she/her | pretty darn lesbian | I enjoy Star Trek and Percy Jackson (specifically Heroes of Olympus) | writing/drawing prompts for pjo and hoo are always welcome! | minor so don’t be creepy
The occupation decided today to begin its military operations in Gaza, and called it:
(Gideon's Robots)
the name of this operation is taken from the robots that the occupation will use to blow up homes in Gaza. Now there is no safe place at all in Gaza, and worse than this, we are now suffering from a deadly famine. Therefore, I ask you, with all shame, to help me, I am in dire need of your help now, please I need an urgent surgery outside Gaza because I was injured by iron shrapnel after our home was bombed while we were inside it. With your donations, I will be able to travel and receive treatment as soon as possible. Your donations here will help me and mean a lot to me, and your participation will support me and my family psychologically and morally, Please donate here.
I hope you can help me and my family by donating.
My campaign vatted by:
Verified campaign. Vetted by @gazavetters, my number verified on the list is ( #43)
do not forget the patron saint of these weeks that we celebrate ourselves proudly and openly in the streets
her name was Marsha P Johnson, and we have her to thank for so much.
remember, the first Pride was a riot, and she was one of the brave souls who endured it to help carve the path which so many of us walk today. she helped found several activist groups regarding LGBT safety and wellbeing. and she was absolutely radiant, too.
this is pretty quick but here is leo and piper doing a rush hour pose. i hc this is them in a fight bc leo’s admitted he isnt one for fighting and piper… she has bloodlust and a knife idk what to tell ya
bridge over troubled water by simon and garfunkel (it’s implied to be about friends but this is just them in their denial phase lmao) (p.s. it’s very piper to reyna at the end of BoO coded)
and i love you so by don mclean (reyna abt piper coded)
red wine supernova by chappell roan (this one’s kind of a given)
just remember i love you by firefall (very cheesy)
romeo’s tune by steve forbert
only the good die young by billy joel (obligatory billy joel song)
she’s always a woman by billy joel (obligatory billy joel song part two!)
you can do magic by america
and so it goes by billy joel (obligatory billy joel song part three)
I have a super detailed Valgrace mortal AU (more lost trio/Jason-centric than Valgrace, but it’s there) in my head that I have barely ever written down, but think about constantly, and I don’t know what to do with it
today on channel WHY I SHOULDVE REALIZED I WAS LESBIAN SOONER: i loved shakira and rihanna’s “cant remember to forget you” but only ever listened to the music video
After spending a magical night with a stranger who just so happens to be a rising star, Jason waits patiently for a message that never comes.
(sequel to Dancing in the Dark, which is linked below)
💬 0 🔁 4 ❤️ 16 · Dancing in the Dark · [ao3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/74066246]
word count: 4,698
Leo is the electric guita
[author’s note:
hey yall! its been a while. by a while i mean like half a year. but here i am with the second installment of the band au! fingers crossed the third one is plotted and finished soon
i say as though im not the one who has to plot and finish the fic
anyways enjoy and thanks to @imliterallyinsanern for proofreading! hopefully tasteful amount of angst and unhealthy pining coming your way]
Jason was a lot of things. He was a son, a brother, a bartender, a bar manager, an english student, and a volunteer at the local library but only on Wednesdays since that was the only day he was free.
Jason loved a lot of things. He loved his friends, his (admittedly various) work, a good audiobook, and his sister Thalia.
One thing he didn’t necessarily love was going out. But there he was, at his (his dad’s? He was never quite sure what to call it) bar, partying like it was 1999 because Annabeth finally got promoted to senior architect at her firm.
Annabeth was great. She was driven. Jason really admired that about her. She deserved the promotion, she deserved this party they were throwing in her honor, and she certainly deserved the free cocktails Jason had ensured she’d get.
