisín. Hi Róisín! Thank you for reading. Literally none of my fake-ass flatmates are. I appreciate that you type exactly the way you speak in person. Let's go to the book cafe again! I'm reading Hitchhikers Guide for the first time, I bet it's right up your alley. Okay, gotta go. I'm replying to feedback on my blog like it's 2005.

Fanart Spotlight

So remember last month where I was jumping for joy after getting my first and, to date, only piece of fanart? Well, this month my cup runneth over with contributions from five new artists!!

First, some beautiful mixed-media from @cheresh-nya

@kimtiny went ahead and drew the whole dang gang!

If that weren't enough, they also drew comics, plural! I can't fit them all into one post (stupid images-per-post limit) but follow this link to read them!

@theabesimp made a damn renaissance painting of Gabe:

Patty and gabe photobombed this delightful collage by @gspot-rocks-the-gspot

And last but never least, @jfkonfucius made this gorgeous Double Helix/Burnt Beach crossover comic:

I'm not at liberty to say how character accurate these interactions are yet but when your comic is this pretty, you can characterise them however you want. I'm busy objectifying your shape language.

Also, not trying to be a freak but Burnt Beach JFK; maybe just make-out about it? Swap some saliva and maybe you'll calm down?

Also, it amuses me that Gabe is as popular in fanart as he is in canon! His high cheekbones and thicc skull have enchanted the public.

And as if all the art weren't cool enough, @chameleoncove made a DOUBLE HELIX PLAYLIST! One of the highest possible honours. Listening to to the haunting strains of soft indie rock while I draw wacky cartoon shenanigans puts me into the perfect headspace for authentic Clone High, like Mama used to make.

And it looks like they've been updating it along with the comic. Long may it continue!

Next Month on a Very Special Double Helix…

We bring the final new clones in out of the cold and as the first day of school ends, the clones return home for the first time in twenty years. Will May be the most jaw-dropping month yet? Mayhaps.

Stay High everyone! @neutrallyobsessed @starpupinterlude @moondove330 @gandhiclonehighlover @cateat @sashaskull @knightpunks @garbagefirelol @thatweirdstemrat @rollerdirvy @castlesmadeof-purplehaze @futuristicperfectiontree @samrobac @iloveclonehigh @hairy-dykes-r-us @judec4ptor @persistentplums @youdonelostyourmind

[demigod-shenanigans]

The choiceless hope in grief (chapter seven)

“What is the meaning of this? I do not believe you were invited to join us.”  Leo’s eyes remained firmly glued to the ground as he spoke. “I’ve come to make a request.” Someone laughed. “Oh, that one’s bold. If he wasn’t a Hephaestus kid, I might just like him.” “I’m not asking for my sake,” Leo continued, ignoring the other god—Ares, he assumed, given the little context he had. He took a shaky breath, gathering every ounce of courage still left in his body, then finally looked up to face the king of the gods. “I want to gamble my own life for the life of Jason Grace.” “You’d dare to speak my impertinent son’s name in my presence?” Zeus asked, voice like a thunderstorm. The curious, almost amused look had vanished from his face. His eyes were bright and dangerous as lightning. “Your role in Gaia’s defeat is the only reason I will spare your life. We should have struck you down when you defied death, but we did not. Leave and be satisfied with that mercy.” Leo had had a script for this conversation. He’d practiced what he would say several times. He’d accounted for the fact that the gods might not agree to what he wanted immediately. He’d imagined himself begging in the dirt if necessary.  But Zeus’ words—his casual dismissal of everything that Jason had been—had Leo physically fuming. He was the son of the god of forges, and there was liquid fire in his veins. His fear evaporated in an instant, replaced by white-hot rage.  If he had been thinking, he probably would not have done what he did next. Thing was, though: Leo wasn’t thinking. Not even a little bit. 

Rating: Teen and Up

Chapter Word Count: 8.4k

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Chapter 7: Leo quits his job

“As your friend, I think I’m supposed to tell you this is a terrible idea,” Percy said from the driver’s seat of his parents’ beat-up Prius.

Full disclosure: Leo had wanted to just take a taxi from the airport to the Empire State Building. But his first attempt at that had gotten him covered in monster dust, and he’d figured a second attempt might be pushing his luck.

Speaking of pushing his luck: the way Leo’s life was going, he’d obviously done something to severely piss off Tyche at some point, though he had no idea what. Was a six year old cheating at Parcheesi something she took personally?

Whatever the case, he’d reluctantly IMed Percy, keeping the details vague aside from the fact that he needed someone to pick him up. Of course, upon being picked up, Percy had asked for a destination. Leo had given him an address a few blocks away from the Empire State Building, but, well… Percy wasn’t stupid, so Leo had (albeit reluctantly) told him the plan.

As anxious as he was about any of his friends knowing, Percy wasn’t Nico. Reckless plans—especially those that included giving the gods a piece of your mind—were sort of Percy’s brand.

He just hoped it wouldn’t backfire on him now.

“If you think it’s such a terrible idea, why are you going along with it?” Leo asked, staring intensely out into New York’s awful afternoon traffic. He wasn’t going to let Percy stop him, either. He’d jump out of a moving car if he had to. It wouldn’t be the dumbest thing he’d ever done.

“Hey, I’m not judging. I’m basically the demigod expert on terrible ideas at this point, and in my experience, they tend to go better if you’ve got friends ready to charge into trouble with you.” Percy was clearly trying to say it in a light-hearted way, but he looked too upset for that to really work. “Besides, I’m used to our lives being dangerous. I’m used to bullshit errand quests. But between what happened to Jason and what went down at Camp Jupiter… I’ve hit my limit on what I can tolerate.”

