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It’s been a few days since Will and Nico left Tartarus, but Will still can’t figure out what exactly happened down there. Perhaps that was an exaggeration - mostly everything had an explanation by the end, except for the fact that he gave a primordial goddess hay fever.
Here’s the questions he’s yet to answer since that fight:
1. Hay fever, aka allergic rhinitis, is inflammation of the inside of the nose caused by an allergen. So what exactly does it mean that he was able to have a goddess have the same reaction? Is Nyx allergic to the same allergens as humans?
And the problem is, Will has been learning medical training since he was 10 years old, and that means that he’s used to asking every question possible. And that leads to the following follow up questions:
2. If he can use these newfound powers on Nyx, does that mean he can give, say, the Minotaur a headache? And how does the anatomy of monsters even work for these kinds of ailments? If the Stymphalian birds were to come back, would any flu work, or would it have to be an avian influenza?
Because Will has studied the human body for so long. The counselors wouldn’t let him heal until he learned the name of every tendon and bone, and then there was watching and learning to make sure he knew exactly what he was doing before preforming an amputation or taking an arrow out of someone’s chest. And so that led him to more thoughts that wouldn’t leave him:
3. How does one study for this? Who teaches him?
And now Will thinks he understands even a fraction of what the Big Three kids must’ve felt. Yes, his powers are instinctual to him, but when he got to camp he had someone to explain what he could do, even if he was definitely the best in the cabin. But that’s what the Apollo cabin was - your powers were surely shared by someone in the cabin, even if not in the same magnitude. There was just so many of them. It didn’t hurt that almost all their abilities were something you could explain fairly easily - there’s only so many ways to string a bow or strum an instrument, or in Will’s case, clean and bandage a wound. It felt so wrong to be an outlier in his own cabin. He has always been the glue, especially after Michael and Lee died. He held the torch now, and it was his responsibility to lead the cabin. Which led to his next question, perhaps the most pressing of them all:
4. Should he use these powers? Try to learn them?
This was what plagued him the most. He’s torn between thoughts. On one side, he thinks of Percy, and how when Will described to him that he felt like there’s a new side to him a day after surfacing about Nico and his journey, Percy’s eyes got darker and darker during Will’s brief run down of events that completely skipped over the final fight. If it wasn’t for Percy voicing that he understood what Will was saying, even if he wasn’t ready to completely share his experience, Will would’ve assumed Percy was judging him. But with that in mind, and the deep empathy Percy showed, Will could only presume Percy was judging himself.
Then there was the other side, the side that promised Nico he’d try to embrace his dark side more. To go down where Nico was at, to not repress all the feelings he’s held inside so long for fear of messing something up or not being strong enough. Will has had to be sunshine for so long - giving away so much of himself to others at the expense of having nothing left for himself. He loves helping, to the bottom of his heart, but he knows how much it can consume him, how he’ll forget to eat or sleep to spend just another fifteen minutes at the side of someone else’s cot.
And on that side, too, is the fact that the fact he didn’t bring a weapon down to Tartarus with him kept burning in his mind. He’s a healer, first and foremost, but what good is his healing if he’s dead? The short amount of time he left Nico’s side down there still haunts him - what would’ve happened if they weren’t able to find each other, if that cat didn’t get there in time? He didn’t want to be a damsel in distress. He wasn’t trained at camp for the last third of his life for that to be his only option. If he wasn’t going to bring a physical weapon with him places, he might as well know how to use the one he’ll always have on hand.
With that 4th question set settled, Will keeps thinking back to that third group of questions. Perhaps he should tie it all into a fifth question:
5. How does one figure it all out?
He’s heard all kinds of stories of demigods finding out cool powers. Nico, causing a giant crack in the ground. Percy, blowing up Mt. St. Helen (although that was less cool and more devastating in the moment). Even Annabeth’s battle of the wits on her journey to the Athena Parthenos, or Leo’s use of fire shocking the Hephaestus cabin. They’re classic campfire stories, told to new campers to inspire them. He doesn’t feel this power is particularly story worthy, or worth singing about in an epic poem. He’s just the guy who inconvenienced his boyfriend while he was rescuing a friend. He doesn’t know what he’s supposed to do, and it’s easier to pretend it never happened than to acknowledge it ever did.
It’s the day before the other campers will start trickling in when Will spotted Apollo sitting by the hearth talking to Hestia. He had half a second to contemplate why his dad is there before Apollo waves to him, makes a quick goodbye to Hestia, and walks his direction. Will started walking to meet him halfway.
To his surprise, Apollo hugged him as soon as he was within a reasonable distance.
“While I’m not complaining, what was that for?” The pair started to walk around camp, not particularly worried about the three other occupants on the grounds seeing.
Apollo beamed at him, but the corners of his mouth went just a bit too tight. “Is it so wrong for a father to check in on his son? And it may be that I happened to have heard you went on a bit of an adventure, but not until after said adventure. I wonder how that happened, especially after we went through so much to restore communication?”
“I’m glad you popped in, but I’m fine, really. Everything just came up so fast, and I guess I’m - we’re still not used to asking for the gods help.”
Apollo hummed in response. “It doesn’t take a god of truth to know someone who just went through what you went through isn’t fine.”
“What do you want me to say? That I’m having a bit of a crisis right now?” Will tried for nonchalance, but the voice crack in his delivery didn’t quite sell it.
They stop to sit on the porch of the Big House, and Will’s father looked out to the horizon. In that moment, despite the outward appearance of a fashionable twenty-three year old man, his expression carried the weight of thousands of years.
“Look. I’m not qualified to have this conversation with you, but I don’t think anyone else is. I heard through the grapevine, for a lack of a better term, that you displayed a certain talent of mine during your trip. There’s a reason that when it shows up, it shows up with the healers. It’s the natural balance. You already know everything you need to for this. Trust yourself, and it’ll work out.” Apollo breaks his staring contest with the clouds to smile down at Will. “That’s the divine part of it.”
“How do I know I won’t mess up?” Will paused. “I keep remembering when you, well, ‘Lester’, gave the whole camp hay fever. What then? What if something even worse happens?”
“I can’t guarantee you won’t ever make a mistake, but I can say that anything you do will be much better than what I did during my time as a sort of demigod. Think of that as extenuating circumstances. And I can tell you that to come up with something, there has to be intent. That’s why this power is with you, Will. You’re responsible enough to have it.”
A message popped up on what must be the godly equivalent of an apple watch. Apollo sighed. “Well, duty calls. I’ll be back in the next week or so to check in with everyone as they settle back in after the winter holidays. IM me if you need anything, alright? And I mean it. No more spontaneous trips to a possible death without letting me know first.”
“Got it. And thanks. For coming in to chat. I needed that.” He lets the silent “I needed you” hang in the air. Some things were better left unsaid, especially when it comes to mending a relationship with a previously absentee father. This time, Apollo was there, and that mattered.
“Any time, son. Any time. And don’t hesitate to reach out to your friends too - I think they’ll understand more than you realize.” And with that, Apollo vanished, leaving nothing but shimmering light to fizzle out in the space he left.
Ten minutes later, Will knocked on the Hades cabin (re: the Nico and occasionally Hazel’s cabin) door. Nico promptly opened it. “Yeah?”
“I’ve got a lot of thoughts, and I could really use someone to soundboard them to.”
Nico smiled. “Come on in.”