THE PRIMARIES

THE PRIMARIES

In a world where people have either have  different or same eye colours.

But here's the thing. Everyone's eye colour are colours that are mixed like purple, green, brown, etc.

But then there are the primaries. Primaries are people who have primary eye colours. But they also have powers depending on their eyes like blue, water and red, fire ( hint hint ;) )

Since they are powerful, they are also being hunted down for their powers and now there are still fewer left.

I was going to make a joke about how people tell their hairdressers so many personal details that I wouldnt be surprised if someone confessed to murder while I was styling their hair but then I remembered that was an actual thing that happened when I was in cosmetology school

Holy Sh*t 0o0

So I just had a thought

What if supernatural creatures don’t exist anymore? What if they did once, but through the years, they slowly mixed in with humans?

You can see the blood of fairies in the way a ballet dancer hovers in mid air before he or she hits the ground. You can see it in the way that middle school girl never forgets when someone makes her a promise. You can see it in how that one little boy in the kindergarten class seems more comfortable in the forest on that field trip than the others.

You can see the blood of dryads in hikers who never trip over roots. You can see it in that suburban grandmother never lets any of her garden die. You can see it in that one kid who climbs a tree faster than his friends, barely looking at the branches as he goes.

You can see the blood of naiads in the way a professional swimmer seems to command the water to help them. You can see it in how a cross country runner needs a water break more often than his teammates. You can see it in the way that one girl in your class always has a water bottle on her desk.

You can see the blood of mermaids in a surfer who can be tossed around underwater for a long time without drowning. You can see it in a teenage boy who doesn’t have to pretend to be unbothered by the pressure when he races his friends to the bottom of a swimming pool. You can see it in the little girl who wades into every stream she sees on a hike without quite knowing why.

You can see the blood of sirens in people who never have a problem with getting people to date them. You can see it in that soprano who can hit notes most of her fellows can only dream of. You can see it in the camp counselor who all the straight girls have a crush on, who can play guitar and sing better than any of the others.

You can see the blood of shapeshifters in the way an actor adjusts their personality to become their character with scary accuracy. You can see it in the subconscious, barely noticeable changes a tween girl’s eyes make to match her outfit better. You can see it in the way you always lose that one friend in a crowd if you’re not careful, because he’s just too good at blending in.

People who carry the blood of werewolves don’t change with the full moon anymore, but you can still see it in the way your best friend always knows something is wrong, though even they don’t know they’re smelling the changes in your body chemistry. You can see it in the way that one guy always seems to eat more than the reasonable amount of red meat at an all-you-can-eat buffet. You can see it in the way that one werido never has a problem when the teacher turns off the lights before a PowerPoint presentation because her eyes adjust quicker and better than yours.

The blood of supernatural creatures may have mostly faded away. But if you look closely, you can still see it.

So I just found this old draf that I wrote like a year ago but forgot about it.... I remember this used to be my baby :,,)

In A Thousand Years, I Will Still Find You

MainCharacters:

Solis Olympia

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Reincarnation of Apollo.

Died in Troyjan War to protect his daughter from being killed (he was mortal).

Adopted son of Artemis.

Hiro Katsuo

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Reincarnation of Gladius son of Ares.

Died In the Troyjan War to protect his daughter and lover, Apollo(still mortal at the time).

Son of Ares.

Daisy Greenwich

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Reincarnation of Saia the water Nymph.

Died of being killed by the war along with her husband and child.

A flower Nymph.

Summary: Artemis always knew that her precious little sunshine is her reincarnation of her twin brother, Apollo. It sadden her when she had to sent him to Camp Half Blood. It's prophecy after all. It's bound to happen. What she didn't expect was that sending her son to CHB would not only bring back a very ancient love but also bring back a friendship that has been saperated for a long time.

I AM IN LOVE WITH THIS!!! 1000000/10 !

Goddess Meg, Little Apollo, Mortal Zeus, and Skele-kittens

Note: this is a lightly edited version of a discussion @authorgirl1111 and I have been having for months, that bloomed into a sorta-kinda fanfiction.

