plague!will thoughts because i am doing eveyrthing in my power to not touch my wips❤️
when he's super young (like 4/5) he gets super sick. like very suddenly too -- completely unexpected given his perfect health before then. and naomi is fully panicking because all mortal docs are unable to understand what is wrong with him but acknowledge 'this is a very sick kid'
she gets desperate enough to basically harass apollo to come down and take a look, but all he gives her is some cryptic shit about how things have a way of working themselves out idk -- basically, she's told that she just has to let it pass
and sure enough, it does pass!! he gets back to full health a few months later and they slowly move on from it. when will gets to camp and asks about that (seeing as all his siblings boast having insane immune systems) they theorize it's just because of how strong his healing is.
however, this is refuted when he accidentally taps into his plague powers. because yes, his powers do its thing and make others sick but ALSO he gets extremely ill, but the symptoms don't even match up with what he gave out
and idk i have more thoughts, but there is this moments in the simpsons (i'm so brainrotted for the show sorry 😭) where mr burns goes to the doctor and is told he is, quite literally the sickest man alive with EVERY DISEASE EVER just inside of him. but they are all so perfectly balanced that they cancel each other out -- so technically, he's in great health until that balance is disturbed. and will using his powers is a fantastic way of disturbing said balance of plagues for himself, so he quite literally ends up dealing with blowback from complete different ailments than what he is dishing
anyways!! i have More Thoughts on this but i just wanted to write this down before i forget zzzzz
Plague!Will being confirmed is so fucking cool - it also pairs with what was said by Apollon himself in the Hidden Oracle. Apollo asked Kayla & Austin to curse the colossus Neronis with a plague in case he missed his shot.
All of Apollo's children can plague someone, they just choose not to or don't know they can do it. My take is that they actually don't know it's one of their powers. Since it seems to come from their dark side and they have always been described as a sunny, chill, extrovert bunch, it would make sense. Especially for Will, since he has stated clearly in tsats that he loves being a healer and that, as a counselor, he ought to keep his calm no matter the mess. Him tapping into his dark side, embracing it to protect his boyfriend ? Man, I love it.
Omg would love to read something about plague!will going apeshit in battle after Nico gets hurt or something
ooooh yes!!! thank you for the prompt!!
i hope you like this!
i’m literally gonna do minimum editing lmao
okay literally whoops i made it a lot longer and the prompt starts later my bad asljkfskljfd sorry anon
tw for descriptive imagery & blood
It’s a normal night at Camp Half-Blood, with demigods in their respective cabins, sleeping either fitfully or dreamlessly. After all, there is no in-between for demigods.
And that is no different for Will, who tosses and turns in his bed, sweat prickling his forehead.
Visions of Tartarus flicker across his dreams, memories of monsters and heat and pure agony. The aches and pains from previous injuries return in their full heat, with no mercy for Will.
The dreams consume him, taking away any consciousness and tying him to the memories. Sometimes it takes fifteen minutes to wake Will up at all, even if he’s being shaken. And when he is shaken awake, he merely stares at the ceiling, a blank, glassy look in his eyes. Sometimes he stays there until afternoon. Sometimes he’s in his cabin until the evening.
He’s in there until he can convince himself that nothing’s going to risk his life the moment he steps outside.
Tonight is one of those lucky moments where Will doesn’t have to be literally thrown around the bed in order to wake him up. A tug creeps on his shoulder, pulling harder and harder, until he jolts awake. Darkness consumes his cabin, spilling all across the room. For a moment, he swears a shadow moves near the bathroom, and he screams and pushes his back against the wall, heart racing.
And then a voice, deep and calming, melts in his ears. “It’s okay,” the voice murmurs. “You’re okay. It’s just me.”
Will’s head whips to the voice, blood roaring in his ears. Monster, some part of him thinks. Monster is trying to sound like my friends.
A demigod stands before him, dressed in black, melting with the darkness. Anxiety creeps over his neck, an icy cold grip on his body. Monster, he thinks again. What if it’s a monster that can shape-shift?