Percy had been at her side all night, hanging off her arm like a trophy wife, even though he was an accomplished marine biologist in his own right. In fact, he had just gotten back from a research trip the other day—a full three weeks in Alaska, spending his time with whales, using his spare time and spotty internet connection to call Annabeth and remind her how much he loved her. Despite how much both of them worked, they worked just as hard on their relationship, Jason thought with a cheesy sigh. Jason had never not been happy for them.
Thalia was off talking with her friend the DJ; a woman named Artemis. He’s pretty sure his sister has always been charming and funny and unafraid of just about anything, never will be. She was everything he wasn’t and Jason honestly couldn't put a finger on how he felt about that.
They looked strange next to each other. She had been dyeing her hair black since 8th grade, while he had always been, perhaps a bit unnaturally, blond. Her closet was full of black, accessories, and the studded leather jackets she wore even during the summer months. Jason, in comparison, hadn’t ever discovered layering, and the fanciest he ever got was a dress shirt/hand-me-down tie combo. The only thing they had in common was their abnormally light eyes. Even if they made it a pain to see on sunny days, Jason was glad to have them because they were the only thing that really screamed THESE TWO ARE SIBLINGS!
When Jason returned from the bar and handed Clarisse the drink she had asked for, the woman gave him a good clap on the back. He stumbled and laughed it off as she went back to chatting with Silena and Charlie, leaving him to make his way to Percy’s side for nothing else than to say hello.
He’d been running errands for the last ten minutes. “Would you drop my dirty glass off at the bar?” Nico had asked, tipsy.
Jason had nodded.
“Hey, Jason,” Percy had beckoned, “could you check on Grover? He’s been in the bathroom for, like, ever.”
Jason had nodded. Grover was fine, he had just fallen asleep on the toilet.
Annabeth had frowned and scanned the room before sighing, “Where the hell did Rachel go?”
Jason had nodded, though he didn’t really need to. Rachel was talking excitedly to a stranger about the history of swivel chairs when he found her at a random table.
He liked keeping busy normally, but he was especially motivated to do so now, because if he didn’t…
…he might end up thinking about Leo again.
Don’t get him wrong, he didn’t regret not taking it further. Leo was thoroughly drunk and Jason was thoroughly not and that was a thoroughly inappropriate situation for the direction they had been going in.
But that didn’t mean Jason couldn’t feel guilty about just up and leaving him. Leo had looked so sad by the wall where Jason left him. The whole night, the other man’s eyes had been deep, thoughtful, maybe a tad bit lonely, and achingly familiar. Those same eyes lit up when Leo laughed and being under their gaze made Jason dizzy like he had just inhaled the contents of Annabeth’s “Happy Father’s Day” balloon.
When Jason left, greedily sneaking one last look over his shoulder, Leo’s eyes were just tired. Tired and resigned, if Jason had to put words to the look. And it was all Jason’s fault.
Leo was so alive it hurt. He made everything look easy, feel easy. Maybe that was just because he was a perfect stranger (emphasis on perfect) and Jason didn’t have to worry about embarrassing himself in front of him, since realistically, he’d never see him again.
The thought of never seeing Leo again was doing things to him, and they weren’t the good, exhilarating things Leo himself did to him. These things weighed as much as an elephant, and they left a lingering sense of shame as they sank lower and lower in his chest.
All this to say that Jason had more than loved his time with the other man. If he had just had more time—
—a rough tug on his elbow yanked Jason out of his reverie. “Is that Leo fucking Valdez staring at you?” Percy’s voice asked.
Jason may or may not have perked up at the mention of Leo’s name, immediately directing his attention to the part of the bar Percy was pointing at. And sure enough, there was Leo, clutching a glass of water like it was a piece of driftwood and he was lost at sea.
Jason nodded. And then he smiled. And then he waved, chuckled at the way Leo nearly dropped his glass when they made eye contact, and went weak in the knees when he saw the number on Leo’s arm as he waved back.
That was his!
The pinching pain in his cheeks told Jason to lay off the smiling, but everything else told him the exact opposite.