My thought is that Meg would become a full goddess, with actual powers and a Sphere of Influence. She’d be dead and would feel that Apollo’s essence was with her, but was slipping away, and if she went to the afterlife like she was supposed to, he’d be gone for good. So she holds onto his essence and desperately tries to avoid going to the Underworld, and then notices that there are some thin little cords connecting her to the mortal world, connected to the dryads that worship her. She follows them back, hard though it is. Those cords will let her return, but not Apollo - and that’s unacceptable.

 But she refuses to give up.

 She’s not quite sure what all of this is, what all is going on, but she feels like she can do SOMETHING.

 Apollo’s essence is like a seed, she thinks. He needs a casing to protect him. She feels around for something to keep him safe and comfortable, and senses something. Her dress. A present from a mother, a kind stranger, who only wanted to help make her comfortable. A present that had gotten ruined many times, but that she still insisted on getting repaired, because of what it meant to her. The dress may not be physically here - it was incinerated along with her body - but the feelings embodied by the dress, the essence of it, remains. She “tears” off a portion of the dress, and wraps Apollo’s essence in it.

 This time, the cords acquiesce.

Meg materializes in the throne room on Olympus, right where she was incinerated. A chia plant and a yellow daisy spring up at her feet. She’s holding a small green bundle tight against her chest.

 The throne room had clearly just been through a massive battle. Thrones were damaged, there were scorch marks everywhere, and the gods and demigods she could see all looked tired. Zeus was tied up in a celestial bronze net on the floor.

 Everyone just GAPED at her, not believing their own eyes. Meg’s still not entirely sure what happened, but at least Apollo’s safe. She unwraps his head and turns him towards the others, so everyone can see him. 

Artemis knows who it is immediately - how could she not recognize her baby brother? She delivered him, for Gods’ sake! She rushes over to them and breaks down sobbing as Meg gently transfers the baby Apollo into her arms, just glad that he’s back in SOME form, even if she’s not sure whether he retained his memories. At least he’s HERE, and SAFE.

 The tension breaks, and all the demigods plus most of the Olympians rush over to Apollo, Artemis, and Meg. Hades, Poseidon, and Hera remain with Zeus. Hades and Poseidon to make sure that Zeus stays trapped, and Hera because she really doesn’t care for Apollo.

After reassuring herself that Apollo is safe and protected, Meg approaches Zeus. She senses that she can cause Zeus to be reborn, kinda like how she just seemed to know how to summon a satyr, or just knew that the fruit would rise up and attack the nosoi, all those months ago.

 As the one who was just now wronged by Zeus, she floats the idea that Zeus should be sent to Earth, to be reborn, without his memories. If Apollo could learn so much from his stay on Earth, perhaps Zeus could as well, and finally become a better person. Hades suggests (with no small amount of glee) that Zeus should be reborn three times as a mortal, and have to achieve Elysium each time. If he can prove worthy of the Isle of Blest, then he may prove worthy to be a god again. If he fails… well, the council can decide on his fate if it comes to that.

 Meg agrees, with the stipulation that only she would know who Zeus was in each lifetime. She didn’t want the other gods to interfere, and potentially sabotage him. She also stipulates that Zeus will be unable to be granted immortality. All the while Zeus curses and shouts at them, but to no avail. Meg sends him to be reborn.

———————————————————————————————

Apollo, meanwhile, is still a baby. He doesn’t show any obvious signs of remembering anything during those first few days, but it’s apparent he’s growing fast, at roughly the rate of aging a year per a week.

He spends the first few weeks on Delos with Leto, Artemis, and Meg. At first they’re afraid that he doesn’t remember anything… until about a week in, when he’s the equivalent of a one-year-old, and starts talking. He has a nightmare of some sort the previous night, but he doesn’t have the words to tell them. The next day, he has another nightmare. When he wakes up, he scrunches up his face and carefully says “Jason. Remember.” Meg, Artemis, and Leto all break down crying that HE REMEMBERS. Their big brother/little brother/son REMEMBERS!

Soon after that, they take Apollo to Camp Half-blood, where he’s swarmed by his children who absolutely LOVE picking him up and carting him around. Harley joins in on the fun, teaching Apollo a bunch of little kid games and absolutely LORDING being older over him.

