acheelles
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Over and over, Zagreus has fought his way to the surface, only be told not to come back. It's as he's reeling from this rejection that the one thing he'd been warned against comes to pass: he's discovered by Olympus. Put on a timer and at his most desperate, he turns to Thanatos for the impossible.
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Bookmarked by acheelles
18 May 2025
Bookmarker's Notes
“You’re going to have to move a lot faster if you’re going to get in there,” said Hermes, and Thanatos startled as a hand pressed into his back. He felt the charge of swift magic flow into him, bright and invigorating. He had never accepted a gift of magic from an Olympian, but as its strength fueled his unsteady limbs, he understood the appeal immediately.
Artemis touched him next, giving him clarity and focus. “Don’t miss,” she said.His chalk-white skin darkened to its usual shade, and his groping hair receded to it familiar, charming disarray. “Tha…” His voice—his own, singular voice—spilled out of him in a strained whimper as he released Stygius. The blade vanished before it hit the ground.
“Than…?” he murmured, just before he collapsed into Thanatos’ waiting arms.
“I’ve got you,” Thanatos told him quietly. He let the gifts from his mother and the Olympians flow out of him as he wrapped Zagreus up and cradled him to his chest. His own power was all that was needed now. “I promise I won’t let go this time.”
He held Zagreus close and took them home.“It’s all right now, and so is your mother.” He snorted. “So is Ares, for that matter.
It was exhilarating, and at the same time uniquely humbling, to have stern, unflappable Thanatos pressing him into the mattress.
Zagreus finally recalled his wits enough to reach for him, but by then Thanatos was already pulling back. “It’s the right time,” Thanatos said. “For a while there...I thought I would never have another chance.”
Zagreus swallowed, and when he reached again Thanatos held still for him. He cupped Thanatos’ cheek and held his gaze, reading from his hooded, gold eyes, the entire encounter. “I’m sorry,” he said again, quietly this time as it took on new weight.Zeus clapped him on the back and congratulated him on slicing Ares in two before departing, Hades scowling all the while. Ares himself came last, and though Zagreus eyed him suspiciously, there was no malice left in his face or manner, and he had little choice but to shake his hand.
“Zagreus,” said Ares, a smirk tugging his lips. “No hard feelings?”
“We’re going to live for thousands of years after this,” Zagreus replied with quirked lips of his own. He gripped Ares’ hand harder than he needed to—not enough to make a competition of it, but enough to get his point across. “It wouldn’t do for us to hold grudges.”“Thanks,” Zagreus said one more time. “For killing me.”
“Likewise,” Thanatos replied. “Honestly, I’m...glad I know, now.” He scoffed. “Just don’t ever try it again.” -
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“I know this is going to sound strange but do we… know each other?” Zagreus blurted out.
"Hey now," Sleepy said, wagging his quill at him, "if you didn't want me to read out your cause of death, you could just tell me."
"No, I mean I don't remember who you are or who I was until you said my name."
Bookmarked by acheelles
18 May 2025
Bookmarker's Notes
“Phew, for a moment there, I thought I was going to see my own name on my list!” Hypnos piped up, patting his sternum. He moved his hand across the air as he said, “Hypnos: death from heart attack,” but quelled with a nervous chuckle under Hooded Man’s withering look. “Eheh, of course, I wouldn’t do that to you, Brother.”
“Psst, hey, um, you… want to introduce yourself too?” came Hypnos’s whisper from behind.
In a flash of green, he was gone.
“Where’d he go?” Zagreus asked worriedly, looking around even though he knew Hooded Man was already far away from here. Hypnos curled a little in on himself, cape wrapped tightly around him and head drooped downward, facing away from the remaining occupants in the room. -
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It took a very long time for the lad to notice his pain, but not for anyone else.
He stood at his guard post, and to the young and blissfully unaware eye of his charge, Achilles seemed nothing more than a dutiful servant. The once-man who placed a sword in the boy’s hand, who guided his arm, and tugged him in close when Lord Hades felt the urge to rage upon the boy for no good reason at all.
A good man, a patient man, a calm man. Loving, was how Zagreus would describe him.
