Fic material and thoughts

but it's one of my overly-complex fruit salad aus that mostly boils down to just, Jayvik adopting my boy Leo, bc I think he's like the perfect Jayvik child

so I figure I'd let you decide if you want to know the full disclosure, yeah (fair warning it is not a canon au, for either fandom) ((also, by Leo I mean Leo Valdez))

aight, like always please let there be resuslts bf seeing the poll

ok, sit down, and please keep in mind that you asked for more.

starting off, this is an adoption au, obviously, only this time Leo is the one adopted.

now, as I mentioned, this is a crossover between Arcane and PJO/HOO, but also, it happens in an unrelated universe to both.

particularly, this is a kingdom au.

so that's the basics, the real meat of the au is this:

so I had this idea where Jayvik are nobles that were married to each other, and so needed to provide an heir, right? and somehow, these two manage to trick everyone into thinking they do have a child.

maybe there's more than just them involved in the lie, but basically they just "hide" this supposed child away, saying they'll be introduced to ppl once they're of age. but as the time approaches for that, something happens that makes them unable to pretend like said child died.

so now Jayvik need a teenager to pass off as theirs.

enter Leo Valdez.

also here's where the second level of the au comes into play.

as the PJO/HOO portion of the crowd knows, Leo's a demigod with fire powers. that's cause he's a child of Hephaestus.

in this au, that fire is actually just magic, and not like, a godly attribute, so Leo's magic.

which is important bc of course Viktor's magic, he's the arcane's favorite boy.

also, I figure the gods will be playing the roles of nobles, so Leo's technically a bastard in this, and also probably legit related to Jayce, through Hephaestus.

you with me so far?

so I think Viktor would be the one to find and interact with Leo first, bc I feel like Leo would be a lot more likely to hear him out.

anyways, since technically all the demis are bastards, I'm having fun with their positions in this au. so sideplot 1 is that Leo ends up agreeing to become a noble so he can save Nico from being married off to some lord in some island on the other side of the map (bc obvs I'm adding valdangelo, those are my boys)

but basically this is like, a fake/pretend relationship fic, only the relationship is parenthood. also court drama, probably. also, also, magic shenanigans.

I'll probably make Leo's maternal aunt one of the main villains, together with the usual ones that want Jayvik gone from power.

also, I might include the gods from the Hades games so Nico can be third in line instead of first, so the whole island subplot makes sense, but also I'll probs make him a prince, so I can add a third evil actor.

it's important that there be three.

also, I'll probs end up making it omegaverse, so we're looking at some wierd middle point between "Cup Rune Over" and "Sympathy magic" mashed together with a healthy dose of whatever I was on when I wrote the "Tethered" series (mind you, these are just shout outs)

you know the yaoi circle that is small?

Okay, so Leo’s a fake.

He’s putting on a show a lot of the time. He runs from his feelings, doesn’t let people know when he’s hurting, plasters on a fake smile and tries to lighten the mood because it’s served him better than anything else he could do, and he conceals a lot of his thoughts and emotional reactions.

He gets some development, particularly with Jason, Hazel and Frank, but that’s not really the focus of the books.

Not to say that Leo went out of his way to be open and honest with Nico, but Nico met him and was in the same place as him during a time where Leo was largely reacting genuinely to events.

So they meet at the end of MoA and part ways at the end of HoH (just talking about HoO for this part)

The cheerfulness Leo’s exhibiting near the end of Mark of Athena is genuine. 

He’s coming off the high of a successful escape from an underground workshop, and he and Frank have had a heart to heart and are genuinely good with each other. Leo is singing Frank’s praises and is so admiring. He’s not even embarrassed that he’s acting all different than before in front of the others. 

And this is when Nico comes aboard and meets or remeets everyone, right, so that’s his first impression of Leo. 

Then Annabeth and Percy fall into Tartarus.

And Leo vocally blames himself in front of everyone that’s left. 

And Nico makes the effort to approach him, using his sword for support, to assure him that’s not the case. 

And whether it is or not doesn’t really matter, because that’s what Leo believes. He made a choice to save Hazel and Frank, and now Annabeth and Percy are gone. It’s an equal exchange, it fits perfectly with the concept of balance. 

Leo’s not trying to conceal how he’s feeling, and Hazel is there sharing in it and also trying to assure him he’s wrong. 

And then here we get a little bit of that ‘Leo being super driven’ thing, because, he’s the first to rally and tell everyone that they’re going to save Annabeth and Percy from Tartarus and that he has plans on how to improve the ship. Everyone’s staring at him, even the people that know him, so they’re probably surprised by this turn. 

And then Mark of Athena ends, and we’re told at the start of House of Hades that the crew is losing cohesion and arguing about plans, that Leo’s overworking himself and is noticeably angrier than before. That’s the setting we’re introduced to in the first chapters.

We see a little bit of Leo being angry, yelling at enemies, scowling at the ship’s console, but nothing that really stands out as a stark change in his behavior. 

Ignoring the ‘tell not show’ writing style, then, Nico’s perception of Leo will largely be made up by these interactions where Leo’s angry and argumentative with others on the ship. 

We see some of that when Leo’s complaining about replacing the mast:

Leo yelled from the helm. “That’s the third time I’ve had to replace that mast! You think they grow on trees?” Nico frowned. “Masts are from trees.” “That’s not the point!” Leo snatched up one of his controls… (11)

The anger and arguing we’re being told happened must go beyond this though. 

Leo’s good at planning and figuring out what needs to be done, but he doesn’t seem to have many issues with the plans other people have been suggesting so far, so we haven’t often seen him push back. (This is excluding the discussion about whether they could trust Nico. That’s a whole other thing, and really, that’s what the crux of Leo’s point there was in the first place: his trustworthiness, not whether they were actually going to save him or not.)

Back to the point, here with this arguing being described, Leo, among others, is pushing back and fighting about their plans. 

We’re told he’s working all the time and that’s what he’s prioritizing because that’s what Leo deems important. 

So from Nico’s perspective, Leo’s this guy overflowing with excitement and enthusiasm, then something awful happens and Leo blames himself and is guilt ridden and determined to fix his mistakes. Then he follows through on those claims even though his actions don’t put him in the best light or are the healthiest approach. 

All of which are genuine actions and reactions from Leo.

And then there’s the whole palpable sadness when Leo comes back from Ogygia, and again, that’s mostly a ‘right place right time’ situation for Nico to see Leo in all his depressed nature. 

And yeah, Leo jokes around and bullshits and talks some shit in between all this, but compared to characters who’ve known Leo longer and seen him being disingenuous, Nico gets to witness a lot of Leo’s authentic personality in a really short amount of time.