Little!Apollo LOVES to use his children as jungle gyms. He’ll just fling himself at them and scurry up until he can perch on their shoulders. They were pretty surprised the first few times he did this, but after a few days, they just start casually handing him off between them, and sometimes purposely standing closely enough that he can transfer between them however they want. Nico is part of this, because he’s an honorary Apollo child.

Little Apollo befriends all the little satyrs, and he feels bad about how scared their parents are that they’ll offend him, and he’ll do something horrible to them. watching him interact with Grover, Grover teasing him about Walt Whitman and not reading the Farmer’s Almanac, and having nothing bad happen to Grover, helps to put them at ease.

The Marsyas story is subsequently dropped from most Satyr’s cautionary stories.

—————————————————————————————————-

He’s mentally and physically five when he goes to the Waystation, and I’m having him age at a rate of a year a week, so it’s a month after he arrives at Camp Half-Blood. Meg wants to see Leo and Calypso again (and also wants some more help teasing Apollo, and another, secret reason that’s only revealed later), so she asks Leto for permission to take him to the Waystation for a few days. (Artemis went back to her Hunters once Apollo went to Camp Half-Blood, though she pops in for visits on a weekly basis). Apollo absolutely LOVES the Waystation, especially since he’s not expected to do chores this time. Leo comes up with SO. MANY. NEW. NICKNAMES. FOR. HIM. He pretends to be annoyed, but secretly Apollo loves them. Festus just kinda curls around him and looks after him. Also, Apollo knows morse code, so he can communicate with Festus. This comes in handy, since Festus is highly observant and has noticed how nervous Lityerses is about Apollo coming back, how scared he is of being a monster. So as soon as Apollo and Festus are alone, he tells Apollo about Lit’s fears, which is what causes Apollo to seek Lit out.  

Lityerses is just kinda hiding because he figures that mentally, emotionally, and physically, Apollo is five right now, and would be scared of him. But Apollo has none of it, seeks him out quickly, says he trusts him and he’s happy to see him again, and snuggles up in Lit’s lap for a nap. And Lit just sits there with tears in his eyes, stroking Apollo’s hair while he sleeps, not seeming to believe that this little kid who he once tried to behead, now trusts him and loves him so much. He still can’t believe that ANYONE loves and trusts him, much less someone he used to enthusiastically talk about murdering.

The next night, Apollo’s still at the Waystation. There’s a furious thunderstorm going on outside, and he’s unable to hide how scared he is of it (since his physical form does somewhat impact his mind). After a small amount of prying by Jo, Apollo confesses why he’s freaked out by thunderstorms. The residents of the Waystation  comfort him, and are horrified by how Zeus used to hurt him. Calypso sings him a lullaby, Jo and Emmie tell him what Zeus did was wrong, and little Georgina offers him a stuffed animal and some advice, telling him what her moms used to tell her when she was scared of thunderstorms.

——————————————————————————————————

Meg isn’t content to simply wait around and play with Apollo. She loves doing that, of course, but she’s a goddess now, and she plans to use her powers to help those in need.

While Meg was at Camp Half-blood with Apollo, she’d heard stories from Percy and Annabeth about their friends from Tartarus, who died protecting them: Bob, Damasen, and Little Bob. She hated the thought of them suffering as part of Tartarus, never to be reborn, for the crime of saving Percy’s and Annabeth’s lives. Truthfully, part of the reason why she wanted Apollo to go to the Waystation was so that there’d be fewer people around to come after her when she left for Tartarus. She snuck away a few nights into their stay, after Apollo had settled in.

Meg’s powers, her domain, are Redemption and Rebirth. Part of her powers - the first power she’d used, in fact - was the ability to regenerate a person from only a fragment of their essence. But she did NEED that fragment. So a few nights into their stay at the Waystation, Meg lies, saying that she needed a few days to sort out some problems at Aethitales. She travels to the underworld (a perk of her particular domain: she was welcome both in the Underworld AND the Mortal world) and jumps into Tartarus. She follows her “Redemption senses”, as she calls them (they tell her when someone has the potential to redeem themselves, and give her some nudges on how to give them the tools to do it) all around Tartarus. While in there, she manages to find the other skeleton kittens and promptly adopts them as one of her sacred animals. She even manages to run into Crest’s essence and speed along his progress, though she isn’t able to cause him to be reborn right then without risking him losing his memory. Best to let him be reborn naturally.