Will pushes himself further, his breathing ragged. The demigod lookalike leans back a little, as if to give him space. They turn their head to the side and mutter something to someone else, but with the utter panic bursting through his body, he can barely hear them.
Then another figure appears before him, this one shorter and more feminine. A part of Will thinks it’s just another monster, but his vision’s clearing now; the panic that gripped him just seconds before eases back a little. He recognizes them. He knows he does.
“Will,” the feminine figure murmurs, leaning in. “Hey, listen. I’m not a monster. Your favorite song when you were younger was ‘Barbie Girl.’“
Suspicion still crawls over Will, but he’s more stable now. The feminine figure is... Kayla. His sister. Right.
And the one standing next to her is... Nico? What are they doing here?
Will sits up a little straighter, feeling a little surer in himself. He looks between the two, confused. He opens his mouth to speak, but his throat is dry from the panic that enveloped him just moments ago. Will clears his throat. His voice comes out scratchy as he asks, “What’s wrong? Why are you guys awake?”
Nico nods to Kayla, who turns around and flicks on the light. Brightness consumes the cabin, burning Will’s eyes. The son of Apollo groans and shoves his head in his hands. Another bout of uneasiness creeps through his skin. Why are they awake at such a late time?
“Listen,” Nico says, taking Will’s hand in theirs. “I don’t want to freak you out-”
“Just by saying that, you’re pretty much guaranteeing that I’m going to freak out.”
“I know,” Nico mutters. “But you need to be awake. And we need to get out of the cabin.”
Will blinks. Nico’s words are blending together, slurring through Will’s brain. What are they even saying? He looks around the room, seeing if any of the others are awake. A jolt of unease wakes Will right up as he realizes that, in fact, all of his siblings are awake. “What’s going on?”
Nico rises, hand pulling on Will’s. “There’s a chimera loose on the camp grounds. It snuck in somehow." Their arm tugs, and Will rises immediately, almost as if just by Nico’s strength he’s found the will to stand up.
Dread settles over Will like a blanket. The cabin may be covered in light now, but he feels as though only darkness consumes him. Monster, his mind screams.
Nico appears to notice Will’s nervousness, because their eyes soften and they whisper, “You can just stay in the infirmary, Will. I don’t know if you’re in any mental condition to fight.”
Will wants to argue, say that of course he’s going to fight. He more than proved to Nico that he’s not weak when they were in Tartarus, and Nico knows that Will can be more than just a healer.
But Will also knows why Nico’s suggesting that to him. It isn’t because he’s unimportant or useless; it’s because he’s exhausted. He hasn’t had a good sleep in weeks. And he’s just now awoken with dreams about monsters. Battling a monster would do nothing good for him, or for the camp.
Swallowing, Will nods. He looks over at his siblings, who he’s suddenly realized have all been watching him and Nico. After a slight hesitation, he announces: “I’ll help in the ways I can.”
~~~
It’s chilly in the infirmary, the cold air whispering against Will’s bare hands, but he doesn’t mind. It wakes him up, makes him feel a little more alive.
Austin and Kayla are in the infirmary with him, waiting to patch up any demigods who’ve been hurt by the chimera. Will will admit, even though he hates being thought of as just a healer, he doesn’t mind the sense of calm bandaging cuts gives him. It’s not about helping people; it’s about the fact that at least he feels helpful.
A part of him yearns to be outside and help the other demigods attack the chimera at the hill, but he knows he can’t. Every time the chimera roars, ice drips over Will’s back; terror paralyzes him. He only thinks of Tartarus, of all the monsters who had tried sneaking on him and Nico so many times.
For the moment, things seem manageable here in the infirmary. There haven’t been many lethal or super serious injuries; only cuts, bruises, and the occasional poisonous gashes. Nothing he and his siblings can’t handle.
And yet, uneasiness still grips him, the sense that something terrible is about to happen. He tries to shake it off. It’s only a chimera, he reminds himself. And there are literally fifty demigods going after it. It’ll be fine.
