reflection ● jason grace

happy 2024

happy (almost) 2024 and a surprise that may or may not happen. vote on your favorite excerpt below <3

one.

"Something is happening," Jason announced, walking into the house.

Daria shared a glance with Nathan. They were sitting at the kitchen table, a half-done jigsaw puzzle in front of them—an activity long forgotten by Nathan and at the forefront of Daria's mind at all hours of the day. There was nothing much to do in Elysium, which wasn't to say it was boring, and wasn't exactly true, either.

There was a lot to do in Elysium, if you listed it all out. An endless wheel of choices that left you at a loss, all of a sudden overwhelmed by anything that wasn't already familiar. Daria kept a close circle in life and death—weekly dinners with Leila and Ryan and her house with Jason, Nathan, and whichever boy Nathan was dating that month.

"Something is happening," Nathan repeated. "Why does something always have to happen?"

Jason had a wild look to him. It was the middle of the afternoon, but his eyes were sparked with interest. She and Nathan had been dead for a year now; Jason, four months. In all that time, she'd never seen him this excited about anything.

Elysium wasn't boring. It was content, and Daria liked it, the feeling of being settled. "Please don't start," she said, with only a twinge of sarcasm in it. "We have lemonade."

Jason harbored up to her a loyal puppy dog, stealing a sip of her lemonade and pulling up a seat next to her. "Daria," he started, more serious than she'd ever seen him, "And Nathan—"

"Gee, thanks."

"—what do you know about Chaos?"

"I know that names have power," Daria said.

"Why would you ask me something you know I don't know the answer to?"

"Oh, come on," Jason said, "I didn't really mean 'And Nathan."

Nathan threw a puzzle piece at his head.

two.

Jason wanted to go back to school.

That was fine. Daria could learn to be okay with that. They'd been to Tartarus and back, and she'd been dead for a while there, so they could definitely survive Jason going to public school somewhere in the very large San Francisco Bay Area. Daria was chill.

"You really don't sound chill," Jason said, leaning in the doorway, arms crossed with suspicion. "Like, at all."

"Don't I?" Daria asked.

It had been a long day: nearly 9pm by the time Jason stumbled into the little villa built in New Rome—a gift maybe, or perhaps appeasement from the camp for 15 years of service without much complaint. Hey, Daria wasn't complaining. Neither was Reyna, who liked to stay on the upstairs floor when she wasn't with her sister.

She set her book down on her bed—though it was becoming less and less of that lately (neither of them dealt well with nightmares alone). That, in particular, was one of the reasons—

"Listen," she said, trying her best to sound neutral at best, even though she felt like a fist was shaking her head in its hand, a common reaction to most things after the war, "can we talk about this tomorrow? I'm exhausted."

"Sure," Jason replied, arching his eyebrow. "But I'm not going to change my mind."

these are unedited sorry anyway vote below. i imagine you can guess what each one is about but i'll answer questions in the comments ofc

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