1 - 20 of 403 Bookmarks
Navigation
List of Bookmarks
-
Brother, I watched the sky burn by TentativeTreason
Fandoms: 9-1-1 (TV), Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
22 Feb 2026
Tags
Summary
The 118 finally learn why Buck is the way he is. Their theory of a cult or a conversion camp was way off. Somehow, though, the reality of being a demi-god isn’t much better.
Buck thought they’d be happier to learn he wasn’t part of a cult.
****
(i.e. The 118 all struggle with the revelation in different ways. Bobby crashes out learning the Gods exist, Athena’s still wanting justice for Buck’s dead childhood and if Eddie was worried about Anna being a nun, he has no idea how to cope with the literal son of a deity.)
****
Part of a series Hearth and Home, Buck is a demi-god, blessed by Hestia.
Series
- Part 4 of Home and Hearth
-
Bookmark Tags:
Bookmark Notes:
Complete
-
Bookmark Tags:
-
Bookmark Tags:
Bookmark Notes:
Ch8
Chimney hadn’t considered what it would be like to meet Maddie’s parents. Ever since he’d learned that they’d effectively sold Buck to some cult, he’d made the fair assumption that they’d never meet.
Now, staring across from them at the dinner table, he thought they looked normal.
Too normal for people who’d give their son up to a cult. Phillip Buckley was wearing plaid underneath his sweater, for Christ’s sake.
-
“Your son.” Was his curt response, gesturing to Buck.“You’re letting people call you by some nickname?” Margaret asked Buck, finally turning to look him in the eye.
It was the first proper words she or Phillip had addressed directly to him since they’d entered – in two decades, even – and Buck felt the derision with every word.
“I couldn’t go letting people call me by my name now, could I?” Buck bit out. He raised a challenging, pointed eyebrow at his mother. “Names have power after all. You’d know that better than most.”
Margaret paled.
“Evan, you can’t –“
“No. I am called Buck.” Buck interjected. He’d not been comfortable going by Evan since camp; only monsters called him ‘Evan’, looking into his parents’ eyes he couldn’t say the pattern had changed. “I have been since you left me at Camp.”
“Son –“ Phillip started.
But Buck had been waiting twenty long years to confront them both; long enough that he had twenty years of resentments and anger built up.
“You can’t call me that!” He slammed his hands down on the table, the rattling of cutlery emphasising his point. Maddie flinched instinctively from across the table at the noise – which had Buck feeling automatically guilty over – but she made no move to stop him from yelling. “Only Hestia can call me that.”
“I’m sorry, Evan!” Margaret answered, watery tears filling her eyes. “What did you expect us to do?! You were coming home with injuries all the time, damaging the house, bringing danger with you. It was only a matter of time before you brought the danger back to us, back to Maddie!”
“What did I expect you to do?! I expected you to be there for me! I was only in that position because of you! I only was in danger because of you!” Buck stood, watching Margaret cringe back and Phillip move to rest a hand protectively on Margaret’s arm. “You were the ones who promised me to them. You are the reason I went through every pain and torment. I have walked through fire every single day of my life because of you.”
-
With a forced sense of calm, he asked. “Do you know how many scars I have from Camp? I have knife wounds, burns, countless scars. They had us fight battles for them from when I was twelve! It was kill or be killed! Do you want to hear about the first person I ever killed? Or the first time I caught a sword through the chest? Or the first time we had to bury another camper? We were child soldiers!”He could feel the weight of Maddie and Chimney’s stares on the back of his head, but he ignored it, focussing on the couple in front of him.
“What were you hoping would happen?” He barked out a laugh; it sounded twisted even to his own ears. A facsimile of his usual laughter, warped. “If Daniel had been blessed instead of me. If he’d been cured, he would have been the one bringing the monsters home with him. Would it have been any different then? Would you have dealt with it for him? What would you have done?”
Margaret looked down at the table, unable to meet his eyes.
Buck understood what the lack of answer meant. They would have dealt with it. Had it been Daniel, they would have dealt with it all.
He scoffed.
“We tried!” Margaret rebuffed. “I–I don’t know what more you expected us to do!”
“I expected you to love me anyway.” Buck’s voice broke, on his words, the weight of them choking him.
-
“I’m what you would call a demi-god. Most demi-gods are formed through birth, relationships of mortals with the gods – best let me finish before the questions come–“ Buck hurried to add, as Chimney’s mouth began to open, his head tilting, similar to Albert’s when he was about to ask a nonsensical question about the logistics of being a demi-god.“I am a claimed demi-god, one that was chosen not born. They’re pretty rare –“ Buck shrugged, self depreciatingly. “–only the maiden Goddesses tend to do it. Like Artemis. Or, I suppose, Hera has once or twice as well. But anyway, demi-gods have power, we tend to attract the attentions of Gods and monsters, beings that want to use the children of the Gods for their power or to garner the attention of the Gods themselves.”
-“So…” Chimney broke the silence, ”Where does the fire go inside you?”
He peered closer, looking at Buck’s chest warily, as though expecting the fire to burst back out at him.
Buck laughed.
-
Bookmark Tags:
Bookmark Notes:
Published:2025-10-05Completed:2026-02-22Words:66,885Chapters:8/8Comments:1,168Kudos:2,515Bookmarks:396Hits:43,522
Brother, I watched the sky burn
TentativeTreason
Summary:
The 118 finally learn why Buck is the way he is. Their theory of a cult or a conversion camp was way off. Somehow, though, the reality of being a demi-god isn’t much better.Buck thought they’d be happier to learn he wasn’t part of a cult.
****
(i.e. The 118 all struggle with the revelation in different ways. Bobby crashes out learning the Gods exist, Athena’s still wanting justice for Buck’s dead childhood and if Eddie was worried about Anna being a nun, he has no idea how to cope with the literal son of a deity.)
****
Part of a series Hearth and Home, Buck is a demi-god, blessed by Hestia.