swooping is bad.

     it was a habit he had harbored since he was a young teen; being susceptible to do anything maggie asked him to, and it was perhaps the reason why she had kept him around for so long. each time he used his brain long enough to think about it, he became forlorn and dejected. rather than trying to change his ways and try to find a way to tell her no, however, things always remained the same. he wasn’t as adaptable to change as he thought he was; the way he and maggie’s friendship worked was familiar, and familiar was good.

      if there was ever anyone who could match minsoo’s idiotic preteen boy humor, it was definitely jonas. it was also quite possible that minsoo had a pretty significant influence on that over the years, given how long they had known each other and how easy his STUPID is to rub off on others. so, of course, the ridiculous pun wasn’t so much of a surprise to hear, but it CERTAINLY delighted minsoo, nonetheless.       snickering a bit giddily at the dumb joke, minsoo socks jonas in the shoulder. “you’re such an idiot,” he rolls his eyes, but proceeds to hold his fist out for a pounding in appreciation at the TOP TEIR joke, anyways. his laughter kicks up jonas’s own fades out, never not one to find ultimate joy in taking subtle little digs out of his best bro’s sex life (though, at this point in time, it wasn’t as if minsoo was one to talk).       he’s quick to roll his eyes at the accusation, waving away the other boy’s claims with a hand. “oh please. i’v basically mastered the art of being a third wheel to you two at this point. i don’t even KNOW what jealousy feels like anymore,” he claims, despite the fact that his frail, fragile ego felt nothing but jealousy every time someone would rather hang out with anyone else other than him. damn his prideful leo sun.

+

     jonas grabbed at his shoulder to hold with a wince the second minsoo thwacked him, then used the same hand seconds later to bump fists with him. “i’m your idiot, either way,” jonas said after minsoo’s laughter started. “i kinda think my idiocy grew with you, you know. it’s quite the legacy.” their idiocy was indeed mutual; but it was rather unfair to blame all of it on association with minsoo. jonas likely could’ve been considered one of the most idiotic boys in florence before he found out he was a demigod. and after, but that was another story.

As they trudged across the campus toward the breach, Joonwoo glanced back with what could be confused for either or a grimace or a smile. He wasn’t sure if he was more excited or concerned to see the breach. A flurry of plans formed in the demigod’s mind in preparation for a possible drakon attack.

“I might be a little curious,” Joonwoo admitted. “It’ would be good to study and figure out how the drakon was able to break through. But listen, if even one small thing seems wrong, we’re turning back around and going to the group, okay? Don’t do anything crazy, I beg you. We’ll look at the breach and call it a night. Got it?”

+

     even with a flashlight, it was still difficult to see much of anything on around eonia’s grounds. as the two walked, jonas’ flashlight was sent whirring left and right to investigate sounds; usually sounds that had been generated by them. maybe he was more apprehensive for a threat than he had let on. maybe. still, he was like, 99% sure that nothing would happen to them. the patrol had been too quiet.

     “maybe the barrier isn’t as strong as everyone thought,” he shrugs, looking over at joonwoo despite not being able to see him well. “or maybe someone was messing with it. who knows? i don’t even know how the barrier works besides, like... i don’t know how it works at all, actually.” which, really, wasn’t rare. he must’ve missed that part at orientation. he heaved a sigh at joonwoo’s plan. “sounds boring... but fine.”

       “ for betraying me, ” he declares, huffing as he looks at jonas with large, expectant eyes. if jonas can feign injury while literally possessing vitakinesis, junseo thinks it’s perfectly fair for him to amp up his own emotional wounds, subtly pouting in the hopes that jonas will feel GUILTY enough to purchase boba tea for him or anything else ( junseo’s nothing if not a master schemer ). “ you do know alistair isn’t real, right? ” it’s a question echoed hundreds of times before, with the same pointed gaze and tilted head junseo always employs to emphasize his points. “ what does he have that i don’t? muscles? ughhhhhhhhh. ” heaving a dramatic, dejected sigh, junseo picks his backpack up again, swinging one strap over his shoulder and then the other, his hands holding onto them like a schoolboy. his eyebrows raise up impatiently as he glances towards the laptop screen, signaling for jonas to hurry up, but junseo’s overgrown bangs prevent them from making an impact. “ it’s okay. we should probably go get boba or coffee for motivation before we go to the library, though. ”