She locates pieces of Damasen’s, Bob’s, and Little Bob’s essences eventually, right on the edge of chaos. If she waited for them to reform naturally, it would take millennia. She’ll ensure it doesn’t take that long.

She grabs the essences and makes haste for the Mortal World, heading straight for Camp Half-blood. She stumbles into camp surrounded by skeletal saber-tooth cats, and she has to quickly reassure the campers that they’re friendly. Will takes her back for treatment, scolding her for being so reckless. After she’s had a day to recover, she starts work on Bob’s, Damasen’s, and Small Bob’s essences. She didn’t have the advantage of having psychic connections with them, or even having KNOWN them, so while she could recover their souls, their memories were… trickier. She brought in Percy and Annabeth (who were thrilled that their friends were coming back, but furious that Meg had just traipsed into Tartarus without even telling anyone) and used their feelings and memories of them to give the three of them at least a hint of some memories to grasp onto. They would never remember everything - far from it - but they’d eventually recover the memories they shared with Percy and Annabeth, few as those may be.

Meg caused the three of them to be reborn, returning all of them to babyhood (or in Small Bob’s case, teeny-tiny newborn kittenhood). Unlike Apollo, since she’d only been able to give them a few memories, they were reborn way more completely than he was, and as a consequence, they would age at a more normal rate, at twice the rate of a human. Percy and Annabeth volunteered to raise the two of them. Little Bob too, but he aged roughly however he felt like it.

Oh, and as for those other Skele-kittens? Meg kept one for herself, and gave one each to Nico, Piper, Hazel, Artemis, and even one to little Georgina. She could not RESIST her puppy-dog eyes!

Apollo and Leto were still at the Waystation when they found out that Meg had snuck off to Tartarus and returned. They both traveled over to Camp Half-Blood that day, with Apollo crying and punching Meg, telling her not to DARE scare him like that again. Which also prompted a You Realize You Did That Same Thing With Python, Right? response from Leto, which Apollo, in his now six-year-old wisdom, ignores.

 He forgets to be angry though as soon as she shows him her new little kitten, who he promptly starts cuddling and cooing over. He may not be as much of an animal-lover as Artemis, but there’s no way he COULDN’T coo over the little purring fuzzball… even one that occasionally becomes skeletal.

————————————————————————————————

Soon after Meg got back from Tartarus and reunited with Apollo, Sally invites them back over to the Jackson apartment, where Apollo digs into the seven-layer dip, and Sally gets to fuss over Meg some more. They also both get to meet little baby Estelle, who they both coo over, though Meg more so. Meg finally gets a chance to explain to Sally how much her dress means to her, and how it had proved instrumental in saving Apollo’s essence. Meg also decides to drop in on Sally regularly so she could babysit Estelle, and Sally could give her cooking lessons.  Sally loves mothering her, and Meg really likes it, though she wouldn’t admit it out loud. She takes her duties as a goddess seriously, but she separates out a part of her essence to just stay around Camp Half-Blood and be a normal kid, getting the childhood she had been denied for so long.

—————————————————————————————————–

Being the Goddess of Redemption and Rebirth, Meg can naturally tell that Estelle is Nico’s sister reborn, but wisely keeps her mouth shut. That being said, she insists on getting Nico and Estelle together at every opportunity, and Nico quickly becomes close to Estelle, and often trades off babysitting duty with Meg. He suspects who Estelle is, but keeps it to himself. Whether she is or isn’t her sister, he cares about her a lot, and he will protect her.

On Estelle’s part, fortunately, she can see through the Mist perfectly, and is welcome at both Camps. She doesn’t actually ATTEND Camp Half-Blood or Camp Jupiter, of course, but she visits them, and is cooed over by everyone when she does. Apollo also discreetly looks after her and makes sure she doesn’t get hurt. Mind you, few people are STUPID enough to try hurting her, considering who her older brother is.