His worse fears come true when the doors of the infirmary burst open and a demigod comes through, holding a pale, limp figure in his arms.
It takes a moment for the image to register in Will’s brain. At first, the only thought to run through his mind is: Wow, that half-dead demigod looks familiar.
When he realizes why the demigod looks so familiar, Will gasps. It’s Nico, he thinks with horror. For a moment, he doesn’t move. Fear glues him to his spot by the sink, his knees shaking. The cynical, depressing part of Will already assumes the worst: that he’s dead.
And then, all at once, he zips towards Nico, tears threatening to spill over. He pushes the other demigod aside and circles his arms around Nico, lowering them to their knees.
“Nico,” he whispers urgently, shaking their shoulders. “What’s wrong? What happened?”
Nico mutters something incomprehensible, their words slurring together. Their head slumps against Will’s shoulder, body limp. Will takes his hand and places it over Nico’s forehead, almost crying out loud when he realizes how warm the child of Hades is.
Kayla and Austin rush over with a stretcher, their young faces betraying anxiety. Will gently lays Nico over it, his throat aching with the repression of frustrated tears. “Nico, can you say something? What happened?”
This time, Nico’s voice is a little more comprehensible, albeit still slurred. “Chim’ra,” they mutter. “Ven’m. Tried t’ fight it with sword.” They attempt to move their body and immediately give up, grimacing and hissing. Nico’s face turns gray, the color of ashes.
Will notices the slash on their black T-shirt and the blood oozing out. He quickly lifts the shirt up, discovering a wide gash over Nico’s rib cage. The skin at the edge of the injury is tinged to a slightly green color.
For a second, Will almost loses it. He starts assuming the worst of it, thinking that Nico’s lost it all. But then he remembers: it’s only a gash. The cut may be deep and wide, but there’s no reason he shouldn’t be able to fix it. Nico seems worse off than other demigods who came in with the same poison, but if they can get to work quickly, then there’s no reason as to why he should start assuming the worst.
White hot anger erupts in Will’s system, blaring in his stomach and chest. The Chimera did this. It hurt Nico.
Will has had enough of monsters. They chased him and Nico throughout Tartarus, making sure to haunt both their dreams. They’ve taunted him, making sure to ensure doubt and insecurities in himself all his life. They almost killed him and his mother when he first arrived at camp. He’s had friends and siblings die because of monsters who never gave a fuck about demigods and their lives.
And now they’ve decided to mess with Will again, trying to hurt one of the people he loves most.
Well, Will’s done.
He turns his eyes away from Nico momentarily, staring at his hands. He knows exactly what he needs to do.
“It’s okay,” he promises Nico, who’s skin sags even more under the pressure of pain. “It’s not too bad. Kayla and Austin will be able to fix you up.”
Nico doesn’t answer, too exhausted to do so. Kayla and Austin fix Will with the same confused expression. “Aren’t you helping?” Kayla asks, bending over to take one end of the stretcher. Austin holds the other side.
Will shakes his head, standing. He grits his teeth, staring in the direction of the door. “I have something else to take care of.”
Austin’s eyes widen in concern. “Will, no. There is no way you’re going out there to fight that thing.”
Kayla opens her mouth to agree, but Will snaps his head back to them. “I’m going,” he states. He glares his eyes at them, mouth set into a thin line. Will almost relishes the sudden look of fear in their faces. “I’m head counselor, guys. I’m supposed to protect you guys.” Turning his face back to the infirmary doors, he announces, “That’s what I’m going to do.”
With that, he storms out of the infirmary. No one follows.
~~~
The winter air snaps at his skin, sinking its teeth into his hands. Will flexes his fingers, anger still seething, pulsing, gushing from every inch of his body. No one hurts his loved ones like that.
He follows the cries of battle and screeches of the monster to Half-Blood Hill, calling on his rage. If the monster wants a battle, then Will will give him one.
It’s been a while since Will’s used his plague powers. The last time was in Tartarus, and when he used them there, he almost passed out. He hasn’t trained with it at all, afraid of how much damage it could cause. What if he accidentally hurts a demigod?