+

  beck’s arrival to the music room was accompanied by an eyeroll. apollo kids were nothing if not utterly predictable. while he’d been dutifully working his shift at the infirmary, the rest of his house had gotten busy stripping the room bare. still, a lone figure sat in the room, holding what looked to be the last guitar. jackpot. beck wasn’t above using flattery or bribes to get his hands on the instrument. the fact that it turned out to be jonas just made the job easier. 

   in most situations, it was jonas who came to beck, always desperate to be liked in that pleading puppy dog way that was simultaneously a little bit endearing and a little bit nauseating. the role reversal was unsettling, but he could work with it. “can’t even make an exception for your favorite brother?” his wording was intentional, of course. he rarely made reference to apollo’s other children being related to him, and he especially never omitted the “half” in “half-brother”.

    he suspected jonas would know exactly what he was doing, but it couldn’t hurt to turn on the charm. this was serious business. either he was getting his hands on the guitar jonas was holding, or he’d have to find a different source of entertainment. that piano had needed tuning since sometime last year, and at this point not being the sucker to tune it had become a point of pride.

     jonas was slightly surprised when he turned the doorway and found his own roommate, beck. the situation itself felt funny; beck approaching, clearly wanting something instead of the other way around. it might be a first. then, the other demigod calls himself jonas’ brother and... yeah, it’s definitely a first. “who said you’re my favorite brother? apollo has...” he trailed, gaze wandering in the distance with his brain to come up with some obscure number, all while his fingers plucked softly at the guitar strings. “i don’t know. too many kids. so what makes you my favorite? yifan could be my favorite.”

She kept her phone up to eye level so he’d see how she rolls her eyes. How can he be so dumb? “Listen to yourself, are you really asking me that?” It’s almost like he was there for comedic relief but how is it funny? “I have classes I need to ace, training as well and the last dinner I had with someone was to finalize my schedule for my photoshoot at the end of this month. When and where do you think I’ll find the energy to find time to date?” Probably the most exciting event of her life recently would be the Drakon’s existence. Seungah shook her head at him. “I’m too busy, Jojo. When was I not busy?” Forcing a smile at him and blinking her eyes as to make a point of him just being a complete fool for actually assuming such. 

 “Keep your stupidity in the farthest depths of your being, for the love of all Olympians.” Groaning at his plan, which was obviously stupid and the fact that he might just do that. Who knows? Seungah can be quite unpredictable and most demigods are just waiting for a chance to prove themselves. They’re not just demigods but heroes in their own right. All they need is one chance to bring the fight and win. “How about this? You stay the hell in your cabin, safe and sound. Then I’ll let give you snacks from South Korea when my package arrives.” Raising an eyebrow at him. Anyone would be a fool to turn down Seungah’s offer. Her family does own malls and so her snack box alone takes are full of amazing choices. 

 “Trust me, if my little haul makes you hungry. Wait till my boxes arrive.” It’s better that they get their stomachs filled rather than the drakon’s with another one of their kind letting their impulses get the best of them. “I’m getting three boxes this time, not just two, Jojo.”

     with seungah’s exasperation with him, he only half listened to the questions she threw back his way. familiar melodic sounds beyond his room then started, grasping his attention with ease; perhaps once he and seungah hung up, he would go and investigate. as if on cue, however, his attention returned to his friend with her final question. when was i not busy? jonas shrugged. “i dunno. i think the issue is you don’t want to date, maybe.” he shrugged again. but what did he know, anyhow? he hadn’t exactly been an expert on seungah’s life, nor had he ever taken up enough responsibility to deem himself too busy for dating. and, anyway, the non-existence of his dating life always stemmed from a lack of an interested party rather than time.

     jonas couldn’t help but grin at the other’s contempt for the stupidity that continued to fall from his lips. it was mostly a joke, but the plan had some appeal to it; it would give him something to do other than wasting away in his dorm room. “ah, staying here to be safe and sound is the last thing i want to do. i mean, i’d like to stay safe and sound... just not in the apollo house. how’s zeus housing? lively? electrifying?” the pun was far from funny, but he didn’t give seungah much time to respond before he continued with his questioning. “how about i walk over there? you can share with me now and you won’t have to worry about sharing with me later on when you have more.”

oliver had to say he was pretty excited about being asked to tutor someone. while he had the luck to have a godly parent bless him with natural artistic abilities, he was well aware of the own effort that had to be put in. a little push, some learning about technique and theory, could be needed. helping someone with this, he could definitely do.

then, the door opened and he made eye contact with jonas. and as he heard his greeting, oliver thought that this, he definitely couldn’t do.