—————————————————————————————————-

Some more clarification on Meg’s duties - while her most unique power is being able to bring back immortals, that’s not exactly something she does regularly. Instead, the “Rebirth” part of her duties often goes hand-in-hand with the “Redemption” portion.

People who make it to Elysium don’t need Meg’s help, since they have the option of being reborn, just as they’ve always done. Instead, she looks for souls in the Fields of Asphodel and even the Fields of Punishment, trying to find people who have gotten a bad hand, who she believes are worth giving a second chance to. Hazel was in the Fields of Asphodel after all - though she REALLY should’ve been in Elysium, and only wasn’t due to certain circumstances - and Lit was in the Fields of Punishment, and deserved to be there. So Meg knows that some people just need another chance to get things right.

 Meg can kinda sense those who might have a shot of changing for the better, if they’re given a second chance, and she approaches them, talks with them about why they are where they are, and offers to reincarnate them. If they agree, then she does so. Not everyone she gives a second chance to actually makes it a better one - it would be absurd if she was THAT successful - but most do, and make it to Elysium when they die again.

Meg’s also the protector of Southern California. Which means that the dryads in her territory pray to her for assistance when needed. Most of the time it’s the Meliai who actually end up helping, though.

The Meliai are HUGELY useful. Between them, and all the other nature spirits who heed Meg’s call, most hostile monsters are destroyed quickly in South California, making it one of the safer places for a demigod and their family to live. A lot of families with demigod children start moving out to southern California to take advantage of Meg’s protection. Plus, New Rome’s pretty close, in emergencies. Well, relatively speaking.

—————————————————————————————————-

Apollo personally starts to show up at the Satyr school (after he’s reached maturity) and teaches young satyrs how to play the pipes, and any other musical instrument that strikes their fancy. Gradually, even the ones that didn’t meet him while he was cute little kid, begin to lose their fear of him. 

Some of them still believe that the Marsyas story is true, though. until  Apollo teaches one especially musically talented young satyr a complicated piece, and Apollo praises his musical skill. The satyr exclaims “I bet I’m even better at the pipes than you!”. After a second, the young satyr (and I do mean young. Physically he’s about 10.) realizes what he just said, and who he said it to. Sheer, unbridled terror fills the satyr’s eyes, as he realizes what he just said, and who he said it to. Immediately he panics, falling to the floor, crying, and just begging for Apollo’s forgiveness and for him to not skin him alive.

 All the other satyrs are recoiling in horror, believing that they will see their friend murdered right in front of them. Instead, Apollo slowly, carefully approaches the satyr, trying to appear as unthreatening as possible. It… isn’t really working, since the boy’s looking down at the ground and quaking, but it’s the thought that counts. He gently talks to the boy, telling him that it’s ok, he’s not going to hurt him, it’s fine, and starts singing gently, soothingly. The child stops crying, and looks up. Apollo reassures him that he’s not mad, he’s not going to hurt him, he thought his magic was quite good himself, and while he’s not sure if it’s better than his, he wouldn’t be mad if it was. He’d be proud of his student for surpassing him. And he tells him to keep on playing.

 The kid bursts into tears and hugs Apollo, sobbing. The whole class lets out a sigh of relief. They’re let out early that day though, since Apollo could clearly see that everyone was too wound up at that point to concentrate on lessons.

The young satyr’s parents nearly have a heart attack when he tells them what happened at school that day!

——————————————————————————————————

Of course, Olympus hasn’t stopped existing through all of this. There is no longer a King of the Gods, at least officially. Instead, the Olympians form a council of equals, like Hera suggested in “Percy Jackson’s Greek Gods”, when she, Apollo, Artemis, and Athena tried to overthrow Zeus the first time.

 Now, this probably wouldn’t work on its own - the gods squabble so much, they need someone to help them get along. It worked in this case though, because of a complicated series of alliances and friendships. 

Apollo, Artemis, and Hermes have the strongest alliance, forged from bonds of family and friendship. They work together to make sure that demigods get to camp safely. Without Zeus enforcing his stupid “we can’t help demigods, but they have to do whatever we tell them without complaint” laws, they are all far more proactive in picking up any demigods who seem to be in trouble, and transporting them to safety. Apollo especially keeps an ear out for any demigods with grave injuries or illness, and tries to at least send ambrosia and nectar to them, if not actually heal them. When the three of them DO disagree, they always do their best to make sure the others know WHY they disagree.

