#pjo python

IT RUNS IN THE FAMILY

help the man he's experiencing information overload

 I was regretting every life decision I made, and I was born four days ago so there wasn’t a lot of them. Then again, I was conscious in the womb and cursed pretty much every town that denied to help my mother. So, maybe there were a lot of them.

 "What?” he said. The snake was concise, for once.

 I somehow found the words. “I declare a one-on-one fight.”

 "For what purpose?“

 "You harassed my mother and sister.”

 "How do you know that they deserved it?“

 Now, that was too far. He certainly deserved what ever was coming towards him. No apology would ever defend him from my wrath.

 Number 2.) If they don’t, grab a second. Your lieutenant, when’s there reckoning to be reckoned.

I left, thinking about the many ways to skin a snake whilst alive. This is how I know that the minds of children are weird.

 I made it to Delos, greeted by the flowers that were rooted when my sister and I were born.

 I found Artemis throwing sand in the ocean. I have no idea why.

 "Sister, may I request something of you?”

 She raised an eyebrow. “What is it?”

 "So, I may or may not have decided to fight Python,“ Artemis looked at me as if I signed a death warrant, which I probably did. "I know, it was a dumb idea but if I lose, I want you to finish the fight.”

 Artemis took a minute to think about it and slowly nodded. Since another snake didn’t go ahead and try to kill me the minute I won against Python, I assume he doesn’t have friends to lean on.

 Number 3.) Have your seconds, meet fact-to-face. Negotiate a peace, or negotiate a time and place.

 I had no idea that asking Artemis to kill Python if I died would make her try to negotiate with said Python. But, here we are.

 When she came back, all she said was. “His cave. Just before sunrise.”

 This is common place, ‘specially 'tween recruits. Most disputes die and no one shoots.

 Number 4.) If they don’t reach a peace, that’s alright. Time to get some pistols and a doctor in sight. You pay him in advance, you treat him with civility. You have him turn around so he can have deniability.

 I needed a weapon. I was not stupid enough to fight a snake that can kill you with one sniff of his breath. So, I may or may not have politely asked Hephaestus to give me a bow and arrow. Why that specific weapon? I don’t know. Maybe it was because my sister had a bow and arrow.

 I realized after the interaction I had with my half-brother I am not related to at all, that I needed to make sure I don’t die. Could I be my own healer? How hard could it be?

 I decided to practice on animals, which I think led my sister to make the Endangered Mythical Creature list. Oops.

 5.) Duel before the sun is in the sky. Pick a place to die, where it’s high and dry.

 I realize now that the reason why Python didn’t want to fight in the day was because he didn’t want Helios as a witness.

 The thing that disturbed me the most was that if I was going to die, I would have disintegrated via the smell. Oh, and I’d be dead, obviously.

 Number 6.) Leave a note for your next of kin. Tell 'em where you’ve been. Pray that hell or  heaven lets you in.

 Just before I was going to leave, I wrote a note in the dirt where my mother would see. She was the only one who didn’t know that I was going to go off to fight Python. My father wasn’t even there at the time so I left him out of the note.

 I wondered what afterlife awaited gods. I hoped that I wouldn’t find out.

 Then I left for Python’s cave.

 7.) Confess your sins, ready for the moment of adrenaline, when you finally face your opponent.

 I arrived early and that didn’t help my nerves. I felt so stationary waiting. So I paced and did everything I could think off to not stay still.

 Weirdly, I think that helped me survive. On the other hand, Python wasn’t scared of a godling who had no idea what he was doing, so he lost. In the words of Trollhunters, always be afraid.

 Number 8.) Your last chance to negotiate. Send in your seconds, see if they can set the record straight.

 "Python,“ I greeted. He did not answer.

 Just in case, I tried negotiating with Python. Again. To keep a long story short, It did not work

 Number 9.) Look 'em in the eye, aim no higher, summon all the courage you require and count.

 Python attacked. I don’t remember much. The pain blindsided me. That was probably for the best.

 It started glowing as if it was day, but the sun haven’t come up yet. It was coming from me.

 He threw me in the air. I had a good shot. I counted the feet.

  1

  2

  3

  4

 5

 6

 7

 9

10 paces

 Fire.

(The last part of the story is based off SunMoonDreamer’s [ao3 user since I can’t remember the DeviantArt user] artwork of Python VS Apollo. It depicts Apollo in the air, drawing his bow and Python trying to kill him.)

