Fandom: Trials of Apollo
Rating: Gen
Genre: Family, Angst
Characters: Apollo, Zeus, Cabin Seven
Apollo loves his children. He also loves his father.
@toapril-official is back for another year! My life is pretty busy this year but I'm still going to try and get all 30 days done - I've gone into it with a plan this year, so maybe that'll help... Anyway, here's TOApril day 1 - Tumbling Love. Zeus' parenting is its own warning, I think.
The first thing Apollo noticed as he approached Camp Half Blood was the shrieking. High pitched shrieks, ones that could only come from children, and if he hurried his pace a little – he had chosen to arrive quietly this time, no sun chariot landing by the lake, no flash of light as a god materialised, just a good, mortal-fashioned stroll through the surrounding woods towards the archway proclaiming the name of the camp for all those who could see it – then that was no-one’s business but his own.
Shrieks, like all noises, came in a variety of fashions, and while Apollo had seen mortals and immortals alike react in panic at all types, it was easy for him to identify these shrieks as shrieks of laughter. Demigods shrieking in laughter, mostly the younger ones with their higher pitched voices but there were some deeper, older voices tangled in as well.
And they were close.
He crested Half-Blood Hill, brushing past Peleus and not sparing the golden fleece a single glance, nor Thalia’s old pine tree, to see what, exactly, the demigods were up to that made them so raucous – not that Apollo minded the noise. The opposite, in fact – he loved hearing the demigods so carefree.
He loved seeing it, too.
The harpies were no doubt watching on somewhere in resignation as their charges added more work to their already never-ending list of cleaning chores to keep the camp safe and hygienic, but to Apollo the sight of green-stained t-shirts, and pants, and even skin, was a beautiful sight.
Demigods were still children, not magically older or more mature than their mortal peers even if their parentage and the world it brought them into forced them into something more aware aged them before their time because if it didn’t it would kill them, and seeing them act like it always settled something in Apollo’s essence. He wasn’t the god of children, or youth – Hebe would have several unpleasant things to say if he so much as suggested he was - but he was their protector, the protector of not just the young but of their youth.
It was a role he kept failing at, with demigods, as the world kept pushing and pushing. This camp was the closest he could come to succeeding at it and its success was intermittent at best.
Right now, it seemed like it was succeeding.
Merida giggled as she pushed her twin, who yelped as he overbalanced and grabbed at her in turn as he fell, dragging her down with her. They rolled down the hill in a mess of limbs and squawking, yelling at each other and humour surrounding them as they went. A little further along the hill, Kayla threw herself down with abandon, closely followed by Jerry, while Yan took the more sensible approach of laying down before starting to roll. Gracie was talking quietly with Austin, but both of them were also grass-stained, so they just seemed to be taking a break from the time honoured tradition of children rolling down hills for no reason other than because they could, and because it was fun.
Apollo loved the sight.
More heads came back into view, Will with his arm around Raphael and blond hair threaded through with glimpses of green, the two boys laughing. Behind them, Alice’s make-up was smeared but she didn’t seem to notice as she goaded Sam into pulling her up the hill, while Emma hung onto her own waist to get dragged up.
None of them noticed him, but that was by design as he faded into the background, content for the moment to watch them play, tumbling down the hill again and again and feeling his essence thrum with pure love.
There was nothing quite like loving his children. Nothing like being a father to these innocent, battered but not broken demigods. Apollo loved being a father, always had done even if he usually looked too young to be one, by mortal standards.
He didn’t understand the people who didn’t.
Apollo watched his children play, unaware of their audience, and considered joining them, letting his presence be known. It had been a little while since he’d last dropped by in person, even if he’d spoken with most of them in their dreams the past couple of evenings.
The scent of ozone, sprites of static brushing against his essence, stopped him before he could make a move.
“You should not be here,” his own father said, sparking into existence. For Zeus, it was an unusually subtle display of his presence, but Apollo supposed he didn’t want the demigods to notice he’d deigned to make his way into their camp, even if it was only the very fringes of it, standing underneath the boughs of the tree he had once created to prevent his daughter dying entirely. Apollo was glad of that, too - he didn’t want his children, or any other demigods, realising Zeus was there, either.