Now for most of these others, the demigods come in handy. A lot of the gods care about their children more than they used to, and their kids are louder and more demanding about their parents actually growing up and getting along. Remember that whole headcanon I posted awhile ago, where Apollo makes a sunbeam bracelet for Nico and Hazel, to help prevent them from fading into shadow? (I think I just listed Nico initially, but I figure they could both use one). Between that help Apollo gave, Nico dating one of Apollo’s sons, and Hades just generally being glad that Zeus isn’t in charge anymore, he’s actually a pretty firm ally for Apollo. Plus Nico and Hazel tend to yell at him when he’s being a butt.

Poseidon and Hephaestus are generally very reasonable in the Riordanverse, so while they occasionally serve as dissenting voices, they usually have good reasons behind their concerns. Percy is especially adept at convincing Poseidon to change his mind, if the need arises.

 Demeter hasn’t really been fond of Zeus since he allowed Hades to get away with kidnapping Persephone, plus Meg will often try to talk her around (or rather, tell her she’s being stupid and explain why). She’s rather pleased that Zeus got his comeuppance for incinerating Meg. She usually isn’t too hard to convince.

Hera doesn’t like most of the gods on the council, and most of them don’t like her, but she IS glad that they’re getting along. Plus they’re more proactive than they were under Zeus, which Juno is very happy about.

Hestia gets along with everyone. She and Apollo are especially friendly these days.

Athena may not like being on the same side as Poseidon so often, but after Percy willingly fell into Tartarus to be with Annabeth, she’s pretty much resigned herself to getting along with him. Her favorite daughter is with his favorite son, and they’re clearly never going to be willingly separated. Athena’s smart enough to see that this new council is working out better than the old one anyway, and does her best to help thoroughly explain different sides’ arguments, if they have good arguments but aren’t necessarily the best at articulating them. She’s glad that she can finally do so without fear that Zeus will blow up. He may have been most reasonable with her, out of all his children, but that’s partly because she knew exactly how far and in what ways she could push him.

Ares and Aphrodite are both pretty contrary and unreliable, and tend to not listen to everyone else. That’s not all that different from before, though. They don’t listen to their children much either, so they often can’t persuade them.

Dionysus may pretend to hate the demigods, but he’s secretly fond of them - fond enough to not want them to die at least. He’ll try to avoid most votes that make it clear how much he cares for the demigods, unless he has to serve as a tiebreaker. That hardly ever happens though, most of the council are pretty on-the-ball about trying to keep their children alive. He can be fairly contrary by nature, but he and Apollo have always gotten along pretty well, since Apollo is so fond of parties, plus he also tended to be punished harshly by Zeus. When Apollo really needs him, he usually comes through.As for the minor gods, most of them like Apollo. He’s always treated them decently (flirted with a decent amount of them too).

 Apollo tries his best to fulfill Jason’s promise ,and make sure all the minor gods are honored. He personally ensures that all of them have shrines, and whenever he has a concern about something that falls within their Sphere of Influence, he makes a point of consulting all gods that have relevant power or knowledge, and thanking them for their help. He lets them know that they can talk to him if they have concerns, and asks them to tell him if they have demigod children who need help. So while the exact nature of each god’s relationship to both Apollo and the council as a whole varies, they’re generally pretty happy with the new arrangement. Certainly happier than when Zeus was in charge.

So gradually, without really intending to, without any formal announcement, Apollo becomes the leader of Olympus. Not through fear and overwhelming power like Zeus did, but instead through kindness and friendship. 

——————————————————————————————————

Time passes. Apollo becomes Camp Director. Meg hangs around Camp Half-blood most of the time. Even if she’s a goddess now, she still behaves like Meg. Zeus is reborn. First time he’s born as the son of a minor Greek goddess. Apollo spots him from the sun chariot, and escorts him safely to camp. He’s weirdly bristly with Apollo at first, and even he’s not sure why. He warms up eventually though. 