“Yeah, no kidding.” Leo drummed his fingers against the dashboard, trying to calm himself. He had zero desire to light Percy’s car on fire, but his flames were much harder to control when he was upset. “It still doesn’t feel real, sometimes.”

The fact that so many of the Camp Jupiter demigods had been killed still made his knees buckle whenever he thought about it. To know that none of their parents had bothered to intervene… It made him feel sick to the stomach.

It was even worse knowing he couldn’t fix it. That he couldn’t fix most things in a way that mattered.

Calypso said this was one of his problems—that he treated everything like a machine that needed repairs when some things weren’t meant to be fixed that way, and sometimes all you could do was accept there wasn’t a fix and find a way to move forward.

He’d tried. But sitting in a circle and talking about his feelings wouldn’t make Jason being gone okay. It wouldn’t make the memory of Piper sobbing into his shoulder go away. It wouldn’t take away the guilt pooling in Leo’s stomach in every waking moment, the shitty prophecy that had sentenced him or Jason to death echoing in his mind. Was it the fact that Leo didn’t stay dead long enough that had killed his best friend? Was that why he hadn’t even been able to say goodbye?

“I thought I could change things when I was sixteen.” Percy’s hands clenched around the steering wheel. Leo made himself look away. “And I did, a little. But way too much stayed the same. I’m glad you’re doing this for Jason. He needs someone in his corner, and it’s obviously not going to be his dad.”

“I’m not sure he would be glad, honestly.” Leo tried to laugh, but it rang hollow. It always did these days. “Disagreeing with the Fates isn’t really something a sensible person does.”

Percy grinned. “Well, that’s what they need us for.” 

“Exactly.”

Leo had spent his whole life having to come to terms with things that happened to and around him, and he was tired. He was sick of losing people. He was sick of them all being footnotes in someone else’s story, pawns to be sacrificed and taken off the board at a moment’s notice. 

He couldn’t change the world, as much as he wanted to. Even asking for a chance to get Jason back was a long shot. But he had to at least try.  ~~~~

Standing in front of the giant elevators of the Empire State Building, Leo was glad he wasn’t alone. Percy had talked his way past the security guard and gotten the key off him with such practiced ease that it really made one wonder just how many times he’d had to do this before. 

Was that a big three kids thing? Jason had never mentioned being summoned to go up there, so probably not. Maybe just a Percy thing, then.

“Just so you know, me being there might not be a point in your favor for most of the gods,” Percy warned, holding the keys out towards Leo. “I can wait down here, if you want.”

“Nah. I’d rather have backup. It’ll be nice for the gods to have someone to glare at who isn’t me. Besides, there needs to be a witness to my murder aside from deities, otherwise I’ll end up on Olympus Unsolved or something,” he joked, nervously fidgeting with his tool belt. 

The elevator welcomed them in with a ding that didn’t nearly feel ominous enough for the occasion, in Leo’s expert opinion. It even played ridiculous elevator music.

Bad enough that Leo was willingly walking to what would most likely be his execution. He did not need shitty theme music to boot.

For 600 floors, the elevator ride didn’t take nearly as long as Leo had expected. It probably helped that elevators for gods didn’t bother to stop on all the different floors to pick up tourists. 

He didn’t feel even remotely ready when another ding sounded and the doors slid open.

Leo took a step out onto a stone walkway. He was suddenly very glad he didn’t share the same fear of heights so many of his siblings had told him about, because the walkway in question was suspended in mid-air and had no visible supports.

Leo was thankful that the path came with railings, because that made it feel slightly less like one misstep would turn him into a skydiver—minus the parachute.

On the plus side, you got a very nice aerial view of Manhattan from up here, and unlike on his trip to Aeolus’ palace, this wasn’t a bridge Leo thought himself capable of melting.

Bad thought. Leo tried to push away the memory of falling and being caught by a pair of strong arms. The feeling of the winds swirling around him. It should have been terrifying—their weird ups and downs that had almost been like bungee jumping. Jason should have been angry at him for messing up and melting the bridge. But Jason had just held him, and Leo had clung to his jacket, thoughts and heart racing but weirdly not nearly as afraid as he should have been. He’d made a mess, but he’d known even then that Jason would never let him fall.

If he fell now…

“You okay?” Percy asked sympathetically. “Sorry, I know you’re usually fine with heights, but I probably still should have warned you.” 

“It’s fine.” Leo shrugged, putting on his best ‘everything is great’-expression while he failed to beat his memories off with a stick. Jason had always smelled faintly of ozone, like an oncoming storm. This close to the clouds, everything smelled like him. It wasn’t helping. “The view is pretty impressive.”

“Yeah. Also kind of terrifying. I’ve fallen to my death enough for several lifetimes, thanks.” Percy patted the handrails. “I’m so glad Annabeth had these put in.”

“They’re new?” Leo cringed imagining the bridge without them. “Yikes. They really value demigod safety up here, don’t they?”

Percy snorted. “No kidding.”

“Well, let’s keep moving,” Leo decided, like their delay hadn’t been his fault. “We don’t have all day.”

Mount Olympus was impressive as hell, Leo could admit that much. They followed the skybridge onto the edge of a giant mountain city that was made up of fancy palaces and temples and beautiful gardens as far as the eye could see.

As used as Leo was to godly weirdness, the fact that all this existed right above New York and so few people knew wouldn’t quite compute. 

On any other day, he might have spent hours staring at the buildings. Annabeth had clearly poured a lot of work and love into the redesign—he was friends with the person who’d designed this place, how bizarre was that? 