It was bad enough that they were in Zeus’ presence, catching his attention, in the first place. Apollo supposed he hadn’t been subtle enough in his own approach, not if his father had noticed.
Zeus wasn’t looking at his children, though. Not yet, at least. Instead, his piercing blue eyes were focused on Apollo himself, which was never a comfortable position to find himself in, but it was better than it being his children. He wasn’t foolish or naive enough to think that his father wasn’t fully aware of the demigods, and whose children they were, though.
His father didn’t look as stern as Apollo expected him to be, when he met the older god’s gaze with his own, trying to minimise Zeus’ reasons to look to his children.
It was to no avail. He’d barely made eye contact when Zeus looked away, looking instead at the children who continued to play, oblivious to their grandfather’s presence. Apollo stifled Lester’s instinct to swallow, to show nervousness.
“Although,” Zeus continued, as though there had been no pause, not giving Apollo time to scramble to come up with an answer that would both appease his father and not put his children in more danger than they already were, “it is a father’s prerogative to watch over his children.”
There had never really been a hope that Zeus wouldn’t know exactly who he was looking at.
Those bright blue eyes, so much like Jason’s except Jason had been a mortal and his father was the king of the gods with windows to an essence of an eternal storm, whirling and flashing for millennia, much like the storm on the surface of the planet named for his Roman form, glanced back at Apollo again, and he felt seen in a way he didn’t want to be, not by this god, of all beings.
“In that, we are not so different, you and I,” his father commented, and Apollo had to fight to supress the unease that rippled through his essence. “Watching over our children, guiding them… making sure they take the right path, against all other temptations. Those are a father’s duty.”
“I agree.” It wasn’t something Apollo could deny, wasn’t something he’d argue with his father about, not when his children were right there.
Zeus smiled, and it made him look benevolent. Kind. The way Apollo remembered him from his youth, before he learnt that storms were unpredictable and it didn’t matter how pretty the sky was when the lightning struck. He didn’t know why Zeus was showing him those same pretty skies now.
It felt like a warning.
“I cannot stop you from being a father,” the older god told him, “but you must remember, Apollo, that demigods are mortal. They are not gods. Their lives flicker for less than a century before they disappear forever.”
That, felt like a threat.
“I know, Father,” he said, not even risking a glance towards the slope of the hill, although it didn’t stop him being aware of Kayla throwing herself back down again, and the shrieks of laughter that accompanied it.
“A father guides, but he knows when to step back,” Zeus said, as though he hadn’t said anything at all. “Remember that, too, my son. Do not linger - and I am sure I do not have to remind you of the Laws.”
He disappeared in another crackle of ozone, before Apollo could even digest the words, but Apollo was under no illusions that he was still being watched. There could be no visiting his children today, not now.
Not while Zeus was watching… and Zeus was always watching.
Watching, and judging, ready to correct his children’s paths if they strayed. Apollo watched Gracie push Austin down the hill and surprised a wince as he recalled falling himself, no doubt pushed by his father for all he still didn’t remember it.
He tried to imagine doing that to his own children, remembered Hal and the way he’d had to give him a gentle push before Zeus interceded and pushed harder, tried to imagine pushing any of them hard of his own volition. He failed.
Guiding his children? Yes. But he couldn’t conceive of doing to his children what his father had done to him. Not even his immortal ones, the ones that wouldn’t flicker and fade within a century. He couldn’t imagine how Zeus had done it.
Sometimes, it made him want to hate his father. Olympus knew Zeus’ treatment of him wasn’t right, that the Apollo of old, before the Ancient Laws and his own father’s threats of punishment, would’ve punished parents for if they’d done it to their children. Apollo didn’t know if Zeus loved him, any more. He thought he had done, once upon a time, but now? Now, it was difficult to tell.
Now, it didn’t matter. Zeus could love him with the strength of a thousand suns and it wouldn’t change anything, because his actions and words were angled to control, to punish, to hurt, regardless of the intent behind them.
The same way, it didn’t matter that Apollo still loved Zeus, that even now, standing in the shelter of Thalia’s tree and watching the children that his father may or may not have just subtly threatened, he couldn’t take back the centuries of love that he’d poured into his father. He feared him, distrusted him, at times resented him… but he still loved him.