oliver’s interactions with jonas have been very limited. he knows jonas was… something to his best friend, alex. them being ‘something’ has resulted in oliver only having seen jonas in the progress of avoiding alex, and by extension oliver, leaving room for no interactions. an awkward acknowledgment must be there though, considering the way oliver sees jonas tense.

he can almost feel the awkward tension that has suddenly filled the small studio room. by now, he has probably been quiet for too long than what is considered appropriate. “oh, hi,” oliver greets. he clears his throat, if only to avoid the silence. “do you, uh…” oliver gestures behind himself, towards the easel he has set up for this. there are two stools placed in front of it. “do you want to… you can paint and i’ll, uh, i’ll give pointers.”

oliver stalks towards the stools and sits down on one of them without waiting for jonas’ response. he hopes jonas skills are enough for them to spend the rest of the session in relative silence and oliver not having to interfere that much. he’s already exhausted. “just… tell me if you need help.”

     gods, did the fates have fun toying with jonas like this? they must have... otherwise it was divine intervention by his father somehow. it had to be; it felt like a grand prank sprung on him by no other than apollo. jonas was sure oliver was nice and all but there was... awkwardness that spared them from ever having to meet each other, or formally interact like two normal students might have. them alone in the same room felt weird and equally cruel.

     yet it somehow seemed crueler to jonas to up and leave before anything could be accomplished. and he did need the help. so he found himself nodding at the other’s words, then there was a slowly paced walk to the open stool. “i mean, yeah... i’m kind of, like, totally helpless with the whole art thing,” he shrugged his backpack off and took a seat, gaze dead-set on the easel in front of him. “i don’t think i can even really draw a straight line, much less paint, so... don’t ask why i signed up for a painting class. i really couldn’t tell you why i did.” although jonas talked an awful lot completely unprompted in a space of comfort, his word vomit only got worse when there was the slightest bit of discomfort.

juntheraccoon: if it's a billion years old why isn't it dead?? 😵

juntheraccoon: noooooooooooooooooo i don't wanna kill a dragon 😢😢😢😢😢

juntheraccoon: and definitely not with u guys no offense but ur a healer and a thief so i will have to protect u 🙄🔥🛡️

juntheraccoon: jonas i know u just want to do that to get a girlfriend u are sooooo obvious 👩‍❤️‍💋‍👨

minsoocraft: because billion years old creatures are like... impossible to kill duh

minsoocraft: DRAKON!!!!***

minsoocraft: a SPEEDY thief, thank you very much. and i'd easily leave you two LOSERS in the dust when the drakon tries to eat us 😘

hayoungsbf: its the ~immortality~

hayoungsbf: what's so wrong with wanting a gf wtf.

     the apollo house wasn’t exactly the quietest house to be living in on a normal day; the presence of a threat on eonia’s campus made it even worse.. between operating the infirmary and housing some of the loudest children who actively sought out to soothe themselves with music --- well, it  had began to resemble a disaster. not far off from their father’s image, one might suppose.

     since he had volunteered for one of the patrolling shifts near the breach, jonas had missed the initial onslaught in the music room. the room had been left to near ruins, with instruments taken from their rightful place in favor of an apollo child’s room, or the infirmary, to help soothe both the tending and the injured.

@eupark​

Now Joon Woo was always up for a bit of excitement if the opportunity presented itself. Just because he’s a nervous wreck doesn’t mean he doesn’t enjoy having fun. But what Jonas asked prompted a raised eyebrow.

“There’s a Drakon running around campus, but you want to go to where it broke in?”

The barrier wasn’t far from where their patrol group was stationed. It had been a pretty uneventful night—something for which Joon Woo was glad for. Nothing happening meant no one dying. Still, he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t curious to see the breach. Regardless, he knew Jonas would go whether Joon Woo accompanied the guy or not. As an RA and his senior, Joon Woo felt it only necessary to make sure Jonas didn’t get himself into too much trouble. With a sigh, he turned to the other two in their patrol.

“We’ll be right back. We’re gonna go do a round around the campus.” With a nod at Jonas, he got to his feet and started towards the breach.

     his thoughtlessness was almost always inevitable; but, when asked about the impulsive things that came out of his mouth, his thoughtlessness came to the forefront of things. the way joonwoo reworded his idea back to him, going to the break-in sight of a dangerous monster, it suddenly felt stupid. he still wanted to do it, though.

     “nothing’s happened since we got here. nothing’s going to happen if we’re just closer to the nothing that’s been happening.” sure, easy for him to say.

     jonas could only hope that joon woo wouldn’t be a stick in the mud and tell the patrol of his plan; and it was only then that he began to worry about the possibility that he would. the other, however, did the exact opposite, and convinced the others that they’d be doing nothing more than taking a simple stroll. color him impressed.

