Reading The Hidden Oracle: Chapter 35 (SPOILERS)
"What did Nero do--order it online?" Kayla, I don't think USPS has a box big enough to fit that in. Also, I thought it was a statue of Nero. Why does it look like Apollo? Did he just build a giant statue of Apollo, point at it, and say "That's me!" despite all evidence to the contrary?
"Nico and Will were floundering in the lake, apparently having been capsized in the middle of a canoe ride." Okay, so I almost overlooked this bit completely, but I was gently reminded that Apollo tasked these two paddlebrains to warn the camp of an oncoming attack EIGHT CHAPTERS AGO. Instead of anyone being remotely prepared, we fly in to see campers screaming in panic and the two people who were supposed to warn them instead having a little canoe ride IN THE MIDDLE OF AN ATTACK ON CAMP. I can just imagine (the following is not a quote from the book): "There's going to be an attack on camp." "I know. But we've got afternoon plans." "The last two attacks on camp were the Romans and the Battle of the Labyrinth." "Mhm. Perfect time to go canoeing." "Lee died that time." "I'm sure it won't happen again." These are the two scatterbrains hiking into Tartarus headfirst. They're gonna die. They're gonna go canoeing in the Cocytus and die. They're not even real people and I'm never letting them live this down. They're the Canoe Duo now. Canuo.
"every so often a beam of ultraviolet light shot from Athena's helmet like a search lamp, hitting the Colossus's chest" IT- IT ACTUALLY HAS LASERS
"I know I cannot ask you to risk your life for us." Good to see Apollo's done asking for sacrifices. Only took him four thousand years.
"its ghastly neck beard" Ah, so that's how we know it's Nero.
"when the planes were so thick in the air, I literally could not find a safe lane to drive in." It's interesting to note that mortal air traffic actually does affect the sun and moon chariots. Also disturbing to know that the sun and moon in the PJO universe fly so low in the sky.
"I never thought I'd say this about bugs, but I'm going to miss those guys." Oh, so disliking bugs is a common Demeter kid thing.
"still dripping from their swim in the canoe lake." Serves you right. "What's the plan?" You two were supposed to come up with the plan D:<
"You're thinking of Talos. This is not Talos." It better not be! We gotta stop letting all these killer automatons near Nico! They're Hades kid-killers! And judging from Nico's lack of reaction to the mention of Talos, he never even learned how his sister died, so he wouldn't know to stay away from them! Can we all agree to keep Hephaestus's inventions FAR away from Nico from now on?
Unrelated, but it's interesting to note the differences between the OG Talos and the mini one the Titan's Curse gang fought. The mini demo copy had an opening in the sole of its foot while the OG has one in its ankle.