When Jason finally looked away, only because the rude tugging on his arm was back again, Percy was staring at him with a slack jaw. “What the fuck,” his friend stated. “Why the fuck did you just smile and wave at Leo goddamn Valdez. And why did he smile and wave back? Holy shit, do you know him?”
Jason really wanted to say he did. A world where he knew Leo would be a hundred times better than this one. But he hadn’t even known his last name was Valdez until now. “No,” he decided, “but we danced together after you left the floor.”
“That’s where you’ve been for the past hour? You were dancing with a celebrity?”
“A celebrity? Leo’s not a celebrity. Is he?”
“God, Jason, you have to use your phone for more than just sudoku,” Percy groaned, slamming his hands on the table.
Annabeth gave him a questioning frown as her fork jumped next to her plate of cake. She squeezed Percy’s hand in hers, and Percy squeezed it three times in turn followed by a kiss to her temple, which is enough to flip her frown the right side up.
“Leo Valdez is part of a band,” Percy explained.
Jason nodded. “I knew that.”
“Did you know how popular it was?”
“He said it was just an indie thing.”
“Yeah, it’s an indie thing,” Percy conceded, “but it’s, like, a big indie thing. They had a single that was number one for—what, five weeks in a row earlier this year. They start a tour tomorrow, dude, and they’ve sold out most of their shows.”
Jason blinked.
He blinked again.
Not like blinking was a thing he didn’t usually do. He was just getting really into it at the moment.
“Huh,” was what he settled on as a response.
Percy laughed. “You hear that, Beth? That’s all he has to say. The guy spends the night chatting up a man who was on SNL a month ago and all he has to say is ‘huh.’” He leaned back in his chair in a way that felt judgmental as Annabeth snorted.
Jason just blinked again. “So you’re telling me I just kissed—”
Percy and Annabeth interrupted him with a unanimous scream of “WHAT” that makes Silena and Charlie just about break their necks, turning around to see what the matter is.
Annabeth composed herself first, as always, giving the others an apologetic smile. They slowly turned away. “I was prepared for one of us to have some fun with someone new on the dance floor,” she admitted after a few rounds of square breathing. “I was not expecting it to be you, Jason. No offense.”
Jason shrugged. “None taken.”
“And I was not expecting it to be with a famous person,” she finished.
Percy, meanwhile, sputtered like a broken truck. “Wait, wait, wait, just kissed? Or more than that?” He raised an accusatory eyebrow.
“Just kissed! That was it!” Jason was quick to defend. “But it was still, y’know…pretty good.”
Percy and Annabeth shared a look, humming knowingly.
“And then what?” Percy questioned. His chin was resting on his fist like a teen gossipping at a sleepover.
“Well, I, uh,” Jason stammered, “I kinda sorta left him?”
Annabeth choked on her bite of cake as her eyes widened comically.
Percy cringed audibly, visibly, and metaphysically. “Jason. Why?” He asked, rubbing at his forehead.
“He was drunk!” Jason exclaimed. “I’m not. I didn’t wanna take it any further! But, but, I did give him my number. That’s a win, right?” He scanned their faces for support. “Right?”
“That is a win,” Annabeth confirmed, much like a kindergarten teacher would. “Good job.”
Jason may have felt a little too smug when he said “Thank you.”
Percy nodded absently, but continued gripping the table like it owed him money. He went on to enter a staring contest with the chair opposite him and blew out a breath. “I’m gonna need another drink.”
Jason didn’t go to bed that night. The party died down half an hour before closing time and he spent that remaining half hour calling Ubers for those that hadn’t left yet. Annabeth and Percy fell into the backseat of the Ford that came for them. Jason hoped they left a good tip. Clarisse, Silena and Charlie managed to get to the nearest bus stop without incident. Rachel engaged her clearly exhausted driver in a chat about President Roosevelt’s (Theodore, not Franklin) pet raccoon, even though Grover yelled “COOLIDGE” out the window of his own ride to correct her. Nico sat patiently in a booth with Will, who was sticking around for some reason, waiting for Jason to drive him home to their shared apartment.