His introductory video was equally bland.  Nothing stood out to mark him as special; a knife fight that went against his favour and he bled out alone in an alley.  Magnus had seen several of that ilk since his own arrival, and wasn’t even surprised when the vala read the runes to declare that he was a son of Tyr. Certain parentages had certain tells, and the fact that the fight had been caused by a challenge might as well have been a neon sign screaming son of Tyr.

Sometime in the next week he was going to discover the glorious death by trampling, which probably referred to Thursday, unless he just got stampeded in tomorrow’s battle instead.  Magnus had suffered both deaths multiple times and personally marginally – marginally – preferred the former.  Lindworms sucked, but it was a little less humiliating to be crushed by one of those than his fellow einherjar.  Alex hadn’t let it go for weeks when it had happened to him.

The son of Tyr sat down a little shakily, his Valkyrie thumping him on the shoulder as if to say told you we’d be fine, and then it was Lester’s turn.  Magnus’ instincts told him immediately that this one was going to be different, not that he was entirely certain why.

The golden longbow probably had something to do with that, maybe.

“Lester Papadopoulos!” Helgi announced.  “Impress us with your courage!”  The brown-haired einherjar was hauled to his feet by his Valkyrie, who was still nattering in his ear.  Magnus was getting definite flashbacks to Sam and her poorly-concealed nerves during his own presentation and decided that he felt a little sorry for Lester.  A nervous Valkyrie wasn’t at all reassuring, and the look on Lester’s face was not a comfortable one, as though he didn’t think his death was all that spectacular, or courageous.

Magnus could relate to that feeling all too well.

The holographic screens shimmered away from the alley and refocused somewhere equally poorly lit. It wasn’t until the light in the Hall of the Slain dimmed that Magnus’ eyes adjusted to the gloom, but when they did he realised that they were being shown some sort of cave.  It looked pretty deep underground, for a Midgard cave. If not for the absence of the glowing moss, he would have suspected Nidavellir, but no, it was certainly Midgardian.

It also wasn’t empty. Slumped at one edge, wrists manacled to the roughly-hewn rock, was a young woman.  Her pale skin was marred with bruises of varying ages, from the blackish-purple of fresh injuries to the sallow yellow-green of weeks’ old bruises on their final stages of healing.  Her cheeks were hollow, and green eyes looked almost lifeless beneath half-closed lids. Red curls that were probably once as vibrant as Mallory Keen’s hang in limp straggles down towards her shoulders.

One finger glistened red in the non-existent light.  Beside it, on the wall of the cave, were a series of squiggles, apparently meaningless, depicted in various shades of brown and red.  Magnus was more familiar with fresh blood than dried blood, but the medium was still blatantly apparent to him.

For a moment, he thought that she was alone in her prison.  Her tattered clothes, gaunt appearance, and painful similarity to the most unlucky homeless people he’d ever stumbled across suggested a high degree of neglect, and Magnus found himself wondering who she was, why she was there, and, more pressingly, what she was to Lester.

More to the point, where was Lester?  Valkyrie Vision didn’t usually focus on something other than the soon-to-be-deceased.

One of the other screens, cavern-dark, drew his attention as dark on dark shifted.  Coils upon coils moved, sliding against and over each other with a spine-tingling similarity to Jormungand, when Magnus had fished him out of the sea and upset Rán in search of Jack.  The answer came to him with ease – a serpent.

A ruddy huge one, too, if the scale compared with the girl was accurate.  Large enough to swallow her whole with one gulp, that was for sure, even if it wasn’t quite on the scale of the World Serpent.  Magnus wondered why it hadn’t eaten her, or maybe it just wasn’t hungry enough to bother with a starved teenage girl just yet. The bloody squiggles on the wall gained a serpentine twist when he looked at them again, as though she’d been trying to draw her cave-mate over and over and over again.

Around him in the Hall of the Slain, einherjar were starting to get restless.  No-one spoke, not daft enough to interrupt the show, but the lack of immediate bloodshed was clearly starting to get to some of the more blood-thirsty amongst their number.  Even Halfborn, sat the other side of T.J. to Magnus, seemed to feel it.

They were put out of their misery by the sudden appearance of an arrow, as golden as Lester’s bow, streaking across the scene and planting itself firmly in the coils of the serpent. Magnus had half-expected it to glance off the smooth scales, and found himself surprised that it had gone in that easily.