     “see? i know you wanted to see it too.”

          once jonas’s words vibrated her ear drum, maggie sat up straight, smiled wide, placing the phone on speaker to the annoyance of the rest of aphrodite house. a piece of her almost wanted to egg the urgency of her messages longer, the attention too intoxicating to simply pass up. “hi, jonas,” she sighed, then paused. “i’m okay— well, i’m inside, and i’m alive, and i am safe.” there was barely a break between her words to allow jonas to chime in, but she persisted that this phone call not yet end. “are you okay? you didn’t answer me.” by didn’t answer me, she meant he took more than three minutes to reply, but the impatience was strong.

          maggie took a minute, one short minute, to think; she knew he would answer her messages eventually, answer her urgent phone call, answer to her request to come over, if she asked. but she felt guilty in a sense, asking him to danger himself for her. really, though: nothing bad would come from a quick trip outside, right? “it’s not… important, if you’re busy. but i burnt my neck on my curling wand this morning, and i don’t know. it’s just uncomfortable. and i’m bored.” eyes scanning the pictures she collaged on her wall, she smiled. “come over? please? it’ll make me the happiest demigod in greece, and i made chocolate chip cookies earlier.”

+

     jonas’ computer was left essentially forgotten as concern etched its way into his features. the tone of maggie’s voice sounded off; from there, he assumed the worst. drakon attack at the aphrodite house? maybe someone else had gotten hurt. maybe her. “did something happen?” he asked, as soon as her explanation was through-- as soon as she assured him she was safe. “yeah, i’m fine i was just... busy,” playing a game i’ve played a million times over. “i was going to respond in a few minutes. sorry. are you really okay?”

-

Just as she had stepped in the dorm, her dear father’s statue looms over her as a reminder that she’s not just anyone and she hates everything about it. “I don’t like you.” Seungah tells the statue as she shakes her head and instead of flying to her room, she walks like a normal human being. As she was lying on her bed, letting the cold lull her to sleep, she receives a text. A drakon? She sits up and furrows her brows. What the hell was going on? 

Seungah knew better than to panic, but she wasn’t one to make rational decisions and luck wasn’t always on her side so she grabs her phone to call Jonas. He better keep his ass safe or else she’ll fly over to him and tie him up to his bed. She decides to face time him and as soon as she sees him, she raises an eyebrow. 

“Hello, Jojo.” She greets him. “Why are you asking me like that? Do I look like I’m going through some bad breakup?” Seungah huffs, climbing her bed and watching Jonas on the screen. “I’m fine. I just got in. I was out buying snacks.” Grabbing the paper bag and showing off almost every item she had bought. “Sadly, my favorite chips were not available and I don’t think I’m getting the package from home anytime soon.” She pauses. “You’re safe, right? You’re not planning to do anything stupid, right?”

+

     confusion crossed his features at her questioning. “i’m not, i just... i don’t know. are you, though? going through some bad breakup i don’t know about?” for whatever reason, jonas seemed to have plans to talk about anything BUT the problem directly. he was still trying to rationalize the entire thing in his mind; it was easy to forget the very mortal part of their existence as demigods.

     “stop you’re making me hungry,” he groaned as seungah showed him her haul. “all i have are the last few things my mom sent with me back here before the semester.” which wasn’t much --- between him and junseo, his supply of italian-specific foods became scarce rather quickly. jonas took out one of his earbuds, half out of dramatics and half out of a desire to keep an ear out for any of his siblings.

*

      hestia housing is empty, quiet, and on a good day, junseo would enjoy that, but the university’s collective tension about the drakon attack has rubbed off on him in a way that makes him feel almost unsettled in his own dorm. his SOS texts to jonas to bring pepperoni, although a definite perk, was more of a half-baked scheme to get jonas to hang out with him than anything else ( junseo never considered the possibility he could die on such a crucial mission, but jonas had the option to refuse, so ). the sound of italian has him leaping off of his bed, greeting jonas with a bright smile as he opens the door. “ you’re such a chivalrous italian knight, ” he responds in korean, tugging on jonas’ wrist to jerk him inside with all the force his twig arm can manage. he’s trying to give no indication of his stress, but his entire body is noticeably tense, a contrast from the playful lilt of his words. “ do you think drakons like pepperoni? i’d be willing to share if he just, y’know, promised to stop eating students. ” 

+