After Jason helped the bartenders finish up the dishes, he closed up, slung Nico over his shoulder, and watched Will drive away in his Honda Civic. Not long after that did he set Nico in the passenger’s seat of his light blue hatchback and started down the road.
One short drive through the empty city later, Nico was settled under the Nyan Cat covers that he’d had since middle school, but Jason still didn’t go to bed. He flopped down on the stiff couch they found for free on the side of the road, armed with his phone, punching “Leo Valdez” into the search bar of Tiktok, which he’d almost forgotten he’d had.
The results could have filled a library.
Jason, worrying at his lip, pulled up the first video. It was titled “TOP 5 WILDERNESS CONCERT MOMENTS.” Once he’d sat through that one, the next several results were more or less the same things. He discovered that Leo and Piper, the lead vocalist, had a habit of leaning on one another’s backs when getting particularly into their solos. Leo was always pictured with a well-loved electric guitar, plastered with stickers and sharpie doodles. Piper strummed a similarly aged acoustic with polka dot and zigzag patterns etched into the sides, though she occasionally swapped it out for a bright purple keytar.
In addition to those, there were heaps of videos from the band’s official account, the most recent ones promoting their upcoming tour. There was one where the drummer, Hazel, spoke to the viewer about maybe possibly actually looking into buying tickets while the other members took turns dancing aggressively in the background. Reyna, the bassist, slid into a split after Leo excitedly stumbled through a front walkover.
But the next one is from user sapphosno.1fan, who had a prestigious blue checkmark next to their name. The short started with hysterical laughter from the person holding the camera and snickering from their companion. “I’m sorry,” a righteously offended voice that sounded like Leo stated after a vicious bout of giggles, “I’m sorry that you don’t have eyes, Piper. That man is objectively hot.”
The screen panned shakingly over to the TV, stuck on one frame from what Jason thought he recognized as a romcom Percy liked. He might have seen it at the last movie night he attended, but maybe not.
This particular image was of one of the leading men. The blond man was in a black suit and orange tie, looking offscreen with fairy lights reflected in his eyes. There was a mole on one corner of his upper lip.
“I—I don’t get it,” Piper wheezed. “I just don’t.”
A pillow flew across Jason’s view for a moment after it was, presumably, thrown in a fit of disbelief. Leo’s wildly gesturing hand followed closely behind. “You’re a heathen, Piper! Look at him. He’s pretty. He’s smart. He’s not even afraid to fuck around and get poetic—do you know what I’d give for a man who could make exchanging emails romantic? I mean, what more could you want?”
“A woman,” Piper answered.
They guffawed in tandem, Leo sputtering for a moment longer before coming back full force. “I mean, yeah, but I’m gayer than the Village People and even I can admit when women are hot! Freaking look at Keke Palmer—”
Piper grunted in agreement.
“—all I’m saying is it should go both ways! Equality. And stuff,” he spat.
Piper shoved the phone back at Leo, pointing an accusatory, half polished finger at him. “You have had too much wine, mister,” she admonished as she reached towards the nightstand between their beds and pulled up a nearly empty wine bottle.
They laughed together, breathless and gasping and delightfully incoherent. The last thing Leo said before the video cut off was “In vino veritas, motherfucker.”
Jason smiled. He probably looked like an idiot, beaming dopily at his phone like that, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. The video began again.
He took the opportunity to look closer. They were in a hotel room, he deduced, since there was a suitcase lying at the foot of Leo’s bed. Jason could catch a glimpse of the bucket of ice the wine probably came from: on the desk that’s sitting unused to the right of the TV. If he listened hard enough, he could catch the rumbling of an AC in the background.
His eyelids were growing heavier by the second. Before he passed out (on the couch, not even his own bed, which he had so been looking forward to after so much socializing but was now too lazy for), though, he swiped over to his text inbox.
