You know, I'm kinda surprised that Leo didn't have a mental crashout when he saw most of his half-siblings in Cabin 9.
Like, what do you mean, your father, who abandoned you and your mom before you were even born, had a fudge ton of kids who got there earlier than you? What do you mean, they all got to stay at a safe place with three meals a day, while you were probably diving into a dumpster for food or forced to steal? What in the all-mighty hell do you mean that one of your younger siblings got there when they were eight, when your entire life was collapsing around you at that age?
Like, for real, we never delve into the members of Cabin Nine and their backstories, but the fact that there are 12 members (and six of them being name-dropped) means that Hephaestus got hella busy, and we can guess from their relative ages and the average age most demigods arrive here (12 to early teens) means that they all likely had several years in there. Sure, some of them were during the Titan War, but as far as we can see from Percy's limited POV, the entire conflict was two major battles and a bunch of low-key guerrilla fighting. Compared to Leo's life, these guys were having it easy.
And don't even get me started on the fact that Leo probably had to deal with monsters when he was younger, because let's face it, he was a lot more aware of his own status as a demigod compared to the rest of the Seven. Dude knew he had powers since he was in his early kindergarten years, so we can probably guess how much of an utter hell his life would've been post-Gaea. The only reason we don't get into it is because his life's motto is, as Dispatch would say, "We live, we laugh, we suppress our trauma."
Leo's a better person than me or didn't have enough time to process it, but if I were in his position, I would probably have not wanted to touch any of them with a ten-foot pole. Like come on, you want me to hangout with a bunch of strangers who I barely know because we had the same divine daddy who left for milk? These teens who lived in the freaking suburbs while I lived in the streets without any help, and these guys main sympathy gimmick is that their machines malfunction every once in a while? Are you freaking serious?
The only situation I will let it slide for Cabin Nine is on Charles Beckendorf. The main reason the guy died was because Silena sold the details of the mission to Luke. You know, the man who was planning to go on a literal war against Olympus? Especially when the main reason was the very heavy implication that it was due to Luke honeytrapping her. Beckendorf was literally cooked by his own girlfriend.
But aside from that, I'm putting all of Cabin Nine on Fraud Watch aside from Leo. They don't have a moment of glory during the Battle of Manhattan allowing them to avenge Beckendorf. Calling up automatons to wreck stuff up? That was Annabeth. Rolling up and calling divine cavalry or support? That was Nico. These people couldn't slide up to their dad's place (and Olympus was right there) to get more weapons or make them, when everyone else was scrambling for more weapons and ammunition. People, you had the closest thing to a factory right there.
And I don't know if you all remember The Demigod Diaries, but let us not forget that while the main problem of Leo's story was made out of a simple mistake on his part, its because the dude was severely overworked building the Argo II that this even happened. If it was collective mistake, then yes, it would be understandable.
But they were literally going through the regular Camp Half-Blood experience while Leo was literally skipping meals and gods know how many hours of sleep so the Argo II could be made on schedule. The ship that was going to be mega useful to, you know, save all of humanity from being wiped out by Gaea. These guys weren't even helping Leo when the Argo II was malfunctioning and couldn't take off during Son of Neptune, leaving him to fix it by himself. They aren't even frauds, they're bums.
Anyways, that'll be it for this one. But seriously, Leo had the freaking right to crash out when he learned about the rest of his half-siblings.
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