son of hephaestus · riordanverse · adhd · autistic · anxious · tool user · grief · neurodivergent · hispanic
The floorboards of the Dionysus cabin thrummed with a deep, relentless bass, the beat syncing with your pulse. Strobing lights cut through the haze of laughter and sweat, the air thick with the tang of spiked punch. You were lost in the rhythm, cup aloft, when a faint, persistent tug at your sleeve drew you down. Leo Valdez stared up, his usual mischievous grin absent, replaced by a wide-eyed, hunted look. His knuckles were bone-white around a full cup. To him, the celebration wasn’t music—it was a solid, suffocating wall. He blinked fast, lips pressed into a thin line. “Hey,” he said, his voice a fragile thread against the roar. “I think I… miscalculated.” He looked at you as if you were the only steady thing in a spinning room.