But tonight, as the wind whips across his face and the image of Nico flashes across his brain, he lets the powers pulse, strengthen. His powers hum, resonating through every cell in his body.
His palms burst with a feverish warmth, turning a pale green. He feels the weight of thousands of sicknesses swirling through him, the power they hold. He’s finds the feeling of the plague powers quite strange; it’s like having a sickness, but only inverted. As if he can’t quite feel the symptoms, but he can feel the strength of the problems they can cause. Instead of wearing him down, they only empower him. He controls the sicknesses, can lash them out to whoever he wants.
Heads turn to Will as he steps over the summit of the hill, eyes widening at his sudden change of appearance. Now the heat reaches his face, hot and wild and etching to let loose. He’s a ball of energy, only existing to unleash chaos.
He catches a glimpse of himself in the shield of one of the demigods, and almost screams. He can barely recognize himself. His face has turned a pale, ugly shade of green, his freckles barely visible. The sky blue of his eyes have turned a sickly, glowy yellow, the only vibrancy on his face. The blond of his hair has turned as gray as ashes, limp against his forehead.
He looks sick and terrible. But really, Will only feels the buzz of power underneath his fingertips. He almost laughs; this feels great. Why would he want to repress this so much? Imagine all the monsters he could kill. Imagine the glory he could get. He would never be looked as weak ever again.
Demigods eyes trace over him, but as soon as he makes eye contact, they jump and scramble away. Will wants to laugh at that. For so long, he’s felt like some kind of scared, useless wimp; now he’s making others feel like that.
No, a quiet part of him says. That’s not right. Stop thinking like that.
Guilt starts building up in Will’s chest, but when a roar echoes throughout the camp, anger once against consumes the demigod. He bares his teeth towards the Chimera, whose lion head growls at him, ready to pounce. Its goat, snake, and lion heads all stare at Will daringly, as if taunting him. What are you going to do, Sunny Boy? Going to kill me with silly little poems?
Will just laughs. “What’s the matter, kitty? Are we scaring you?”
This time the goat answers, bleating angrily. Will almost wants to laugh again, but then the goat breathes a blazing hot fire in the son of Apollo’s direction, almost searing off his clothes.
Will scowls. He speaks again, and just barely registers the change in his voice; it’s raspier, the sound of something brushing against sandpaper. “So you want to play it hard, Kitty? We’ll play it hard.”
The snake tail hisses and spits venom in Will’s direction, but he simply steps back and lets it sizzle on the ground. That was just a test, Will knows. It’s simply measuring how much hell Will is ready to give him.
Well, he thinks, if you want hell, I’ll give you it.
He lets the plague’s strength build up in his palms, locating the power in one place. Will concentrates on just the sicknesses, the energy buzzing through him. His body buzzes with electricity and excitement. Will’s skin turns an even worse shade of green, practically glowing in the night. Mucus builds up in his nose, and he steps towards the Chimera, extending his right arm.
He waits for it to go first.
The lion head roars again, and the monster leaps at Will. But he’s ready for it. Just as it lands towards Will, the blond opens his palm to it.
For a moment, it seems as if nothing is happening. The demigods see nothing, no waves or signals to indicate that Will’s doing something. He looks almost ridiculous, really, and some demigods may have laughed if they weren’t so terrified of the way Will’s appearance has changed.
Will, however, knows a lot is happening. His body surges with power, strength, the urge to only provide sickness. He wants to see the monster fall, weak with illness and begging for death. He wants to see it asking for mercy, and Will will respond only with more torture, more pain.
He wants to make it beg for Tartarus.
The monster seems confused for a moment, surprised by the strange demigod. What does he even think he’s doing, standing there with his arm outstretched so uselessly and lamely?
And then it hits the Chimera. Its body grows heavy, weak, wanting only to sit and lie down for a while. It sways on its feet and thumps to the ground, feeling dizzy and confused. Its vision gets blurry; it can barely tell where the demigods are. Only the glow of the strange demigod is clear to the monster, and for a moment it forgets what it’s even supposed to be doing.