“Rachel!”  Lester ran into view, looking like he’d already fought though a hoard of wolves.  His own clothes were tattered and torn, something streaked across his cheeks that could have been mud, blood, or both, and one of his shoes was missing.  While his face was smooth post-death, it looked like he’d had a nasty case of acne in life - he was probably glad to be rid of that. Not the picture of a heroic knight in shining armour, that was for sure.

One hand grasped the same golden bow Magnus had seen in person with the ease of someone who knew exactly how to use it, while the other was reaching back into the quiver – full of arrows, and not empty like it was now – to withdraw another.

The girl – Rachel – raised her head slowly, weakly, and blinked in his direction.

“Lester,” she rasped. For someone who was apparently being rescued, she didn’t seem particularly ecstatic, but maybe she just didn’t have the energy for that anymore.  The movement had exposed her throat enough for Magnus to see it was little more than skin sagging around bones and depleted blood vessels.  It looked more like an old woman’s neck than a teenager’s. “You-”

“I’m getting you out of here,” Lester promised, a fire in his eyes that seemed out of place compared to the bland, lost look he’d adopted since dying, even though Magnus knew that realistically that was more likely to be his normal look.  “Hang on just a little longer.”

He nocked the fresh arrow and stood in front of her in a clear protective stance.  There was no hesitation in the way he drew back the bow, the fletching of the arrow resting against the corner of his mouth. Archery, like just about any weapon that wasn’t Jack, wasn’t familiar to Magnus, but it certainly looked impressive enough.  There was no visible strain as he held the bow at full draw for a heartbeat, and then another, before letting fly.

The serpent let out a hiss that sounded more angry than painful as the second golden arrow buried itself into its coils.  Magnus was getting a pretty good idea that Lester had suffered death-by-serpent, because the thing looked barely inconvenienced by its new piercings, and unless Lester had another weapon hidden away out of sight somewhere, his supply of pointy things to attack with were limited, as evidenced by the empty quiver in the Hall of the Slain.

For something so big, the snake could certainly move.  The previously lazy movements vanished, replaced with a rush as a mouth bigger than either teenager in the cave lunged for Lester.  Lester, too, could definitely move, because even with one shoe missing he managed to dodge to the side, still keeping his body between the snake and the girl as he drew another arrow.

Magnus had once heard that the definition of insanity was doing the same thing again and again and expecting a different result.  By that definition, Lester fell squarely into the insane category because the next arrow joined its fellows in the snake’s hide.  Needless to say, it neither hindered nor pleased the snake, and the tail, a big as a Midgardian tree trunk, whipped around to smash the boy away from the girl.  Somehow he didn’t lose his grip on his bow, and none of the arrows fell out of the quiver in the process, although he did let out a cry as he collided with the wall.

Well, that was a collection of broken ribs he’d just acquired.  Magnus couldn’t believe his eyes when Lester clawed his way back to his feet, stumbling and cradling his chest with his non-bow arm for a moment before stubbornness flared in his blue eyes and he grabbed another arrow.  How he drew his bow back with broken ribs, Magnus didn’t want to imagine, but he did.  This one flew true, burying itself in the snake’s eye, and the serpent bellowed loud enough to provoke small chunks of rock cascading down one cave wall, flailing its head from side to side.  Lester took another deep breath, agony flashing across his face as he did so, before firing again, catching the serpent’s other eye.

Despite knowing how it was going to end, with the camera starting to circle in that way all the Valkyrie cams did, proving that there was, in fact, a Valkyrie lingering and waiting to scoop him up the moment he died, Magnus found himself rooting for the other teen.  He was also pretty impressed by that second shot – the first one had been good enough, catching a relatively small target on a huge body, but getting the second eye while the serpent’s head thrashed from side to side?  Either that was a fluke of luck, or Lester was actually an Olympic champion.  It was almost a shame that that bow of his was going to break the first time he joined a Hotel battle.

Two eyes down, the snake’s earlier anger turned to outright fury as it screamed, an inhuman noise that put Magnus’ teeth on edge, and lunged blindly at where Lester was pulling another arrow from his quiver.  This one poked the snake right on the nose, but wasn’t enough to stop its advance, a fact Lester noticed a fraction too late to dodge.  Maybe if he hadn’t already broken all his ribs he might have been able to manage another suave evasion, but this time it wasn’t to be and he was slammed hard against the wall again, snake fangs surrounding him and starting to close in an all too fatal chomp.