Nothing was there. Or, nothing was new. There was the argument he had with Thalia regarding whether or not he should take their stepmother to lunch for Mother’s Day, and the time Grover invited him to the beach clean-up he and Rachel had organized, but those were all days old.
Wait!
A message
…from Percy.
It read “hye broater srehdel just wnated to leg ioj lmoe yjat n,e amd neyj for ji,e date.”
The second one, popping up just a second later, read “woah.”
The third took a while longer to arrive and was a barrage of corrections, complete with asterisks. “Hey* broaster* strudel* just* wanted* to* let* you* know* that* me* and* Beth* got* home* safe*.”
The fourth was a single thumbs up emoji.
Jason, sighing, shot back the blue heart at the top of his recently used list as a response.
He fell asleep like that, head resting on a throw pillow, phone in hand, waiting for a buzz that would come from someone else.
He woke up like that, too, but his phone wasn’t in his hand anymore. It was nestled comfortably within the fluff of the rug, halfway under the couch. Nico was looming over him and tapping impatiently on his shoulder. Jason yawned, batting the hand away mid-tap.
Nico didn’t let up. “Where’s the waffle maker?”
Jason frowned. “Good morning to you, too, Nico. Check the bottom cabinet next to the fridge.”
Nico walked away wordlessly. It was only then that Jason noticed a bowl of batter sitting on the counter, the used whisk and measuring cups relaxing on a paper towel next to it.
“Chocolate chips?” Nico questioned, emerging from the cabinet.
“Uh. I forgot to get them,” Jason admitted.
Nico sighed. “Of course you did.”
“Sorry.”
“Of course you are.”
It was a couple minutes later that Jason really, truly, woke up. Mostly because of the loud beeping from the waffle maker. Nico scooped the finished waffle out and shovelled it onto a waiting plate, holding it out to Jason while he ladled the next serving of batter onto the grid.
Jason stumbled off the couch to retrieve his waffle and take a bite. “Mph, this is good,” he praised. “Thanks, Nico.”
“This isn’t for you,” the other man scoffed, rolling his eyes on the way that Jason had determined was, in fact, affectionate. “It’s for me. Waffles are my hangover food.”
“Then why’d you give me the first one?”
Nico stopped to think. “Because it’s hard to eat a waffle while actively making waffles, duh,” is what he settled on, and they both knew it was a weak cover story.
Later, Jason sat on the floor next to the coffee table, eating his second plain waffle of the day while Nico fetched the whipped cream and butter-flavored syrup. They ate in silence for the longest time before Nico let out a tortured groan.
Jason paused mid-chew and looked up from his phone, where he had been studying fan edits of Wilderness band members with breaks in between to check his inbox. “Whash wrong?”
“Me and Bianca were supposed to go see this band a week from now, but she just cancelled on me,” Nico groaned again. He sprayed some whipped cream into his mouth mournfully. “Her work needs her to head to a conference for, like, three whole days, and she’s not gonna be back in time to catch the concert. So now I’m here. Going to a concert. By myself.” He aimed a thoughtful look at Jason. “Unless one of my friends wants to come.”
Jason chewed his waffle suspiciously. He wasn’t a concert person. He had gone to one with Thalia as a high school graduation gift, but…he hadn’t enjoyed it all that much, to say the least. It was more his sister’s scene, and while he appreciated her letting him tag along, it wasn’t where he belonged. He hadn’t really gone to any since, but he doubted it was an experience he wanted to repeat. He would stick to his relatively small bar get-togethers, thank you very much.
“I don’t think I’m the right guy for this, Nico,” he laughed. “Why don’t you ask Percy?”
“If I ask Percy, he’s gonna ask if Annabeth can come, and I don’t wanna third wheel all night.”
“Point taken. Clarisse?”
“It’s her little brother’s birthday that day, and she’s taking him on a hunting trip for it.”
“What about Grover?”
“Attending a charity event.”
“Will?”
