☆ certified jason grace expert ☆

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so the idea of an all-american golden boy, an almost essentially white male figure embodying western partiarchal values, being black instead isn't unheard of in media and in real life (he's literally not american lol but jackson from the tv show "sex education" is both a good example of and subversion of the trope when appearing in a black character); the golden boy is usually an athlete, handsome, conventionally masculine, talented, comes from a "good" family, experiences favoritism, has strong principles, etc - all of which applies to white jason (the "good family" being jupiter, which awards him the highest possible status among the romans - and thus causes jason's supposed favoritism that he detests). but for a black "golden boy", there can and has been an added connotation of racial exploitation by dominant white power structures (I recall reading some really good papers in college about black football/basketball stars being exploited for their bodies/labor on both the collegiate and professional level, though I can't remember the names of said papers. exploitation of black men in sports is a big and easily researchable topic tho)

I think this connotation of exploitation would matter because although hera seems to be soft for jason in some ways later on in the series, in tlh she uses really specific, unpleasant language about her ownership of him that evokes much more obviously violent imagery if she now becomes a powerful white woman claiming ownership over a black teenager, rather than a white one (I'd like to note that this is also almost exactly what hazel goes through with gaea, which I've posted about before here and here - though to my knowledge gaea lacks a specific race/human skintone whereas we do know that juno appeared explicitly as a white woman to frank's mom when he was a baby). this is even more uncomfortable if this renders beryl grace a black woman who had her son taken away by an omnipotent white power figure (juno/hera). jupiter "gives" him to juno as a "gift" and names jason after juno's favorite mortal, rather than beryl choosing his name - as if to completely strip jason of his black roots and forcibly assimilate him into her own culture (which is just. a thing that did actually happen to enslaved black people, and why most black americans have """white"""-sounding surnames to this day, including myself)

jason rejects these claims of ownership immediately, and a continuous theme of his character is extracting himself from the repressive confines of camp jupiter, a camp that canonically has ties to the american confederacy as well as a history of racist discrimination against frank's ancestor shen lun. camp jupiter highly values collective strength and militarism, and is in general very old conservative-coded (hence why a lot of people read octavian as a somewhat conservative figure). the existence of reyna as one of its leaders unfortunately doesn't negate this conservatism, but it's interesting how, in having his memories wiped, (black) jason can gain the opportunity to view the world through a completely new lens and attempt to rediscover himself, especially while surrounded by other people of color like piper and leo (idk, especially piper? black-indigenous solidarity runs deep in america, and there's a reason why 'bipoc' is its own category)

in this way I like how jason reevaluating his relationship to camp jupiter, how "roman" (= white/conservative) he actually is, and how much he needs to find himself again after everything he's been through could then be read as a black man freeing himself from an exploitative white power structure that doesn't really care about him. it's an imperfect metaphor that gets icky when taking into account how most of hoo's nonwhite cast starts roman and stays roman (reyna, frank, hazel) but I don't think the metaphor necessarily needs to be read in the exact same way for every character (i.e. frank's eventual praetorship over camp jupiter could be interpreted as a triumph over camp jupiter's past sinophobia)

idk considering the age of the fandom I’d be surprised if you were the firstttt…but i like the attitude lol. thanks for the prompt !!

———

Her heart was a weight, hammering and clamoring in her chest as she met his eyes. She pictured herself at twelve, fourteen, sixteen, and all the things she’d desired from him as she grew. Holding his hand as they walked down the streets of New Rome. His lips on hers in a stolen kiss behind a minor god’s altar. His heated gaze on her as he licked between her legs.

Never had Reyna imagined this with Jason.

His hands were up, defenseless and grasping the sheets. His strong legs were up and over Reyna’s shoulders. His cheeks were flushed, his bright blue eyes half-lidded and almost watery as she pushed the strap-on cock inside him.

“He looks like he’s about to cry,” Reyna managed on an exhale, looking over at Percy. She wasn’t sure why she addressed Jason’s husband over the man himself, though Percy was the one who suggested the three of them together like this.

“Mm-hm,” Percy hummed, apparently unfazed, and Reyna’s shoulders relaxed. “He gets like that when you first push in,” he ran a hand through Jason’s hair. “So sensitive, aren't you, love?”

Jason hummed in agreement, meeting Reyna’s eyes. “‘M okay…feels so good, Reyna, please…”

Reyna’s stomach dropped with arousal, pushing the lubed cock the rest of the way in at that.

“He’s beautiful,” Reyna said, again to Percy, though her eyes couldn’t leave Jason’s form as he writhed with need.

Percy chuckled softly, his large, warm hand coming up under Reyna’s chin. He guided her to look at him, offering her that wry, troublemaker smile.

“So are you, pretty girl,” Percy murmured, his thumb tracing her lower lip in an unasked question. She answered by leaning forward and pressing her lips to his as she rolled her hips against Jason, starting a pace with the strap-on that made him whimper.

She was hungry, showing her needs in a way no Roman should but conquering exactly as a Roman should. She was taking all she could and giving at once. What she wouldn't do to bottle up Percy’s kisses, Jason’s whimpers, the physical impact she had on them far outpacing anything emotional.

“I wanna make him cry,” Reyna breathed against Percy’s lips, a low warning. She ran a hand through Percy’s hair, fingers on his scalp. Her other hand held Jason’s hips, fucking into him slow yet hard. “I wanna make you both cry.”

Percy grinned against her—not belittling her, but reveling in the challenge. It was that hungry look he had when sparring with someone at his level. It was a look that could only be followed by the ground shaking in his wake.

“Then make it happen, Reyna,” Percy insisted. “If you can fuck Jace better than me, I’ll happily give myself over to you to break. If not…” he shrugged, brushing a strand of Reyna’s hair behind her ear. “Well, then, you might just need a lesson or two, sweetheart…”