But right now, Leo barely had the brain space to pay attention to any of the architecture. The gorgeous buildings and giant statues weren’t important—or, more accurately, they were only important in the sense that they were intimidating and made him feel small. The beauty of it all was a minor sticking point in comparison. His brain was vibrating at rapid speeds, thinking about Jason and the Underworld and everything he wanted and needed to say to the gods. Everything he’d been working on for the past month came down to this.

It seemed weirdly fitting to be up here today of all days. It was June 21st—the day of the summer solstice, marking the one year anniversary of their journey on the Argo II.

The city seemed to stretch on forever. There were a lot of stairs. Leo supposed he should have expected that, given the Mount part of Mount Olympus, but if you asked him, there had been no need to take it quite so literally.

A few curious citizens came out to watch them as they ascended the stairs to the palace of the gods. Nymphs, mostly, though a few of them might have been minor gods that Leo didn’t recognize. There were so many of them that even after more than a year of this, he still struggled to keep them all straight. He had no idea how Jason did it.

The elevator doors that had seemed so huge to Leo before seemed like they’d make okay pet doors for the palace of the gods. The scale of this thing was ridiculous. Like walking into a hall filled with gods wasn’t intimidating enough by itself, you got to feel like a bug about to be squashed before you even got the pleasure of seeing the shoe that would do the squashing.

The building seemed to ask what Leo had been thinking, walking up here. Who was he to ask the gods for anything?

“You good?” Percy asked, patting his shoulder encouragingly. “I know it can be a lot the first time. You get used to it.”

Leo stared at him, baffled. “Okay seriously, how many times have you been up here?”

“A couple.” Percy shrugged. “Kind of comes with the job. But hey, you know how I am, and they haven’t killed me yet, so I think your chances are pretty decent.”

“Well, clearly we’ve got different job descriptions. Also, you underestimate my ability to make people hate me on sight,” Leo only half-joked.

“Eh, when you’re not possessed and firing ballistas, I’m sure your first impressions are decent,” Percy replied, going along with Leo’s joking tone with practiced ease. 

Leo cringed at the memory of their first interaction.

“Right! And I didn’t bring anything I could fire at the gods with, so as long as I don’t go for spontaneous combustion, we should probably be good.” 

He felt physically ill. His hands were clammy with sweat. It brought him back to the school play he’d signed up for at age seven—he’d been so excited and rehearsed a million times, but the morning of the performance he couldn’t remember any of his lines and felt too nauseous to eat. If it hadn’t been for his mom coaching him through his jitters and then calling him in sick so they could spend the morning at the machine shop, him fiddling with one of his little projects until he felt better, he probably wouldn’t have gone.

And yeah, Leo had forgotten some of his lines, but he’d skillfully bullshitted his way through these parts and his mom had beamed at him the whole time, her eyes gleaming with pride. He still remembered how embarrassed he’d been at her cheering from the crowd when they’d bowed, so loudly that some of the people around her had given her strange looks.

He could have used a few good mom cheers right now. But his mom wasn’t here, so he supposed he’d have to settle for Percy joking about one of Leo’s worst hits in an attempt to make him feel less anxious.

It wasn’t helping much—or at all, really—but he appreciated the attempt.

“You ready?”

“To figure out the fastest way to get myself squashed by a bunch of gods?” Leo joked, but he squared his shoulders. He was going to do this. He had to. It didn’t matter that he was terrified. Some things were too important to run from. “Born ready.”

The door swung open before Leo could stop to wonder if they were meant to knock. The second he and Percy entered, the chatter in the throne room died. Thirteen pairs of eyes stared down at them.

Thirteen! That was good. Leo hadn’t been sure if Hades would be up here. If he hadn’t been, that might have made things even more difficult than they were already bound to be—in that case, he might have traipsed halfway through the Underworld with the permission of the remaining council of the gods (assuming they’d grant it), only for Hades to deny him then. Now that wouldn’t be a problem—his plan would either be endorsed or shut down where he stood.

As exciting as it was that things were going semi-well in theory, Leo felt unnerved by the fact that thirteen gods, all twenty feet in size, were staring down at him. Looking at them almost made him yearn to be dealing with a good old-fashioned monster attack instead. At least with those, you knew what you were in for. This situation felt far more unpredictable.

“Kneel,” a voice boomed, and Leo knew it was Zeus without having to look. He did as he was told, and could see Percy doing the same thing beside him. “What is the meaning of this? I do not believe you were invited to join us.” 

Leo’s eyes remained firmly glued to the ground as he spoke. “I’ve come to make a request.”

Someone laughed. “Oh, that one’s bold. If he wasn’t a Hephaestus kid, I might just like him.”

“I’m not asking for my sake,” Leo continued, ignoring the other god—Ares, he assumed, given the little context he had. He took a shaky breath, gathering every ounce of courage still left in his body, then finally looked up to face the king of the gods. “I want to gamble my own life for the life of Jason Grace.”

“You’d dare to speak my impertinent son’s name in my presence?” Zeus asked, voice like a thunderstorm. The curious, almost amused look had vanished from his face. His eyes were bright and dangerous as lightning. “Your role in Gaia’s defeat is the only reason I will spare your life. We should have struck you down when you defied death, but we did not. Leave and be satisfied with that mercy.”

Leo had had a script for this conversation. He’d practiced what he would say several times. He’d accounted for the fact that the gods might not agree to what he wanted immediately. He’d imagined himself begging in the dirt if necessary. 

But Zeus’ words—his casual dismissal of everything that Jason had been—had Leo physically fuming. He was the son of the god of forges, and there was liquid fire in his veins. His fear evaporated in an instant, replaced by white-hot rage. 

If he had been thinking, he probably would not have done what he did next. Thing was, though: Leo wasn’t thinking. Not even a little bit. 