Achilles was none of these things, and nor did he desire to be labeled as so.
(Or Achilles’ long years in the House of Hades. And the eventual ascent out of it.)
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Bookmarked by acheelles
18 May 2025
Bookmarker's Notes
Zagreus was restless.
He was always restless. Achilles would think Chaos had blessed him as the God of fidgeting, should they have needed one.All my love, all my love, I think of him always, always, always.
Achilles kept a hand resting over his stomach after he chased the lad away. It took all he had not to fall to his knees. Cradled over his middle, like his guts might spill to the floor, none of his sorrows containable.Even Thanatos, for whom the prince stared after moon-eyed, was not exempt from the gratitude Zagreus imparted on those whom he loved. The God of Death was more so the God of vanishing these days, popping away into the mortal realms with that distinctive flash of green, immediately after Zagreus had spoken with him.
The prince was tenacious, Achilles would give him that.Achilles laughed through his tears, pushing his face into the hollow of Patroclus’ collar where the bones came to hold him. He grabbed Patroclus so hard they phased between flesh as shades could do. He breathed and smelled grass and salt and skin.
He mended. -
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Summary
In order to avoid having to spend the summer with his father, Zagreus volunteers at the summer camp his mother runs, and quickly discovers that the two halves of the camp aren't just locked in a friendly competition.
It's an all-out battle.
Or: the Trojan War, but summer camp.
Bookmarked by acheelles
15 May 2025
Bookmarker's Notes
No Than in person in this :(
Also, hey, have you ever thought about volunteering at a summer camp?
Because I MISS YOU!!!!
I'll write you again as long as Agamemnon doesn't kill me.
Give Cerberus many kisses for me. I'll know if you didn't."When is this game, even?" Zagreus asked, wondering if he could suddenly come down with something or manage to be unavailable at that particular time. Maybe his mother would come up with some chores for him to do that would prevent his attendance.
"Of course. It's how we inspire team spirit!"
"It's how Agamemnon inspires war crimes."Isn't it sort of, I mean. Hasn't it gotten blown out of proportion a bit?"
Hector still did not blink. "Odysseus let one of the ponies into our cabin in the middle of the night, so, yes, it probably has."
"How do you know that was Odysseus?"
"Seems like something Odysseus would do." Hector glanced in the direction of the cabin, probably determining whether he had to shout about bug spray again. "Shifty bastard," he muttered.Menaleus needs to stop acting like this is the tenth grade. No offense."
"None taken," said Zagreus, who had just finished eleventh grade and therefore could not be offended by the comparison anyway.
"Gotta get everyone to archery," Hector said, in order that he might end the conversation.
"Sure. Right. Good luck!"
"We never win. Pat cheats." Hector turned, leaving Zagreus with a different, new problem.
"So I've heard.""Burn it," said Zagreus, just to see Patroclus roll his eyes. Achilles reached over and ruffled Zag's hair, cheering him on.
"You're both wrong," Patroclus sighed, tipping his head back and staring at the wood-beam ceiling above them. This was not the part of the ceiling where somebody had written 'gullible'.Achilles took a deep breath before managing to say actual words. "Of course it is! I mean, sure, he's upset that Helen left him, but at this point it's more like, well, we issued the challenge so now we can't lose."
"You mean, you speak from my experience. You were the one who went off and got a girlfriend. And also broke up with her as soon as I transferred in, I might add."
Zag thought he might want to hear the whole story about the drag show.
"My point is," said Achilles, which sounded like it wasn't the story about the drag show, -
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Summary
Zagreus makes a possibly stupid, definitely reckless deal with Chaos but has to leave his physical form behind to explore the chaotic realm beyond.
His body washes up in the House of Hades, completely lifeless. Whoops.
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Bookmarked by acheelles
14 May 2025
Bookmarker's Notes
I know better than anyone how difficult you are to stamp out… it would not surprise me to see you bothering me again in a matter of days” she continued, eyebrow raised.
“I’ll be there with bells on. Thanks, Meg – it’s good to see you won’t be going easy on me.”I cannot think of any other time better than now to truly talk to your father.”
“Ha, so he can tell me to disappear longer next time?” Zagreus muttered, weary.