He always would, he knew, and it felt like a betrayal to his own children that he could love the god that would snuff their lives out with a single thunderbolt if the mood struck him – the god that had done that exact same thing before. It felt like he shouldn’t love them both, but he did.
It didn’t matter, though. It didn’t change anything. Apollo had loved Commodus – still, deep inside his essence, loved him despite everything he’d done. That hadn’t stopped him from killing him twice; if anything, it had spurred him on to end him with his own hands, rather than let anyone else take his life.
Loving his father wouldn’t stop him from doing what he needed to do. Maybe he couldn’t stop loving him, but he could still choose his children over him.
Fandom: Trials of Apollo
Rating: Gen
Genre: Fluff
Characters: Chiron, Will, Nico, Merida and Robin (OCs)
It was common knowledge that Apollo kids waned after sunset, but particularly young ones don't handle the waning too well. Chiron has seen it happen many times before.
TOApril day 25 - Race Against Time, and credit to @stereden for getting my muses thinking about how Apollo kids' powers wane after dark.
In the glow of the campfire, Chiron smiled fondly – and with more than a little bit of amusement. The cycle was so familiar to him after so many centuries that it was obvious what was coming, but to the children with their infinitely shorter lifespans and experience to match, it was going to come as a surprise, at least until Will begrudgingly recalled the last time it had happened.
The sun was setting, leaving the flickering flames of every colour and then some to take the lead on lighting up the demigods’ world the same way it did every night, especially in the summer when the camp was at its peak capacity, and with the setting sun came changes.
It was common knowledge amongst campers that Apollo’s children got more and more lethargic the further past sunset it got. Of course, the older, experienced ones could force themselves into activity during the night if circumstances demanded it (it was a burden the head healers bore, and Chiron wished that sometimes there weren’t medical emergencies that needed more than his learned training to heal – Apollo had taught him everything there was to know, but some things could not be replicated no matter how much knowledge the practitioner held). The younger ones, however, were another story entirely.
Most of Apollo’s children were older, when they arrived. Apollo didn’t like to separate his children from their mortal parents until it was necessary, so most of cabin seven’s new arrivals were eleven or twelve, in the wake of the promise Percy had extracted from the gods. Before that, some of them had been thirteen, or occasionally older. Children of Apollo arriving earlier usually indicated that something was wrong, or otherwise out of the ordinary (not many of his children were abused, because Apollo had a good sense for danger when it came to children, if not for himself, but there were other reasons, like untimely deaths, that could force an earlier arrival).
The latest arrivals, a pair of twins from Scotland who would not be returning to their previous childhood home for the foreseeable future due to bad luck and parental paranoia – mostly but not exclusively on the behalf of their mortal parent – were the youngest new arrivals since Will, almost a decade before. They weren’t as young as Will had been, or Lee, or even Michael, but they were still barely into double digits, and thus particularly susceptible to the presence of the sun in the sky, or lack thereof.
Chiron watched as their heads gradually fell together, using each other as an inadvertent and unplanned pillow as drowsiness set in. Merida was slightly taller than her brother, and her head claimed the higher position (although this was no indication of their respective ages – both twins were tight-lipped over which of them was the elder, and it was so reminiscent of Apollo and Artemis’ constant squabble over who was the elder twin that Chiron could feel only fondness for their stubbornness).
It would not be long before they fell asleep entirely, and Chiron had seen too many young Apollo children fall completely asleep at the campfire and be subsequently impossible to stir until dawn to let Will face that fate. For some demigods, it was useful – it hadn’t taken cabin seven long to intentionally wait for a young and constantly irate Michael to fall asleep before retiring for the night, back when he had been both young enough to be controlled by the sun’s position, and also fragile enough to lash out at any hand, no matter how genuinely helpful. For most, it was preferable that they made it back to the cabin at least partially under their own steam.
Chiron made his way to where Will was basking in the gentle strains of music that Yan was serenading the campers with, leaning comfortably against Nico, who had his arms around him and his chin on top of his head.