He’d reached a point in his life where he was so far past thinking that he couldn’t even see it in the rearview mirror.

There had been rational thoughts inside his head at one point, but they’d vacated the premises somewhere between him blowing himself up and Jason’s death. There was a vortex in his chest where his heart should have been.

And this—the gods sitting around with all that power, none of them caring enough to protect their kids when it mattered—made his blood boil. 

The fact that Zeus acted like deciding not to kill Leo after he’d saved all of their asses was some kind of gracious favor made him want to burn this entire palace to the ground.

“Be satisfied?” he asked, with a defiance that surprised even him. “Are you kidding me? We saved you, and, what, this is it? Tough shit, have a nice afterlife? After everything we’ve lost and everything we’ve been through, I’m supposed to pretend it doesn’t bother me? I should be grateful for my life going to Tartarus because hey, at least you guys get to boss us around for a few more centuries? And Jason is the least impertinent person on the planet. What the fuck are you talking about?”

“If my son had valued his life, perhaps he should have chosen his words more wisely.” Zeus scowled. “Though I’m beginning to think it’s his friends that he chose poorly. This is your final warning, child. My patience is waning quickly. Leave while I’m still willing to let you.”

Leo’s mind reeled as he grasped what the king of the gods was really saying.

“You let Jason die. You wanted this.” He moved to stand, determined to showcase all the pitiful five foot six of his height. His body was rapidly overheating, smoke curling from his ears as his thoughts raced. When Thalia died, Zeus had turned her into a tree to save her. When Jason died, Jupiter hadn’t even lifted a finger, despite the fact that Jason had dedicated his whole life to serving the gods from the moment he’d arrived at Camp Jupiter. Despite the fact that they’d just saved the world a few months before. And Leo had thought that was, what, a coincidence? Jason had just so happened to die on Jupiter’s day off? Gods, he was an idiot. “Did he use up all of your good will when he said just punishing Apollo wouldn’t fix the issue? Was that when you decided if he’d defy you for Apollo’s sake, he might as well die to teach Apollo a lesson? Jason lived his whole life for the gods, and that’s all it took to nullify all of that? One moment where he wasn’t the perfect picture of obedience? What is wrong with you?”

“Leo,” Percy warned, in the same gentle tone Leo’s mother had used when he was about to get himself into serious trouble.

That was when he knew he’d gone too far. Percy’s understanding of what was okay to say to the gods was so fucked that if he thought something crossed the line, they were as good as dead.

Leo usually realized these things too late—when his big mouth had already earned him a black eye and a broken nose.

Except this time, he wasn’t just signing his own death warrant. Zeus already wasn’t Percy’s biggest fan. What had Leo been thinking, putting him in danger like that? 

He went cold with horror. His fire died. But the damage was done. Why did his flames always end up burning the people he cared about down with him?

Zeus lifted his lightning bolt, and yep, they were screwed.

Forget Tartarus. Piper would kill Leo for dying, and then Annabeth would hunt down his ghost and murder him again for getting Percy killed. That was way worse than whatever torture the Underworld could have in store for him.

Lightning never struck. Before Leo could think to mutter a desperate apology or construct a lightning arrester on the spot, a twenty foot tall figure appeared in front of him and Percy, shielding them from harm.

Leo half-expected to see his dad when he looked up, but what he saw instead shocked him even more than the sight of his absent father suddenly deciding to step up after almost seventeen years would have. Instead of looking at Hephaestus, Leo found himself staring at the back of the woman who’d put him into a furnace as a baby.

“You will not touch them,” the queen of the gods said, arms outstretched. 

Leo mouthed what the fuck at Percy, but his friend looked even more shocked than Leo felt. He had the expression of someone who was worried his brain might melt out of his ears.

“Move, woman. Do not force me to invoke your vows,” Zeus bellowed.

Hera didn’t even flinch.

“After everything you’ve done, you would speak to me of vows?” She sounded like she wanted to laugh, but couldn’t. “You forget yourself, husband. You forget I’m not just the goddess of marriage. I may have been an imperfect goddess of family in the past, but I remain the goddess of family all the same. You will not harm my grandson.”

It took a moment for Leo to register that she was talking about him. He assumed it was a symbolic thing—Hera strategically linking her position to her godly domain to strengthen it—but after everything that had happened and the role she had played in his life, the queen of the gods referring to him as family as she stood before him and Percy to protect them still rattled Leo to his core.

“You dare-” Zeus bellowed, but Hera interrupted him.

“Does the boy speak the truth? Did you let my champion die? Did you break another vow you made me?” Zeus remained quiet, which Hera apparently decided was answer enough. “Here is what we will do. To honor Leo’s role in saving us, we hear the foolish, brave child out. There will be no more insolence from him.” She directed a warning glare at Leo. “At the end of this, we will decide as a council what to do with him. All in favor?”

Slowly, Leo could see a few hands raise past Hera’s giant form.

Finally, Hera moved to take her seat at her husband’s side again, her head held high.

The whole atmosphere in the throne room had changed. Zeus still had lightning crackling in his beard and his face was twisted with anger, but he didn’t seem to be considering frying Leo or Percy anymore, at least for the moment. Hephaestus was wide-eyed. Apollo was grinning, though he was quick to wipe the expression off his face when his father glanced his way.

“Well?” Hera nodded his way. “Speak, little hero.”

“Right.” Leo took a deep breath. His heart was still racing. He’d gone so far off-script that he was struggling to remember any of the things he’d spent so long memorizing. In his defense, near-death experiences and spontaneous grandparent adoptions tended to throw most people slightly off their game. “I’m not asking for you to just revive Jason. I know that’s not how it works. All I’m asking for is a chance to lead him out of the Underworld myself.”

