Walt Whitman, Song of Myself  /  The Lovers of Valdaro  /  Anne Carson, H of H Playbook  /  Lorde, The Louvre  /  Rick Riordan, Sea of Monsters  /  Andy Virgil  /  Oscar Wilde, An Ideal Husband  /  Arcade Fire, Afterlife  /  Antonio Canova, Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss

Kennedy Song knows love is sacrifice.

Love is the night shift, cruel and demanding and never what you signed up for. Love is the empty bed beside you, left cold. Love is Luke Castellan, the boy-god broken both in his bones and in his promises—promises he whispers soft and slow like poison in Kennedy's ears, his words sticky-sweet as he draws her away from the safety that is her faith in the gods and towards the heresy of his new world order.

Love is also Ethan Nakamura. Made of concession and compromise, he too knows love is sacrifice and sacrifice is necessary; every inch of his body, every organ, every cell, demands it. In one hand he carries a blade and in the other, he carries his anger. Forming a careful balance, both will be necessary in this war.

Kennedy Song knows love. Love is what brings her Ethan Nakamura, the bird trapped between the dog's teeth of fate; love is what turns her against her mother, Aphrodite, and her friends at Camp Half-blood; love is what has her carve out the softest parts of herself, a knife whetted in her heart and wielded by her hands.

Love is what leaves her in the Fields of Asphodel, alone. And love is what carries her across the line between life and death and back to the people she left behind. After losing her life in the second Titan War, Kennedy is given a second chance when the Doors of Death open. With Ethan out of reach, deep within the gilded depths of Elysium, Kennedy resolves to die again—but the right way, this time, so that she may return to the son of Nemesis and live out her afterlife with him as she promised she would all those years ago.

But a new war is brewing. And the people who survive to fight it remember Kennedy; more importantly, they remember the choices she made, the backs she stabbed and the lives she took to further Kronos' cause. Second chance or otherwise, there are people she must answer to. People she must beg forgiveness from.

People she must forsake.

Kennedy Song knows love is sacrifice.

So sacrifice, she must.

Kennedy Song /  The Heart.

i'm not ashamed  /  love is large and monstrous

Ethan Nakamura /  The Hands.

should we go into it together  /
if i go into it with you i will never come out

Luke Castellan /  The Head.

and i think that's what a father is  /  — a blade
that never stops cutting.

&

Medea Park

The Hunger

Percy Jackson

The Hero

⚖️

Annabeth Chase
Silena Beauregard
Charles Beckendorf
Hazel Levesque
Frank Zhang

⚖️ welcome to AFTERLIFE. this fic takes place in the percy jackson and the olympians series as well as heroes of olympus; it commences just before the lightning thief, continues through to the last olympian and then resumes in son of neptune.

⚖️ AFTERLIFE will explore the "afterlife" of my original character, kennedy song, who fought against the olympians in the second titan war and died during the process. kennedy joined luke alongside ethan nakamura, whom she loved; with her motivations questionable, kennedy did not redeem herself before her death and so she did not reach elysium.

⚖️ when the doors of death open in heroes of olympus, kennedy escapes the underworld and returns to life in the hopes that she might redeem herself then die once more—and somehow be accepted into elysium so she can see ethan again.

⚖️ which brings us to AFTERLIFE. (based on the arcade fire song.) the story will flick back and forth between the past and present, examining kennedy's relationships both before and after her death. i can't wait to explore her character, as well as ethan's—he didn't have nearly enough focus in the original series, and in AFTERLIFE he forms one part of my "tragic hero" trinity: himself, luke, and percy.

⚖️  the structure of this story is kind of all over the place. we'll begin with a few chapters from ethan's point of view during the battle of manhattan. the story will then proceed, predominantly from kennedy's pov.

⚖️ be warned, this will probably be super depressing. i don't know if i trust my ability as a writer to evoke emotions but at its core AFTERLIFE is a romantic tragedy. remember that.

⚖️ my portrayal of luke castellan will be both sympathetic and scathing at times to serve my characterisation of ethan and kennedy. kennedy, like annabeth, had a childish crush on luke despite being four years (in kennedy's case) his junior. luke did not handle kennedy's feelings appropriately and instead used them to sway her to his side.

⚖️ because ethan, luke and percy are all to be written as parallels of each other, kennedy—when she joins the percy-hazel-frank quest team in son of neptune—develops minor feelings for percy because he reminds her of ethan. these are for the most part unrequited, because i could never interfere with percabeth, and also because percy has much bigger fish to fry than miss ghost girl and her crush.

⚖️ AFTERLIFE features medea park, an oc belonging to one of my closest friends, elysianfieId. her own pjo fic, titled ARCANE, features kennedy as well. please go check it out; i've never done a crossover before and i can't wait for you guys to see what kira and i planning. kira can't wait to see what kira and i are planning too /lh.

⚖️ the primary antagonist in this fic will be psyche. i can't wait for you guys to see what i'm cooking 🫨

⚖️ AFTERLIFE is dedicated to kira, as well as the rest of the curran walters fanclub: sweetjawregui and metalbenders. thank you three so much for your support; i love you guys so much. to pelides—the same sin binds us, said sin being some truly awful fanfiction—as well as soulofstaars, medusatruther, eidclons, kenoobi, fairiest and SELFC0NTR0LS. and to entrywounds, whose pjo work was formative for me. emory you are so talented it's insane. anyway! i love you all very much!

⚖️  thank you to shadowbxer, whose format i have taken inspiration from for the cast of characters! you're the best, teddy!

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