“Good evening, Will,” he said, “Nico.” The two young men acknowledged him with a smile – Will – and a nod – Nico. “I don’t wish to interrupt your relaxation, but I fear that if you don’t act swiftly, you may have some young children to carry to bed.” He tilted his head towards the half-asleep twins and Will followed his gaze.
The beginnings of confusion immediately cleared into clarity as Will noticed them. If Chiron wasn’t mistaken (and he tended not to be, when it came to a demigod he had known for a decade), Apollo’s eldest son currently attending camp had been suddenly reminded of the various times he’d been carried, half asleep, back to the cabin and his bed by various older siblings.
Nico’s confusion didn’t clear up, but Chiron couldn’t say he was surprised by that; Nico had never been in camp with such young Apollo children before, and was well used to Will’s ability to stay up all night if he felt it necessary. Still, he didn’t attempt to restrain Will when Merida and Robin’s head counsellor let out a soft groan that was more fondness than genuine complaint and hauled himself to his feet, although he did press a brief kiss to his boyfriend’s hair as Will moved.
“I’ll be back,” Will promised him, turning to give him a light kiss in return, before picking his way through the fading light to crouch behind the twins. Chiron didn’t follow, choosing to remain with Nico as they watched him lightly nudge the pair into wakefulness again – for a given definition of the word – and offer them hands to pull themselves up with.
Even out of earshot, the twin’s reluctance to move was obvious, but Will was not a demigod to be out-stubborned easily, and a pair of ten year olds were never going to win against him. In short order, he had both of them on their feet, each one pinned to his side by an arm around their shoulder, and was escorting them away from the campfire and back towards the cabins.
“Past their bedtime?” Nico asked. Chiron glanced down at him to see his eyes focused on the trio as they walked away.
“I’m sure Will has some stories for you of his own campfires when he was their age and younger,” he said with a smile. “Staying awake after their father’s chariot has stabled for the night is not an ability Apollo children tend to develop at birth.”
“Huh,” Nico responded, with the glimmer of a sharp smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. “I think I would like to hear Will tell me those stories. Maybe I’ll ask when he comes back.”
Chiron had no doubt that Will would tell him, nor that Nico would pounce on it as an excuse to drag Will to bed a little bit earlier – an endeavour that very few campers would disagree with. Chiron certainly didn’t, and he suspected Apollo wouldn’t, either.
He said none of that to Nico, however, simply saying, “I’m sure you will enjoy the stories.”
And, well, if he stayed in earshot so that when Will finally came back, noticeably more tired himself but triumphant that he’d managed to get them into bed before they passed out for the night, he could hear Nico beginning to quiz Will, well.
Nico wasn’t the only one that enjoyed the stories.
Was looking at your list of cabin 7 kids, and saw that one of them was named Robin. Her (I'm) assuming) beads line up with Will Alice & Sam, who knew Robyn before her death (Austin & Kayla also knew Robyn, but not for very long). It makes me think of your fic "The Ponytail" and how Yan reminded them of Michael. Is it the same with Robin & Robyn?
Hi, anon!
Someone else asked a very similar question the other day which I answered here on my fic blog in detail. There's a bit of a reminder, but the three years and different genders/personalities largely helps to keep them separate in their minds - not entirely, but it's not quite a The Ponytail type of thing.
(Robin is a boy, while Robyn is a girl. The different spellings are inspired by two people I knew at college with the same name but different spelling and (at the time) different presented genders. Robin is also Merida's twin, and yes they're named after Robin Hood and Merida from Brave. Not all of my OC naming is subtle...)
To start I just want to say that I really enjoy not only Truth but your fics in general.
There’s two characters in your pjo fics that get mentioned periodically, Robyn and Robin. I was wondering if you have any ideas on how the Manhattan survivors reacted to having a sibling with basically the same name as a sister who died in the war, and if you’ve ever thought about expanding onn that?
Coming in with the fun questions here, anon!
To start with, I'll just address/confirm the timeline with these two, so you (and anyone else reading this) can see when and which characters are involved in this.