Magnus couldn’t actually believe it when, instead of panicking and trying to escape like the girl could be seen doing in the corner of one screen, screaming with a voice so hoarse it only came out as whispers, broken sounds that might have been Lester if strung together with some creative licence, Lester just drew another arrow from his rapidly-emptying quiver.  Two left, Magnus counted, and with a shaking arm, Lester went to nock the second-to-last one, only for his body to abandon him.  It slipped off of the string and clattered loudly on the floor of the cave.

That was about the time – long past the time, really – that Magnus would have given up and just accepted that he was about to be snake chow.  Lester, for all he looked rather like a stiff breeze would blow him down, was apparently made of sterner stuff because his trembling fingers sought the final arrow, nocked it to the string with a click that was somehow audible all of a sudden, and raised the bow for one more shot.

It must have fired, because it hadn’t come to Hotel Valhalla with Lester and his golden bow, but Valkyrie Vision didn’t show the fate of the final arrow.  Rather, it showed the jaws closing, teeth tearing into the teenage boy to the screams of the imprisoned girl, and then Lester’s body glowed the familiar glow of an einherji being chosen as a Valkyrie arm reached into shot and grabbed him by the strap of his now-empty quiver, yanking him from the cave and onto the journey across Ginnungagap that Magnus remembered all too well from his own death.

That, of course, wasn’t shown.  Instead the screens faded to black and the lighting in the Hall of the Slain brightened again.

All in all, it was a pretty impressive show of bravery, even if it was inconclusive if the snake had died, or what had happened to the girl.  If Magnus was Lester, he’d be trying to sneak out as soon as possible to check up on her.  Then again, Magnus now had healing powers and could possibly do something to help her. He rather doubted Lester was another son of Frey.  Thor, judging by his inability to admit defeat, or maybe Tyr, but definitely not Frey or another Vanir.

Magnus’ fellow einherjar were certainly impressed by the performance, even if he heard a few comments about how he’d have been better served with a nice, sturdy axe rather than a bunch of arrows.  The cheering was louder than the first newcomer’s reception had been, and next to Lester, his Valkyrie had her chest puffed out proudly.

“Unflinching bravery in the face of death!” Helgi proclaimed after a moment, where the thanes had presumably decided that they agreed with the einherjar’s general assessment.  “The thanes find Lester Papadopoulos worthy of Valhalla!”

Lester looked pretty shellshocked as the Hall once again erupted into a roar of cheers, flagons raised in welcome.  If his Valkyrie beamed any wider, she’d tear her face in two.  Definitely a first chosen.

As the cheers faded, Helgi continued, “Lester Papadopoulos, do you know your parentage?”

“Uh,” the brown-haired boy startled, as if not expecting to be addressed despite the same thing happening to the previous newcomer.  “Uh, no, I don’t.”

“Then the runes shall be read,” Helgi proclaimed, turning his attention towards the vala.  The rest of the hall followed suit, watching as the runes were shaken and spilled onto the floor.

Magnus recognised the rune that the screens focused on.  Perthro, the empty cup.  Hearthstone’s favourite rune.  Normally it meant that something was unknown, but the vala seemed unconcerned as she read the rest of the runes.

“Lester Papadopoulos, a mortal!” she read after a moment.  “The runes say you shall be an archer who fights bravely to the last. Soon, you shall know the pain of your own arrow in the heart.”

He blanched, as any self-respecting recently-alive person did at being told they were going to die again, while the hall erupted again.  Being killed by his own weapon, though… Magnus thought about how he’d feel if he was run through with Jack and inwardly winced.  That wouldn’t be a good time – although considering it was Jack, he’d also have to put up with the sword nattering on about it again and again and again afterwards, so maybe that wasn’t quite an accurate comparison.

Lester almost didn’t need his Valkyrie’s help to find his seat again; Magnus suspected he was close to collapsing back down into it even before she gave him a helpful tug.  He certainly landed heavily enough to jostle his longbow, which he hastily grabbed as though it was a lifeline.

Then it was the next one’s turn, a girl built like a tank wearing tight clothes that accentuated her muscles.  She had a grin on her face that made her seem almost feral, and was remarkably unphased at the fact she was dead.  Magnus more or less ignored her – child of Thor, predictable – and the last one, another mortal like Lester, in favour of watching the newest member of floor nineteen.