Its mind gets fuzzy. The itch of a sneeze consumes its nose, and then the scratch of its throat makes it wheeze. The Chimera wants to eat this demigod - but, wait. Suddenly the thought of food doesn’t seem too appetizing.
It just wants to sleep for a while. Its body grows weary, tired, hot from fever. It shivers in the night, its fur doing nothing to protect it in the coolness of the night. The Chimera tries to blow a fire, if only to heat itself, but finds itself too weak to do such a thing.
And then a strange tickle bursts in its leg. The snake head looks at the limb, and a delayed shock shudders through the Chimera’s body. It’s disintegrating! Not into sand, as all monsters go. Instead, it’s as if the sickness is breaking down all its cells, ripping apart each molecule in the body until there’s nothing left.
Will feels the power ripple through him, and suddenly he can’t help the laughter that bubbles through him. He’s made the monster weak; he’s made the monster helpless. It whimpers, begging for mercy, just as Will wanted.
Will doesn’t relent. He pushes further, extending his powers, breaking the monster down further and further, until it’s left with only the lion head.
The lion’s eyes peer at Will, glazed over with sickness. Its face is green, which Will didn’t know could happen. Or maybe I made it happen, Will thinks with both elation and terror.
Will glares, anger once against taking over him. “You hurt Nico. Now I hurt you.”
And with that, the monster’s head disintegrates. The remnants turn into sand. The monster is gone.
Will wants to smile, to laugh, to say that he did that all by himself. But his vision goes blurry, then foggy. The world tilts violently.
will having rhe possibility of having prophetic powers and plague powers is such a good concept since he very clearly views one as a gift that is basically useless but comes in handy in situations and the other as a curse since hes a healer and he shouldnt be able to make people sick
you’re actually really correct thanks for having a big brain <3
i think that when he first finds out he has both, he’s actually really excited. he has two powers from his dad? after all this time thinking all he could do was heal, this is a wonderful surprise for him.
i think that, at first, he kind of sees them equally as gifts. but because he can’t quite control his plague powers, he quickly starts thinking that they aren’t a power - they’re a curse. so he starts being ashamed of it. which is why he automatically places a positive connotation to his prophetic powers.
i wonder what his extents to having plague powers would be, though. can he see them in his dreams? is he able to see the future if someone asked him to see the future, or is it something that he can’t quite control - only images appear in his brain and he doesn’t quite understand what they mean until a little while later?
regardless of how they work, i think there will be a point where he starts believing that even these prophetic powers aren’t a gift, that they might actually be a curse. for example, maybe one day he just delivers a piece of the future to someone, not quite knowing what it means. for a moment, everything seems fine. but then later, he discovers that future he just spilled out? it ruined someone’s life.
the power of prophecy seems to have a really damaging impact on some people (as we saw with may castellan). i don’t think will’s prophetic powers would work in the same ways as hers, but i wonder what kind of emotional & mental impact it would have on him to know that he knows the exact moment someone will die, knows the exact moment that someone’s life will change forever. and i wonder what kind of emotional & mental impact it will have on him knowing that whatever comes out of his mouth or comes into his brain might actually ruin someone’s life and he wouldn’t know until it’s too late.
so now he feels responsible again. because he’s supposed to help people, but through both of these “curses,” he’s only ruining people’s lives even more; he has even more power to do so.
he probably considers himself a terrible person, despite the fact that none of this is really in his control.
anyway that got really angsty, so i also firmly believe that after a lot of self-reflection and care, he’ll realize that if he can learn to control these powers (or at least his plague powers) and once he discovers a way to only use them for good, he can find a way to be helpful again. when it comes to his prophetic powers, though, i think he’ll end up just learning that fate has a permanent place in life. he can’t help it. and it’s out of his control. while he’ll feel responsible, i think that he’ll eventually realize that he won’t be able to help the fate, and it wouldn’t be his fault that someone dies or gets hurt or something bad happens. it’s simply what will happen. truth is hard.