When he hears about Luke, he considers him a hero for making sure the minor gods got recognized. He’s quite cocky, but he still dies a heroic death, and is granted Elysium. As soon as the judges give their decision, he vanishes, immediately reborn. 

This time he’s reborn as a legacy of Jupiter in New Rome. He has few powers, but he’s still a valuable member of the legion. He grows up hearing of the brave son of Jupiter who led the charge on Mount Orthys, a member of the Seven who took down Gaea, and who died protecting his comrades. He wishes he could meet Jason or Jupiter, get to know those members of his extended family, but Jupiter’s been sentenced to some punishment which most of the campers don’t know the details of. He eventually meets Thalia and asks her to tell him about her father and brother. After hearing from Thalia’s perspective, he wishes he could meet Jason more than ever, but he’s kinda glad that Jupiter has been sentenced to live out three mortal lives. Any asshole who would murder an innocent twelve-year-old just to try and deflect blame deserves a long punishment. If anything, he thinks it’s too lenient.

In this second life, Zeus dies defending his comrades, and once judged, is immediately reborn for the last time - this time, as Apollo’s son. In this life, he’s named Skylar. While he’s raised by his mother, he often gets visits from kind men. He knows they’re secretly the same man, since they all have the same smile, even though they look different. He goes along with it, though, and pretends that the disguises fool him. He’s a little kid, cheering him up when some kids pick on him at school. He’s a street musician, who first coaxes Skylar into singing in public. He’s even a teacher’s aid once, who sits with Skylar and helps teach him how to read, even though his dyslexia makes that difficult.

Then one day, when he’s about ten, Skylar sees his first monster. He panics and runs and prays that someone will help him. A moment later, an arrow is sticking out of the beast. It crumples to the ground and vanishes. Skylar looks at the man who shot the beast and recognizes him as the same man he’s encountered throughout the years. The man introduces himself as Apollo, explains that if he had stayed with Skylar and let him know who he was earlier, then monsters would have been able to find Skylar earlier as well. It was a moot point now, though, so Apollo drove Skylar to camp in the Sun Chariot.

Skylar is swarmed by his half-siblings upon entering camp. Apollo had told them that he was gonna have to retrieve him soon,and they’d been looking forward to meeting him. Apollo didn’t have children nearly as often as he used to, but he made sure to pay attention to each and every child, and they were all excited to welcome someone else to the family.

Skylar gets to experience a happy family life, staying with his mother most of the year, but spending summers at Camp Half-Blood. He bonds with Apollo quite closely over the years. At one point, when he’s around fourteen, he sees his father looking worried and scared, and coaxes him into opening up. Apollo confesses that Meg told him that his own father, Zeus, was on his third life, and may die and have his divinity restored in the next few years. Apollo doesn’t really know how to deal with that. Zeus will have proven himself a good mortal, achieving Elysium three times in a row, but this was still the man who liked to electrocute Apollo, who tried to murder Meg and even sorta succeeded. He wasn’t sure he was ready to face him. Skylar got pissed at Zeus, and silently promised himself that until Apollo could talk about Zeus with no fear on his face, that he wouldn’t forgive Zeus.

Skylar dies about a year later. Apollo’s devastated. He escorts his son down to the Underworld, and watches as he’s judged. As soon as they declare him worthy of Elysium, sparkles surround Skylar, and he transforms back to his regular divine state, receiving all the memories that had been taken from him. Both Apollo and Zeus are shocked. Zeus remembers everything he’s done to Apollo, and done to other gods and mortals over time, and teleports away to sort out the immense guilt he feels. Apollo stumbles around, trying to figure out WHAT THE HECK JUST HAPPENED.

Zeus is not returning to Olympus until he figures out what to say to his mortal friends and family, and patching it up with his immortal family? That’s gonna be even trickier. Luckily, while his immortal family sensed that Zeus is back, they can’t actually sense where he is, so Zeus has some time to try to sort himself out. Zeus shapeshifts back to his latest mortal form. Luckily he hadn’t been dead for very long and his death wasn’t all that public. Only his two best friends were there when he died, and they weren’t able to retrieve his body.