Lester was pretty unremarkable.  Suitably stunned by watching his death again and having a future death predicted, but quiet and still capable of forcing down some mouthfuls of food before dinner ended and they all dispersed back to their floors.

However, despite invitations – primarily from T.J. – and introductions to the rest of the floor, their newest member disappeared into his own room as soon as they arrived and wasn’t seen for the rest of the night.

Python is the Gwi-Ma of this au, and HIS patterns are dark green scales 👀 😈

Okay now that I have that lore covered, let’s get to that juicy Hyacinthus-Commodus plot 👀

Hyapollo happened first, and their story was that they couldn’t quite keep their relationship under wraps, so Python found out about it and sent a human-demon (Zephyrus) to fuck shit up and aim to take out Huntr/x. Hyacinthus was aware of Apollo being a Hunter, but doesn’t realize Zephyrus is a demon, and so he accidentally ends up revealing days/times Apollo & co would be out and about/in disguise to hide from the media. This results in a as-of yet undecided Event that has Hyacinthus’s actions come out to Apollo, Apollo almost dying, and Hyacinthus being accidentally killed by Apollo 👀

enter stage left: Python, and a deal for Hyacinthus to 1) kick some demon ass aka zephyrus (he was allowed to murder him. and low-key regrets it 👀 ammo for Python) and 2) “make this right” (obviously, that was worded like that on purpose so Python can bend and stretch it for limitless amounts of manipulation 😈)

now onto Commodus. Another situationship but one him that ends Horribly. As you do 💋

long story short, they were dating, but Commodus makes a selfish deal because of his inferiority/superiority complex and Python’s like “sweet! score!!” Because THIS time he has a Hunter’s lover as HIS agent now — until Apollo ends up seeing the scale patterns on him 👀 (for funsies it could be during a make-out sesh…in the bathroom…by a filled bathtub…take the implications as you will.) and a confrontation ensues between them, with Apollo caught between Kill Demons and hesitating because remember this would be the SECOND lover he would be responsible for ending (insert Hyacinthus guilt here 😔) —

and then the fabric of his off-shoulder shirt slips…and Commodus sees HIS patterns 😱

cue Apollo freaking out. Cue Commodus saying smth like “you’re not a Hunter you’re a demon, you should be with us — with me.” (Possessive ex ✋) yada yada AND THEN Apollo has a CRASHOUT AND —

Cue the bathtub murder. JUICY YAOI COME GET UR JUICY YAOI!!!!

onwards to the Hyacinthus and Commodus beef 🥩

So here’s the thing — Hyacinthus still obvs loves Apollo. But after years of Python speaking in his head and now Commodus trying to fuck with his head too — smth smth “he killed me with no remorse, think he thought different with you?” Because remember Hya’s shame comes from an indirectly nearly killing Apollo — he’s kinda unsure about where Apollo now stands, especially after hearing about how he straight-up murdered Commodus (who for plot reasons does not reveal knowledge of Apollo’s patterns. He’s probs like “oh Hyacinthus doesn’t know? Not gonna tell him then. Eheheheh.”)

cue boy band. Hyacinthus is the fucking lead and I take no criticism. Commodus is pissed about this but guess what he gets to rap Baby’s lines in Your Idol so there’s that.

now cue The Double Situationship™️. Hyapollo are being ridiculous and miscommunicating lmao Apollo goes straight to Fight mode because he assumes Hya was a human-demon pre-death and thinks “shit I’ve been got TWICE by hot demons. what the fuck.” SO WE GET THE RUMI-JINU BATHHOUSE FIGHT WITH THEM

all I ask is for you all to imagine Apollo pinning Hyacinthus to the floor and Hya’s like “…you’re strong 🫢”

CUE THE COVERING UP APOLLO’S PATTERNS AND HYACINTHUS NOW FREAKING OUT BECAUSE OH NO THIS MEANS PYTHON KNOWS TOO.

then they get their shit sorta together for like 5 seconds but Hyacinthus keeps Secrets and Apollo keeps those blinders On

Commodus being a jealous murderous ex. COMMODUS WANTING HIS MEMORIES OF APOLLO GONE.

HYAPOLLO SINGING FREE. GET THE TISSUES.

Your Idol. Hyacinthus.

That is all.

APOLLO MEG AND LAVINIA KICKING ASS!!!! THAT IS ALL!!!!! CUE WHAT IT SOUNDS LIKE!!!!