So Robyn joins camp two years before Percy, and dies during the Battle of Manhattan. Robin (and his twin, Merida) arrive at camp the summer after TOA. I have allocated specific years to the PJO universe to keep my sanity when dealing with timelines, so to be more specific:
June 2004: Robyn arrives at camp
August 2009: Robyn dies
June 2012: Robin (and Merida) arrive at camp
Now, as the Apollo cabin gets rather decimated during the Battle of Manhattan, with only five survivors in my timeline (Will, Alice, Sam, Austin and Kayla), there aren't that many Apollo kids to be affected by this. That being said, all five of these kids are still at camp when Robin (and Merida) arrive!
For reference, Robyn and Robin look like this:
Not identical by any means - both are white kids with blond hair but that's about where the similarities end. Robyn is also American (specifially from Florida), while Robin is Scottish, so there's a marked difference in their accents.
Personality-wise, Robyn is also a lot more outgoing and boisterous than Robin, although Robin isn't a shy boy. Of course, another similarity between both of them is...
They're both part of a double-act. Robin, as already mentioned, has a twin in Merida, and the pair of them are pretty inseparable. Robyn, whilst being no closer related to him than she is another other Apollo kid, gels particularly well with Nathan when he arrives at camp, and generally isn't seen without him, either (until Nathan gets eaten by hellhounds on Williamsburg Bridge... but then she gets killed the next night so in the long run there's not much difference, is there?)
So, getting back to the five kids who actually meet both Rob[y/i]ns, and their reactions... I may do an actual ficlet about this at some point, especially if there's interest, but as some flavour:
Will - I write Will as someone who is bad at processing grief. He tends to lock it and everyone associated with it away in a neat little box in his brain (until it all explodes out), which is not healthy in the slightest. He doesn't do too well with a reminder being shoved in his face in terms of a new sibling with the same name, but he's also an old pro at shoving grief down where he can ignore it to the best of his ability, especially when he has Something To Be Done. In this case, that's being the head counsellor and therefore a good big brother to his new siblings regardless of how much his insides are churning at freshly-remembered and unprocessed grief.
Alice - Alice is almost the opposite to Will in terms of processing grief. She likes to remember the dead, keeps photographs of them where she can see them when she's at her mother's (Will has taken down all photographs of dead siblings in the cabin and Alice is always a little resentful of this fact - the photographs get rediscovered and replaced after Will leaves camp and she becomes head counsellor), and has therefore processed and come to terms with Robyn's death. That's not to say that she's unaffected by the fact that Robin has the same name, but she's able to keep it separate enough that it's not a big issue. She does still miss her big sister a lot, though!
Sam - Sam only knew Robyn for two summers, and neither of them were full summers because he arrived late in the summer of BOTL, and then Robyn of course dies near the end of the summer of TLO, and both were only summer campers in the first place, so he's not as close with her as Will and Alice had the chance to be. He's also more of a pragmatic and level-headed sort in general and is more inclined to not dwell on the past/things he can't change. He can't change that Robyn's dead, but he can certainly make sure he doesn't make Robin feel awkward about sharing a name with a dead sister he never knew.
Austin - Austin knew Robyn for even less time than Sam, arriving at camp between BOTL and TLO and therefore only interacting with Robyn for her last summer. She wasn't the older sibling he particularly latched onto, but they are both avid musicians so he spent a lot of time with her practising and performing. Robin, meanwhile, is less of a musician, so Austin has less in common with him and generally doesn't spend much time with Robin overall. I wouldn't say it's an avoidance due to the name similarities/reminded grief, though, more the natural drifting of two people in a large group who have more in common with others than each other.
Kayla - the big grief for Kayla after Manhattan was absolutely Michael, of course, and after that was probably Nathan, again due to their mutual interest and aptitude for archery. Robyn didn't really feature on her radar overall because she didn't spend much time in the infirmary, and really did follow Michael around like a duckling for most of her first summer. She was aware of her, but didn't have much emotional attachment, certainly compared to her attachment to Michael. She's therefore probably the least affected by the name-twinning, as her memories of Robyn aren't as strong, and the three years between Robyn's death and Robin's arrival are enough for her to keep them fully separate in her mind without much, if any, overlapping grief.
Thanks for the question, anon! I'm always happy to chat about my ocs, or look at angst potential in and around CHB... Or both!
