Wow.

As I've said a million times, I still can't believe I'm here. My first creation related to this story was, actually, Aria! This was way back in 2013, when I came up with her on the spot so I could have a request to give to a ~Percy Jackson OC Polyvore Outfits~ instagram account. They made her an outfit and the rest was history :)

After that, I came up with Kiera and decided *she'd* be my main character, hence why she still played such a role in the ending despite dying in the second book. I have an extremely deep soft spot for her, and between the purple and black vibes and Pittsburgh background, she's pretty obviously a self-insert of my middle school self ;) In my original fanfic about her, she, Aria, and another girl named Alexia (yep... the one mentioned in here as being a dead daughter of Hephaestus - I had to give her a cameo somehow, LOL) came to camp after years of living on the streets Luke-Thalia-Annabeth style. Once, Kiera had also had a little brother named Oliver, but he had gone missing when she was younger, which helped drive the plot! Also, she was not only a daughter of Hecate, she had color changing eyes, was canonically the niece of Magnus Bane from Shadowhunters, and was a legacy of Apollo and blessed by Hades. Why Hades, you may ask? Because her love interest was none other than the then-closeted Nico di Angelo!! THAT SHOWS YOU HOW OLD I AM!!!

Obviously once HoH came out, I decided to take a different approach. I came up with AJ, mostly for fun to make yet another (and this time more obvious) self-insert of myself. She'd be played by Selena Gomez, and her besties would be her siblings Alec (then played by Jean-Luc Bilodeau) and Riley (then played by Lucy Hale... yeah, she changed quite a bit lol). I didn't have a fanfic in mind for them immediately, I just liked coming up with their lives and used AJ in roleplays. Then I started writing a little trilogy I decided to call Drops of Sunshine... :)

I had no idea how much this fanfic would come to mean to me. It's lived many lives, especially the first book, which took me 5 years to write!! I was sooo excited to finally write the second book and get to the meat of the overarching plot, but then I gave up because I was struggling with balancing it and my other WiPs. Finally, just in the past couple years, I thought I'd take another swing at it, and I'm so happy I did. The characters mean so much to me and it was very cathartic to write a proper ending for them :)

In my mind, AJ goes on to attend Julliard while Alec goes to UNC Chapel Hill for pre-med and Penn for medical school before becoming a surgeon, while AJ joins the New York Philharmonic! I'll admit I have no idea what Riley goes on to do, because my daydreams about their future mainly consisted of Alec and AJ shipping lore T_T Before I decided to write this third book, I originally had them not revealing their love for each other until much, much later in life, after many years of angst and will they/won't they. I also got so into the idea of them returning to Carolina (if you don't remember, that's where their quest ends in the first book and in my mind it becomes their safe space/emotional place/vacation home) that I got invested in UNC itself. To the point that, as I type this, I am wearing a UNC Tar Heels shirt. Have I ever been to North Carolina (other than the Charlotte airport)? No. I just really love Alec Thompson.



So, with that, I tell you that this series will never die in my heart, and I will always love the characters (especially. Alec Thompson.). Thank you for reading if you've made it this far, and I hope you take the lessons AJ has learned - bravery, empathy, self-confidence, solidarity, and love - to heart. May Apollo shine over you all forever :)

Positive vibes. Stay awesome <3

P.S. I just wanted to share this character line-up I made on Lunaii a long, long time ago (if you remember Lunaii you qualify for a veteran's discount). Who are Ben, Sam, and Lily? I, uh. I couldn't tell you. Obviously not every character made it into the final fanfic T_T

Also this absolutely classic Polyvore set for Kiera:

I think I might've peaked in 2013.

Anyway gooo Tar Heels or whatever Ily <3