HEAVY IS THE HEAD ━ connor stoll

𝟮𝟲 nothing says murder like family

His thoughts float towards Verona once again, as they did more often than not lately. He wondered how deprecated her thoughts on love had to be, because that was the way it had come off. He knew she was supposed to be all for love will conquer all! and true love's kiss! or whatever, but part of him had an inkling (especially after the conversation he heard with Brady near the carnival) that she wasn't as for love and to be in love is one's greatest achievement or whatever it was Aphrodite and her children preached more often than not.

A daughter of the goddess of love who fears love itself. Connor did a minor chuckle inwardly, because who would have ever thought? Verona Blaze had certainly become one of the most blatant mysteries to him than ever before. Most Aphrodite children were simply too out of reach for people unless they chose to be otherwise when they liked someone, but something about Verona was not only elusively out of reach, but simply unattainable. There was a piece of her that just showed anybody that she simply could not be touched, no matter how hard they reached with their arms, no matter the effort. If she wanted to be untouchable, Verona would remain untouchable. It went beyond just the romantic prospect, but there was something deeper at play when it came to the girl, something that made her so much more dangerous than Connor had ever realized.

Connor had a feeling even Aphrodite herself was unable to reach her daughter.

He wondered for a moment what it was like for the goddess of love, to be married to someone she had shared no romantic feelings whatsoever towards, a marriage she had been forced into by Zeus and Hera because of her beauty. He didn't know what that was like. People didn't turn their heads a second time the way Aphrodite kids got when they walked into the room, he wasn't unreachable or elusively attractive, there wasn't just a something about him. He could pick the hardest of locks (even some with mild magic playing on them) and play pranks, he knew morse code and could fly in the air had he put on the shoes Hermes had given him, and yet he had no idea of the burden that beauty bought with it. Yes...a burden. Lately, Connor had begun to realize maybe the elusive beauty and the ethereal look of it all wasn't what it was cut out to be, and beauty was the burden somebody like Verona held.

What happened when people were never able to see beyond the beauty?

When they got a little bit selfish, a little bit too greedy?

Connor decided he was lucky he had ended up as a child of Hermes. At least his father cared in the slightest. Aphrodite had left Verona unconscious in rubble after making her heart beat again simply for a 'tragical romance' only for her to be arrested, Hermes was the one that had fixed everything for the two of them when Connor prayed for his help (and on Connor's insistance, though he'd never admit it to Verona, Hermes had found a way to make sure the United States legal system no longer thought she was a missing child). Even he had to admit that had been beyond what any other god had done for any other demigod, especially somebody who was not their child, and Connor had a sinking feeling it might come back to haunt the two of them in the future — he hoped it would not come to that.

"Right..." Connor trailed off. The sun was blazing towards his eyes in the position he was in, and he tried best to cover his eyes despite the fact that sunglasses were perching upon his nose — obviously, Apollo had decided to be extra generous when driving his chariot across Camp Half Blood this morning. "Congratulations, I guess."

"Thanks," Travis' voice was more enthusiastic than Connor's slightly dejected one. "Verona was right, Silena did have a whole list of places for first dates. She also had a lot of other lists, weirdly enough...." He began speaking of where Silena had sent him on his first date with Katie — a small cavern in the woods that overlooked the canoe lake from a distance, with a picnic blanket and a basket of food they had snagged from the kitchens.