“You’re thinking of Orpheus and Eurydice,” Hades deduced. 

Leo bowed his head to the god of death respectfully. “I’ll agree to the same rules. Please just let me try.”

Hades shook his head. “If we just let every hero who has lost someone get them back from the Underworld, it will unbalance death itself. The result would be Chaos, and she may be the most dangerous one out of all of us.”

“I understand that,” Leo said, desperately trying to remember any of the things he’d wanted to say and failing miserably.

“Leo isn’t just anyone, though,” Percy interjected. Apparently he’d finally shaken himself out of his haze. That he even still wanted to help after Leo had almost earned him a lightning bolt to the face was honestly kind of a miracle. Then again, Percy’s fatal flaw was his unwavering loyalty towards his friends. Apparently Leo was still a part of that group, despite all of his epic screwups. “He’s a hero of Olympus, isn’t he? He didn’t just help win the war with Gaia—he was the deciding factor. It was his plan and his willingness to sacrifice his life that defeated her. He also remedied the situation with Calypso that you swore on the River Styx you would fix.”

Leo didn’t think he deserved nearly as much credit for the Calypso stuff as he was getting after everything that had happened, but that was kind of beside the point right now.

“Your son makes a surprisingly reasonable point,” another goddess—Leo assumed it was Athena due to context clues like the giant owl sitting on her shoulder—very begrudgingly said in Poseidon’s direction.

“You made promises to me that you didn’t keep. You still didn’t claim a whole bunch of your kids, and you spend even more time ignoring your Roman children than you do us. So many of them died.” Percy’s voice was quavering. Some of the gods had the decency to look ashamed, though Zeus remained unmoved. “What’s a chance to save a single life in return for everything we’ve sacrificed? Leo isn’t asking for much. Let him try.”

“The matter isn’t quite as simple as you make it out to be, I’m afraid.” Apollo did not seem pleased to have to be the one to break the news. “Even if we allow him to resurrect Jason, and even if he should succeed, one of them might just die again. The Fates did not intend for both storm and fire to live.”

Leo’s heart dropped hearing the confirmation for the thing he’d feared most—that his own survival had been the thing that ensured Jason’s death. Sure, Zeus had let it happen, but if the Fates hadn’t predestined one of them for death, he probably wouldn’t have had it quite so easy.

As much as it ached to think about this, Leo didn’t let it discourage him for too long. He’d been prepared for this. It was the main reason why he’d needed to come up here—why he hadn’t simply waltzed into the Underworld and just begged Hades and Persephone for a chance to take Jason back with him like Orpheus had.

He nodded appreciatively at Percy, then steeled himself and took over again.

“Well, if I try this and fail, the Fates can have both of us. They did seem pretty eager to have the matching set, so I bet that sounds good to them. They’ve got excellent chances. The whole thing about Orpheus’ story is that he failed, isn’t it?” Tempting fate was stupid. Tempting all three Fates at once was so unbelievably idiotic that someone would need to invent a whole new word for it. “If I fail, I’ll pass on into Asphodel without protest, and you never have to deal with me again. But if I succeed, you find a way to release us from the prophecy. No more dead storm or fire. You’ll let us live out our lives in as much peace as can be expected for the average demigod. All I’m asking for is a chance, however slim it might be.”

For a moment, the throne room was silent as everyone seemed to process what he’d said. Then, the first person spoke up.

“I don’t think that’s a terribly unreasonable request. Besides, I love Orpheus and Eurydice. It’s such a touching love story.”

It was a woman’s voice, speaking in a sweet tone that made an unpleasant shiver ran down Leo’s spine.

When he looked at her, he knew immediately the goddess had to be Aphrodite. She had an otherworldly kind of beauty to her—a glow he didn’t quite understand. For a brief, confusing moment, her appearance seemed to flicker, like she couldn’t quite decide what face she wanted to wear today. Her hair shifted in length and color. Her features seemed to change with it.

When Leo blinked and looked right at her, her appearance settled into a steady image—short, blonde hair and light eyes, the color of which he couldn’t quite determine due to the fact that the light kept reflecting off her glasses.

Why a goddess would wear glasses, Leo had absolutely no idea. One would think vision correction should be the easiest thing in the world when you were a deity. Who knew, though. Maybe she didn’t have insurance, so the only thing she’d gotten was the sanitizing snake.

She didn’t look anything like Piper, which was strange considering she was Piper’s mom—but he supposed it was more complicated than that, with the gods’ abilities to take on whatever appearance they wanted. Still, there was something strikingly familiar about her appearance that Leo couldn’t quite place.

“Thanks?” he said quietly. Gods, he missed Piper. He’d never properly interacted with her mom before, and doing it without her present was weird.

“Besides, leaving Jason in the Underworld would be a bit of a waste, doesn’t it? He made Piper’s love life terribly interesting,” Aphrodite continued, smiling. “My darling girl has always been so full of love. She was very sweet in her promise to refuse tradition and not break a heart. Like she wasn’t breaking her own heart as she made that oath. Like his heart was ever hers to break.”

She was looking at Leo like she could see right through him—and well, being the goddess of love and all, she probably could.

Under different circumstances, he might have worried about flushing, but currently he was too busy trying to keep his anger under control.

Interesting. He thought about Piper sobbing into his shoulder, talking about how weird things between her and Jason had been before he’d died. Talking about how confused she’d been, and how much she’d hurt him when she’d stopped being confused, and how now she could never make it right. Because regardless of everything else, he’d been her friend, and she’d cared, and she was so afraid he hadn’t known that, at the end. 

Like figuring out you were queer wasn’t complicated enough without the Gods’ bullshit.