It actually didn’t take that long for Zeus and Apollo to reconcile, thankfully - Apollo was in shock, but his Papa Wolf instincts wouldn’t let him just stumble around in a daze. Zeus was still his son, even if he was also Apollo’s father… wow that’s weird to think about. 

He teleported around, searching for his son. He didn’t know what kind of place his father Zeus would go to, but his son? That’s another story. He found Zeus, in his mortal form as Skylar, swinging morosely at his neighborhood’s park, where he loved to play frisbee and sing for the kids in the neighborhood. Apollo carefully approaches him. Zeus looks up, notices Apollo, and his face twists into a complicated expression of fear, guilt, apprehension, and… hope? He looks like he’s about to bolt, when Apollo calls out,“WAIT!”. Zeus doesn’t know WHY he doesn’t flee right then - he doesn’t want to cause his… father? Son? More pain, fear, and suffering than he already has.

He remembers, when Apollo was just a few years old, hearing him boast about how his shots were even more deadly and accurate than Zeus’s own lightning. He made sure that Apollo felt EXACTLY how deadly and accurate his bolts were, when he electrocuted him repeatedly for the insult, ensuring that Apollo would NEVER forget who was in charge. Apollo’s eyes had widened in fear and pain as he had screamed and pleaded for Zeus to stop, Apollo’s form flickering as it was seared with lightning, again and again. But the lightning bolts kept coming, OVER and OVER again. Zeus had felt no guilt then, only pity, anger, and satisfaction. It was Apollo’s fault after all, wasn’t it? He’s the one who got on the wrong side of the lightning bolts. Apollo should have known better. Apollo was to blame for his own predicament, not Zeus. Finally, Zeus had gotten tired of throwing the lightning. Apollo seemed to have learned his lesson, at least for now. He was twitching on the ground, form barely held together. That’s when Zeus had growled, “Don’t get on the wrong side of my lightning bolts, boy. Remember your place.”

That had been the first time Zeus said those words to Apollo. It wouldn’t be the last. He’d see a flicker of that terror in Apollo’s eyes for the next several years. It would die down whenever some time had passed between Zeus’s punishments, but returned in full force whenever Zeus was angry. Which was often. He’d felt no guilt then, but now? Now was a different story. He’d been so pissed at Apollo’s father, for hurting him, for blaming Apollo for the pain that he was responsible for inflicting. He’d wanted to HURT him, BREAK him, like he’d tried to do to Apollo. He didn’t CARE that Zeus would have supposedly redeemed himself, having had to prove himself worthy of the Isles of the Blest in order to regain his powers. That did nothing to erase the fear in his father’s eyes, when he had confided to him how frightened he was of Zeus’s return, and feeling guilty for feeling frightened of him still, when Zeus would already have proven himself capable of being a good person, three times over. Zeus had trembled in anger as he’d comforted his father, silently vowing that he’d protect Apollo from his MONSTER of a father.

Then Zeus had died. He’d been glad that his friends were safe, but had secretly felt guilty that he’d broken the promise he’d made to himself, to keep Apollo safe from his father. He’d been relieved to see his dad as he was escorted to judgement. The Underworld wasn’t nearly as frightening when your dad was by your side. The judges had proclaimed him worthy of Elysium.

Then Zeus’s world erupted.

Power flooded through him, more than he’d ever felt before. For a moment, everything was great.

Until the memories returned.

First returned were the memories of his previous two mortal lifetimes. They were pleasant enough, and he was mostly just surprised by them. He hadn’t had time to sort out the memories, before he was hit by the last set of memories. His memories of being Zeus, King of the Gods, Lord of the Sky - and the monster who’d abused Apollo, his own son. He, himself, was the monster he’d been so angry at.

He’d turned to his son… to his father… to Apollo, and had seen the shock in his eyes - and that flicker of fear. Zeus couldn’t bear it. He’d run, teleported away, anything to get away from that look. But the person he’d most wanted to run away from was himself. He wanted to deny being the person who hurt Apollo, but looking through his memories, he couldn’t. He’d denied responsibility for his own actions long enough. He wasn’t doing that to Apollo again.

This is so true!

me age 11: i need a tragic backstory for my OC 🤔🤔🤔

me: i got it,