HYACINTHUS TAKING THE BLAST 😭 AND HE BECOMES AN SUPERSONIC ARROW THAT APOLLO FLINGS AT PYTHON ‼️

I imagine Apollo has a bow like that one Hunter did in the prologue plus a blade that can be used AS an arrow and reappears at will 👀

MEG’S SWORDS. THAT’S IT THAT’S THE POST!!

Lavinia using her crossbow and a spear!!!!!!! Tap dancing her way around enemies!!!!

Apollo is obvs the lead/voice. Meg we agree is the lyricist because doesn’t she already have a way with words that get to the Point? Lavinia would be the lead dancer/visual and honestly both would Rock being rappers. JASON IS MANAGER. WE STAN.

as for the demon boy band, we have three available spots open yet. Hyacinthus and Commodus are both in it. After a bit of thinking I don’t think Nero quite fits the boy band aura, so like. He could be something else/Meg’s former kidnapper. Caligula could tho. We have three. Imma throw Medea in there so Lavinia has a baddie to thirst over hehe. At four now. Uh…human Incitatus? Oooo then make Nero demon manager lmao their band name can be…TRI/QUAD? Idk throw ideas around I don’t know kpop naming conventions

Apollo and Artemis are twins, born to Leto and Zeus. Zeus's parents are Kronos and Rhea. Leto's are Koios and Phoebe.

Rhea has connections to Dodona, as we learn in-series, but she doesn't really seem to be all that involved with prophecy.

Her siblings, meanwhile...ho ho ho, they are a WHOLE NOTHER STORY!

Let's start with Phoebe. Phoebe, like all first generation Titans, is the daughter of Gaea and Ouranos. She married her brother Koios. Her children consist of Asteria, Lelantos, and Leto. As well as Artemis and Apollo, her other two grandchildren are Hecate (Asteria) and Aura (Lelantos).

Her name means "bright" and is the root of Apollo's most famous epithet - Phoebus. She is often described as "golden-crowned" and is the Titan of bright intellect, the overseer of Earthly Prophecies, and is the second guardian of Delphi, after her sister Themis. She gifted Delphi to Apollo for his birthday after he defeated Python.

Classic grandmother move.

Anyway. There's a bit of Phoebe lore. Time for her elusive husband :3

Koios. His names means "question" or "questioning", probably because he's the Titan of inquiring intellect. He's also the overseer of Heavenly Prophecies, and has an oracle up in the North Pole guarded by an earth-dragon - you'd know this serpent by the name of Draco, the constellation btw. Additionally, Hyperborea (where Apollo goes in the winter times) is part of his domain.

eyes

Unfortunately, we have very little mythological lore on these two, and even less in the RRverse (I cling to that one (1) Koios scene) which sucks because I love them already BUT it does give me lots of legroom to mess around with canon >:)

Back to the theory now. As you may have guessed, I'll be taking us in a direction concerning Apollo's mysterious grandparents. But what does this have to do with Apollo's visions?

Well. Remember when I mentioned that Delphi is the root of all earthly prophecies?

...look at Phoebe's paragraphs. She's the overseer of Earthly Prophecies, right? So it makes sense she's been affected by Python's takeover too.

(if you've read my fics you'd know this already lmao)

Asteria, Apollo's aunt, is a little trickier. She, too, has a hand in divination, but mainly through the night/stars and dreams. <-will come back to that later.

Koios, again, is overseer of Heavenly Prophecies, and is heavily implied to be able to commune with Ouranos's spirit. This is, apparently, a Big Deal because nobody else is mentioned to be able to do this.

...Except...remember this throwaway line in The Hidden Oracle?

^Apollo can see Ouranos too.

Within this theory is a sub-theory, so to speak - that immortals with the gift of prophecy can see Ouranos, since they can see what cannot be seen. This would include Phoebe, Asteria, Koios, and Apollo.

And it'll make sense why they'd keep it to themselves. Kronos wouldn't have been happy to hear his dad was still around. Neither would Zeus, for that matter.

So here I was. Contemplating. Wrote a few fics based around this idea. And one in particular got me thinking (fic in question being When The Stars Align), and a little ways down the road I realized something.

If Phoebe, the overseer of Earthly Prophecies, would have been affected by Python's takeover...was Koios? Could he even be affected?

Because here's the deal: Koios is the overseer of Heavenly Prophecies. Prophecies from the Sky.

Phoebe's are of the Earth - the Earth that Python has taken control of. And Delphi is the root of Earthly Prophecies - not Heavenly.