Piper had been to Tartarus and back over all this, and all her mom had to say about it was that it had been interesting.

Leo wanted to light Aphrodite’s hair on fire.

Unfortunately, she actually seemed to be thinking about supporting his cause, if for completely fucked up reasons, so torching her maybe wouldn’t be the best course of action right now. He’d already pissed off the king of the gods. As tempting as it was, starting a fight with the goddess of love on top of that, potentially dooming himself and Percy for the second time today, to the point where even Hera couldn’t save them, was unfortunately off the table.

He promised himself at that moment that if he made it back, he’d set a new record for the world’s longest hug—once Piper was done punching him for pulling this stunt, that was.

“You’d let me try, then?” he asked, struggling to keep the anger out of his voice. His hands were sparking, but considering the circumstances, Leo thought himself the epitome of restraint. 

This was the most infuriating conversation he’d ever been a part of.

“Love, in its rawest forms, is brave and reckless and self-destructive. It’s two souls so thoroughly intertwined with one another that if one ceases, the other cannot help but unravel along with it. It’s dying to ensure someone else will live on. It’s taking great risks knowing you’re unlikely to succeed, but wanting to believe there’s a chance that you might. Sometimes the world changes for it. Sometimes everyone involved dies tragic deaths. But that the love is there matters, even when it doesn’t change a thing. I’ve never been able to resist these types of stories.” She beamed at him. “The two of you have always been so beautifully eager to fall on your own sword for each other. You remind me a bit of Pyramus and Thisbe, actually. Wonderful pair. Delightfully bloody ending.” 

Leo had a sudden, awful understanding for what Ares saw in his best friend’s mom, which was not an understanding he’d ever had much of a desire to reach.

“Personally hoping for a little less death this time around, but I appreciate the vote of confidence.” 

He bit his lip a second too late, wondering if that counted as insolence and Zeus had permission to nuke him now.

Hera didn’t look thrilled, but Aphrodite just quirked an eyebrow in amusement.

“I like hope in my love stories. The tragedies are never any fun without it.”

On that delightful note, Ares chimed in, seeming utterly disinterested. “If the kid wants to get himself killed, I say we let him.”

Right. He didn’t put it like that, but he’d never ruin his girlfriend’s fun. Besides, he had no love for Hephaestus, which, if Leo had to guess, made the thought of one of his kids dying for Aphrodite’s entertainment even more appealing. 

Well, that made two votes in his favor, at least. Potentially three, assuming Hera was still on his side.

He turned to his father, who he’d seen, what, all of three times in his life? He understood things weren’t easy, and that Hephaestus struggled with living beings just as much as Leo did, but the radio silence between them ever since the war with Gaia hadn’t exactly helped how disgruntled he felt with the gods in general. 

“Dad?” he said shakily. “You said you care about me. That you cared about my mom. I don’t know if you meant that. I can’t fix what happened to her. Give me a chance to fix this.”

“I suppose if that’s really what you want…” Hephaestus seemed a little lost, but did smile at Leo. “Machines always work best when they’re well-balanced. Sometimes the parts you need are in inconvenient places. Why, it’s not like I’ve never had to go into the Underworld to collect a piece of machinery I’d dropped down the wrong chute.”

Leo almost cracked a smile. He couldn’t imagine a world where him and his dad were actually close, but he did feel understood in their matching tendency to use machine metaphors.

…at least he hoped it was a metaphor, rather than his father assuming Jason was some sort of automaton Leo had lost track of and that had wandered off into the Underworld without his permission.

He shook his head, deciding not to think about that one too hard.

Athena sighed. “If there is any lesson to be learned from the second Titan war, it’s that there has to be a balance between sacrifice and gain. We cannot simply expect loyalty from children that rarely so much as see our faces. We should have honored all that was lost to defeat Gaia, and we failed to do so at the time. That mistake needs to be amended. Leo has fulfilled the role the Fates placed on him admirably. If this is the reward he chooses, I do not think it wise to deny him.”

Note to self: if Leo survived this, he desperately needed to ask someone what the hell had happened during the second Titan war. He’d heard some things, sure, but all of it had been pretty vague, and he’d been too busy trying to prepare for his own battles to care that much about dusty old stories from the previous summers.

Either way, real convenient for Athena to point this out now, rather than when Camp Jupiter had desperately needed help from its deities. Leo wondered if she’d considered those losses necessary, even strategic—if teaching Apollo whatever lessons he’d learned as a human had been worth so many lives. 

The thought made Leo feel sick.

He forced himself to take a few deep breaths and move past this. He couldn’t ask for more if he wanted any chance to have Jason back. That wasn’t how the gods operated. As much as Leo wanted to, he couldn’t change their world. But he promised himself that if he lived past this, he’d find a way to make a difference—to do something meaningful to help other demigods, even if it was on a small scale. If their parents would not look out for them, they had to look out for each other instead.

Percy was glowering at his dad from across the room, and that seemed to be working just fine. Leo sort of wondered if he should have brought more of his friends to glare at their parents, but he had a feeling it wouldn’t work this well with the other gods.

Poseidon shrugged. “I despise agreeing with Athena, but I suppose she makes a valid point for once.”

They looked like they wanted to start squabbling, but before they could, Leo had already turned his attention to the next god.

“Apollo?” He didn’t have to make his case there. Glaring worked just fine. Apollo seemed to remember their last conversation vividly.

Good.

“I broke a promise I made to the River Styx. Jason suffered the consequences.” That was all it was. In the end, Jason’s life had been a toll paid for someone else’s mistake. Whether Leo or Apollo or Zeus or all of them were to blame didn’t really matter. The end result remained the same: Jason was gone, through no fault of his own. “I understand that we cannot just disrupt the natural flow of life and death, but this isn’t unprecedented. Leo deserves to have this shot. Besides, I can’t speak for his ability to make music, but he makes wonderful musical instruments.”