“Nice try, bucko. I already asked Will when me and Bea first planned this, and he’s got a family reunion that day, so no dice.”
Jason smirked. “Why would you have already asked Will?”
Nico flushed a vibrant red. “No reason. Just, he can’t come, okay?”
Jason’s smirk turned upside down in record time. With a tilt of his head, he blew out a defeated breath through his nose and surrendered. “Fine. Text me the details.”
The grin that formed on Nico’s face made everything pretty much worth it. “Thanks, Jason,” he drawled, eagerly tapping away at his phone. “I owe you one!”
“No, no,” Jason insisted, shaking his head. “The waffles were super good.
And suddenly, it was noon, because that was how time passed on a Saturday. Jason had a late night class at eight that evening, but other than that, he had nothing to do. Saturdays were usually his “catch up on sleep” day.
Yes, he was aware that made him sound like an old lady.
Yes, Percy had Jason down as “Grandma” in his phone.
No, he was not ashamed of either of those facts.
There was still nothing from Leo. His phone had lit up with a call after Nico left for nebulous, Will-related reasons, but it had been from Wyoming. He didn’t know why he picked it up, because Leo didn’t give off Wyoming vibes, but he did anyway. The person on the other line just asked him whether or not he had Medicare parts A and B.
And so, with nothing to do, he had dusted off his Instagram. He was starting to see why his friends called him predictable, because the name he had typed into the little page with the magnifying glass started with an L and ended with an eo Valdez.
This time, though, he swiped over to the Accounts tab rather than just looking at the posts, and there it was.
An account called leovladez🔧 was at the top of the results page, which seemed rather anticlimactic considering how much time Jason had spent thinking about the guy and how long it had taken him to find the account.
It was full of 0.5 pictures of the other band members, snippets of their rehearsals, and several photos of him and his mom visiting car shows or making dinner together. His most recent story was taken from the back of a parked truck, Hazel’s hands carefully sharpening Leo’s already lethal eyeliner.
Jason was so, so tempted to hit the message button on his main page. He just about needed to ask if Leo got home safe even though he already knew he had, since why the hell would he be on his way to his first show if he hadn’t? He desperately wanted to ask if Leo was feeling okay after all those drinks last night, even though he had a hunch the guy wasn’t in an enviable position. He longed to ask why he had to be the one to reach out, to type the other’s name in the search bar, to start the conversation.
But he already knew the answer to that.
Leo was famous, for goodness’ sake. Jason was…not.
Leo was a handsome man who hung out in bars with his glamorous friends. Jason was the one his glamorous friends brought along because he could get them free drinks even though his father got mad when he did.
Leo was the one who toured the country. Jason was the one with the car that couldn’t make it 50 miles without coughing like a chainsmoker.
Why on earth would Leo even spare him a glance outside of one late night, when the rose-tinted glasses were thick and the alcohol was strong?
His phone buzzed and he was naive enough for his heart to skip a beat, but it was just Nico. “Sry frgt to send this earlierrrr,” his friend said, followed by a paragraph of information. Jason skimmed it.
Concert on the 24th…
At that one music hall downtown…
Wilderness…
Wilderness?
The website Nico had attached at the end of the message had Leo’s face on it. Well, Leo and Piper and Hazel and Reyna’s, but Jason’s entire being had been rewired to spot Leo in a crowd of thousands. If he tried hard enough, he could imagine it was actually Leo grinning at him instead of merely pixels on a phone screen.
The realization that he would actually be seeing that grin (from however far away) in a month or so’s time hit him like a sack of bricks.
There wasn’t any way Leo would pick him out in a crowd. There wasn’t any way Leo would so much as spare him a second glance, even if those eyes managed to pass over him once. The show Jason and Nico were going to was sold completely out, which meant there were going to be a music hall’s worth of people between him and Leo.
Maybe Leo would want it that way.
If Leo didn’t want to see him, Jason was okay with that. But no matter what, on the 24th, Jason would be seeing Leo.