That would be Koios's oracle, up in the North Pole with Draco.

...So that means Heavenly Prophecy must have still been in business during ToA.

But then comes the question: If it was still within the gods' control, why didn't they use it?

Well...Draco's there, for one. He's probably the Python-equivalent of the North, and clearly he's still there since no myth has spoken of his death (that I know of).

If you ask me, I just think the gods are too nervous/afraid to try Koios's oracle. They were too scared to face Python, after all, until Apollo arrived. I think they'd be scared of a serpent who comes and goes from the stars as he pleases.

And as for why Apollo hasn't done anything about it...well, I think his fight with Python left him rather scarred, don't you think? He probably went "yeah grandma's oracle is enough" and the only time he ever got close to Koios's was during his time in Hyperborea.

So getting back to the main theory now. (So many rabbit holes to dive into with this post. The ADHD Urge is real)

Since Heavenly Prophecies is still active, but Earthly is in Python's control, I conclude Apollo's visions come from the Heavenly source.

Could they have come from the now-working Dodona? Maybe. But Dodona's all about those windchimes and trees. It doesn't have the Vibe, so to speak, for granting visions.

And remember. Trophonius, Herophile, and Sibyl aren't destroyed/freed yet. They have Zero connection to Apollo at this point because Python cut him off from them.

...but he didn't from the North. From Koios's divine power.

Because remember. Apollo is the god of prophecy.

Not of Earthly Prophecies, like Phoebe.

Not of Heavenly Prophecies, like Koios.

Not of nighttime divination and dreams like Asteria.

Of. Prophecy.

Prophecy as a whole. The entirety. The whole enchilada.

Every part of prophecy he's the god of, be it tarot cards to the Oracle of Delphi itself.

In my opinion, I think whatever Koios's Oracle is, it has just as must power as Delphi. The only problem was that...everybody just left it be. Nobody considered it because:

1) scary dragon

2) scary titan ruled the place

3) honestly at this point I think it's just straight-up forgotten about. Like Branchus's Oracle. I think at one point Apollo himself mentions there are other Oracles besides the ones in-series, but there's so many that his mortal brain cannot comprehend how many.

If the Grove of Dodona nearly faded into obscurity, then I think it's entirely possible Koios's Oracle was forgotten about (or so we think...I'm gonna be chewing on this for a while.)

Coming back round to TDP...I think this is a reasonable explanation about Apollo's visions. To summarize:

Apollo is cut off from Earthly Prophecy, his usual source of foresight that he gets from Phoebe

The unused, near-forgotten-about Heavenly Prophecy side of Apollo ignites to steer him on the right path

This is possible because Apollo is the god of prophecy itself, and not a single subset of prophecy, so he's not limited in the same way Phoebe is

Koios's Oracle is still out there and kicking and I will die on this hill

One problem. What about Asteria? She can interpret the future from the stars...aka the Sky. Like Koios. So couldn't she provide some insight to the future, since she, too, is connected to Heavenly Prophecy?

This is where things get a lil' tricky. And where I really slap on my tinfoil hat and start headcanoning my way through lmao

Basically, I think that since Asteria became the island of Delos (long story) a good chunk of her power is ingrained there. She's not as strong as she used to be, so her foresight isn't as strong.

This, in turn, I think could also serve as a reason why Koios's Oracle is "asleep" so to speak and nearly lost to memory in the RRverse - in fact, I think Asteria and Phoebe are the only ones who bother to remember its existence.

And Leto, of course. But I don't think she wants her son to know of another Oracle with a giant snake guarding it. She's had enough heart-attacks, thank you.

(Same with Lelantos, tbh.)

Canon is my sandbox and I am making some sweet sandcastles out of it XD

TL;DR

Apollo's visions in TDP stem from Koios's source of Heaven Prophecy because Phoebe's source of Earthly Prophecy (Delphi) has been taken over by Python. Koios's source firmly knocks on Apollo's mental doors and decides to kick back into gear to help its titular patron's grandson out. Because Apollo is the god of prophecy itself - every bit of it.

Extras:

I find it fascinating how magic and prophecy are both part of the same family tree (Hecate & Apollo).

and yes. You should expect a fic concerning Koios's Oracle at some point. but no promises on when :3

Thank you for coming to Insane Theory Time With Alder. I hope there will be more lmao

Websites you can look into:

Koios (Theoi)

Phoebe (Theoi)