That was quite the change in tune from his waffling about how Jason had chosen his path and blah blah blah back at the Waystation. The reminder that Leo had been Jason’s best friend while Apollo had known him for all of a day—which was all the time it had taken him to get Jason killed—and that it was therefore a pretty bold claim for him to try and tell Leo what Jason would have wanted must have stuck.

Artemis just gave him a nod, quick and decisive. “My lieutenant helped my brother when he required it. It would not be just for me to deny hers in turn.”

And one by one, the other deities nodded their assent. Most of them seemed fairly disinterested in the matter, honestly—what was one more demigod life lost or gained when there were so many of them?

It was frustrating, but as long as they agreed, their disinterest was just fine with Leo.

Mr D—who Leo had never actually met in his Greek form before despite his role as their camp director—looked at him for a moment longer than was comfortable. 

“I’m not sure you’re in the right state of mind to enter an agreement like this.” Leo was about the protest, but then Dionysus shrugged. “But I’m the god of wine, not the god of good advice, so who am I to talk you out of this? Do try not to die, though. Di Angelo’s been making good progress lately, and it would be quite unfortunate if your death were to screw it up.”

Leo barely kept himself from rolling his eyes.

In the end, the only gods who had remained silent were Hera, Zeus and Hades. Leo assumed Hera was waiting for everyone else to speak so she could conclude this meeting. There was no way he was getting Zeus’ vote, but Leo didn’t really care for it either way. Unless council votes had to be unanimous, which he doubted, he didn’t need Zeus’ vote.

Hades was a problem, though. Even if every other god had been in agreement to cut Jason and Leo loose from their fate, it would all be in vain if Hades didn’t agree to actually let Leo take Jason’s soul.

Briefly, Leo considered kneeling again, but he’d been standing for so long that that would’ve felt ridiculous now, and he didn’t want to risk pissing off all the other gods he hadn’t kneeled to.

He figured it best to address the god of the Underworld directly. “Lord Hades, is there anything I can do to convince you? I know Orpheus’ music was important to the original story. If that’s what it takes-” Leo started, already sweating at the thought of having to lay his emotions bare to the whole council of the gods, even though he’d known from the beginning that he might have to.

Percy cringed next to him, possibly remembering the shower songs Piper had teased Leo about.

“Nothing like that. You will need your music soon enough, but not for this,” Hades interrupted him, less malicious than Leo had expected. “But I need to be sure you understand what you’re asking, child. You must trust your friend to follow where you lead. You must have faith. The strength of your bond must be sufficient. Otherwise, your doubts will doom you both.”

Leo’s heart was hammering in his chest.

“I’m awesome. Jason’s my best friend. Of course he’ll follow me,” he said, though his mouth felt dry. “And then I just don’t turn until we’re both standing in the sunlight again, right? Easy. I can totally do this.”

It was incredible that he sounded as confident as he did, considering the fact that he, well… wasn’t.

Could he trust Jason to follow him? Jason was the leader. He was the one people followed. Leo wasn’t Piper, either—he didn’t have her enchanting voice or her ability to lie and de-escalate her way out of situations. If she’d asked Jason to follow her, her charmspeak alone probably would have been enough to convince him. She’d have known for sure he was there, even if she couldn’t see him. 

Leo was just the fire guy—the trusty sidekick who provided funny quips and then died in act two to motivate the real hero. And he hadn’t even gotten that part right.

What reason would Jason have to follow him when all Leo did was fuck things up?

Thankfully, Hades continued before Leo had the chance to get even more up in his head about it. Pro tip: when you were relieved the god of the dead was addressing you, that was probably a bad sign.

“You know that, even if you succeed, it will be a temporary victory. Thanatos will eventually reclaim you both. Death is inevitable for mortals.”

“Of course I know that,” Leo said. “I know a few years, a few decades, are nothing to the gods. But they’re an eternity for us. They’re all any of us have.”

“And still you’d gamble your years for his. You’d gamble your afterlife. Even knowing that, once you die, you would have an eternity with him.”

“Only if he never chooses rebirth. Jason’s so stupid heroic that he might.” Leo had thought about that option a lot in the last few days as he worked up the courage to call Nico. He’d run the different scenarios through his head until he felt ill. Thought about the fact that he had no guarantee he’d even make it to Elysium when he died, and that, if he did, there was a chance Jason wouldn’t be there anymore by the time it happened. “I can’t risk that. I don’t want the chance of an afterlife with him if it means having to live my whole life without him.”

It was more honestly than he’d been aiming for. 

“Ah, love makes us so courageous and so very foolish.” Aphrodite looked downright gleeful. “You know this, don’t you, Hades?”

Hades sighed and bowed his head. “Very well. Then, with the assent of my family, I will honor your request, young demigod.”

“It’s decided, then,” Hera announced, folding her hands in her lap. “Should Leo succeed, we do what he asks. We release fire and storm from the Fates’ decree.”

Zeus looked seriously displeased with this outcome. “We cannot-”

“We can and we will. The council majority has overruled your objection,” Hera interrupted, furious. She rose from her throne once more, her image flickering. Zeus had apparently upset her so much that she was shifting into her Juno aspect. Talk about serious marital problems. Yikes. “You promised Jason’s life to me. The final word on this matter will not be yours.”

Leo hated that they talked about Jason like he’d been nothing but a bargaining chip. To see everything that Jason had been—his kindness and the way he laughed and the way he always seemed to think of other people before he stopped to consider what it was he wanted—reduced to an argument between two gods that desperately needed the contact information of the Greek goddess of divorce.

