Can you please do Thalia when she first joined the hunters?
Thalia is actually pretty insecure when she first joins because she’s not Zoë at all. The two are polar opposites and when you’ve followed the leadership of someone for years it’s hard to follow someone new
At first there are a few who are hostile partially because they dislike Zeus and obviously that’s Thalia’s dad. It doesn’t help that Thalia is very loud, opinionated, impulsive, and hot headed. She’s an act now think later kind of person
Because of this she keeps to herself a lot at the start and the others make half hearted attempts to include her. After all they’d just lost Zoë and there was a lot of grief to handle
Because of this Artemis made it a point to spend time with Thalia and learn more about her.
As a result they got really close and Artemis finally made the speech of: “She isn’t Zoë, believe me I know, but she is my sister and you will follow her when need be and you will respect her. You’ll come to find she’s not so different from the rest of you.”
The younger hunters who aren’t quite as old fashioned and sticklers for routine immediately take a liking to Thalia who has a lot of wild stories to share.
Ultimately they all eventually start to warm up to Thalia and though Artemis obviously misses Zoë a lot, she’s happy to see Thalia relax and be more open to others. She’s not so guarded and seems genuinely happy.
Of course, as Thalia hears more stories about Zoë she starts to put two and two together. This leads to her rather un-gracefully confronting Artemis about whether or not she was involved with Zoë and if so why had she forced other hunters with female lovers to leave?
Artemis explains that it was mainly due to Aphrodite running her mouth on Olympus which resulted in Zeus having a say in the matter. Artemis goes on to explain that she never intended the oath to deny hunters of romantic pursuits. It only prevented romantic pursuits involving men. However, Zeus didn’t interpret it that way and so removing others from the hunt was a painful formality. Over the years it’s been twisted to make her seem selfish and conceited.
Thalia takes it all in rather slowly and seems to accept the goddess’ words as being honest.
Artemis goes on to tell Thalia that she was involved with Zoë but no one really knew other than the hunters who’d figured it out. Most of Olympus was still in the dark and Apollo had surprisingly kept it a secret.
Thalia promises to keep it a secret too which warms Artemis’ heart.
Artemis makes sure Thalia knows she can come to her for anything and talk to her about anything no matter what.
It’s re most motherly interaction Thalia’s ever had and she nearly starts crying.
After that, things relax and Thalia fits in perfectly with the others, but they’re all aware of the one missing person in their group. Thankfully they can see her every night.
Eventually, Thalia goes to Artemis and rather emotionally says she feels guilty for being so callous with Zoë and harsh, because under different circumstances they could have been friends, and that she wishes she could go back before Zoë died and offer a true apology.
Artemis insists that wherever Zoë’s at she understands and knows. Thalia sniffled and seems to accept the answer but she smiled sadly. Because despite being surrounded by a lot of other people whom you care for, things can feel pretty lonely at times.