At least one of them seemed to have some genuine care for Jason buried somewhere deep within her.

Leo hadn’t initially given much thought to the way Hera was dressed. As a child, he’d only ever known her in a widow’s dress and black shawl. It occurred to him belatedly that whenever he’d encountered Hera after figuring out she was a goddess, she’d been dressed in white.

She was dressed in black now—a dress and veil fit for a funeral.

Leo wasn’t sure he wanted this—to feel any sort of sympathy for the woman who’d made him play with knives when he was three and given him a rattlesnake for one of his birthdays. But a part of him was just glad Jason had at least one parent that seemed bothered by his untimely death, even if that parent was his meddling step-mom.

Zeus scowled down at Leo like he wanted to smite him very badly, but Hera was staring daggers at her husband, maybe daring him to get rid of another one of her chosen heroes and seeing what would happen. 

Leo wasn’t sure if it was this that did it, or if even Zeus realized going against the whole council and being the only one who actively vetoed a chance at reviving his son made him look like a bit of a dick.

“Fine,” he spat, looking at Leo like he was a bug he’d graciously decided to refrain from squashing. “Try. But do not take this as a gift, child. Most likely, all you will achieve is your own death. And even if you were to somehow succeed, you are never to set foot on Mount Olympus again.”

Leo almost laughed. Right, because after all the shit that’d happened to him, he wanted to be here.

“Done. I swear on the River Styx that after this is over, I will never bother any of you again. I won’t ask for any more miracles, and I’m definitely not doing any more godly quests. I’m through with this.”

It felt like a win to him more than anything—like finally handing in his two-weeks notice at a miserable job with no benefits or pay and truly abominable work conditions. He was through with the gods. If they needed another human sacrifice for some battle they refused to fight themselves, they’d need to find someone else. Leo would be an idiot hero for his friends, and for absolutely no one else ever again.

“That’s the matter settled, then. You may come find me at my palace,” Hades said. With that—possibly to show off he really was Nico’s dad with their mutual love for dramatic exits—he rose from his throne and vanished into shadow.

Apollo clapped his hands. “Well, I suppose this means you’ll need a prophecy. Luckily for you-”

Leo immediately stopped him with a gesture of his own. “I’m good, actually.”

“Excuse me?” Apollo looked at him, clearly confused.

“Your last few prophecies are what got us into this mess. I don’t need you or the Fates or anyone else telling me I’m destined to fuck this up.”

“You know, just because you don’t hear the prophecy doesn’t mean-” the god tried, but Leo didn’t let him finish.

“I don’t care. If I mess this up, I need it to be my screwup, okay? Can you at least give me that?”

“I-” Apollo sighed, but then he nodded. “I suppose I can, if it’s really what you want.”

“Can I ask for something else, though?” Leo looked straight at the god, finally letting the implications of everything wash over him. He’d succeeded in his pleas. Meaning he could have Jason back if he succeeded. Meaning if he didn’t succeed, Leo had just signed his own death sentence and would never see Jason or Piper or any of his other friends again. “If I fail, can we please skip the part where Orpheus’ severed head spent a whole bunch of time as an oracle? I do not want my legacy to be traumatizing a bunch of demigods. Thanks.”

Leo had already had one run-in with the maenads, and that had been one too many, in his completely unbiased opinion. He’d much rather explode himself again than pull an actual Orpheus and get ripped limb from limb. He still shuddered at the memory of the poor drakon he’d watched the nymphs descend upon.

“Oh, absolutely.” Apollo held up his hands. “I don’t do severed head oracles anymore. They went out of style centuries ago. People tend to find them creepy. Terrible for branding.”

“Great! That’s all I’m asking.” Leo grinned. He bowed his head once to his father and once to Juno, who still hadn’t changed back to her Hera aspect. Stubborn defiance of her husband, maybe. “Thanks for giving me this shot. I’m not going to waste it.”

He wanted to mean that, more than anything.

———

Notes:

Fun fact number one: this is the second-longest chapter of the fic! This is, in parts, because there was just no good place to split this chapter.

Fun fact number two: I did, at one point, joke I’d have to rename this chapter to “Leo tries really hard to get himself struck by lightning”. For obvious reasons.

I find the contrast between Nico and Percy finding out Leo’s plan extremely funny lmao (that’s what I meant with the different chapter beginnings in the last chapter). Something something Nico who knows the kind of grief Leo is experiencing and just how destructive it can be vs. Percy who waltzed into the Underworld at age 12 to get his mom back and whose fatal flaw is loyalty so of course he‘s gonna go yell at the gods with Leo because he asked.

Also, someone’s finally managed to piss off Zeus worse than Percy. It was bound to happen eventually <3

Hera specifically stepping in to bat for Leo is very heavily influenced by her grieving Jason at the end of ToN. Their relationship wasn’t easy, nor was she anywhere close to the perfect step-mom/patron goddess in canon, but unlike his father, she did genuinely care for Jason.

And I know technically even the gods cannot change fate, but since Hera semi-canonically cut Frank lose from the firewood his life was tied to, therefore effectively also changing his fate, I think I’m allowed to take some creative liberties here. These are special circumstances.

Oh, and before I forget: massive shoutout to my dear friend Juno for reading over this chapter ahead of time and trying to help exorcise my anxiety demons <3 This was my first ever time properly dealing with the gods, and I’m not gonna lie, it was a struggle. I do like how a lot of the scenes came out, but it’s definitely one of the chapters I’m the most anxious about (I say this like I’m not anxious about posting every week, lmao), so comments are extra appreciated this time!

Thank you so much for reading!!

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