Kate is a daughter of Apollo. (Yes, Milligan is still her dad, just roll with it; we ARE talking about Greek gods here). She is stupid athletic and sunny and that's only in part because of the godly blood. She was on the run by herself for a couple of years- staying in one place at the orphanage was just monster bait- but then she joined the circus. It made the attacks better, because they moved around just enough.
Kate does not care for Apollo. Kate takes in the fact that she has another godly parent and seethes with it. That is two father's who have abandoned her. Even once Milligan's memories are returned to him, she will never warm up to the sun god. One of them had an excuse. The other didn't.
Also, I think she and the Hunters of Artemis have an ongoing vendetta. They desperately want to recruit her, and maybe if they had caught her right after the betrayal of her father abandoning her sunk in, they might have succeeded. Kate knows that, and hates that, and doubles down on her whole "never growing old and never loving people sounds stupid" thing. Yes she says this to Artemis face. Yes she does not care.
(Milligan is a clear sighted mortal. Milligan was so determined to figure out why he was seeing things he somehow made it into camp and started asking questions and then got himself hired as a spy to try and analyse Kronos' movements. Three drops from the river Lethe and Milligan never makes it back home.)
Sticky's mother helps organise several disability awareness events at some point in post grad. She has a fiance, and a part time job, and a voice that pitches high when she worries too much. She's got a good head on her shoulders and interesting ideas about how to revamp a world not built for those who are different.
The woman she works with is blonde and white and ablebodied, but she listens very intently and is brilliant at coming up with measures and countermeasures and solutions when asked. They get coffee on the weekends and chat sometimes. It is good to have a friend.
Neither Mr. nor Mrs. Washington are expecting it when a baby shows up on their doorstep. The baby has Ms. Washington's nose, the shape of her ears, her dark skin. The baby has grey eyes.
(You can imagine their shock when all tests decree the baby as theirs. They get married quickly, after that, call it a miracle and vow to not think much more about it.)
And Sticky grows up intelligent and he grows up consuming great big books at a time and it is so very wonderful. They put him in competitions- that have odd amounts of technical difficulties, whenever he steps up to answer a question- and they buy him bigger books. Their baby is so smart.
Sticky grows up terrified. There are monsters and no one believes him. Spiders congregate on his ceiling at night and disappear with the flip of a switch. He doesn't understand why the buzzers stop working in the game shows, or the cameras or the lights. Really. Really. He doesn't.
You can imagine the relief, upon his arrival to Camp Halfblood. He was not making it up. It wasn't his fault. You can imagine the bitterness, too.
There is an entire cabin of kids who look at him with matching grey eyes, all gifted and intelligent. It is a constant game of chess, shifting pieces and arguments of wit and sizing each other up. You can imagine how this might terrify one Sticky Washington, who's self esteem could probably fit into a teaspoon with room to spare.
(He'll figure it out, eventually. He'll get enough self confidence to stand his own, gradually. His parents follow his trail through shaky quest videos posted on the internet and track him down to Mr. Benedict's, and there will be healing.)
Reynie is a child of... someone. Nobody knows. He never gets claimed. Some minor god, probably, but there are no real hints when it comes to his abilities. He can fight and has to endure ADHD hell like the best of them, and of course he is fiendishly clever and intelligent, but that could very well just be a Reynie thing.
I think Reynie hopes, for a very long while, that his parent might be Athena. Like. Here is a cabin full of people who love learning and knowledge, who can handle plans and who have someone who cares enough to claim them. If Reynie was a son of Athena, Sticky would not only be his best friend but also his brother! It sounds too good to be true.
It is too good to be true. At some point in their adventures, Reynie meets Athena. He asks, and he hopes, and ultimately gets denied. This is not your legacy, Athena says, and Reynie knows better than to say but I want it to be.
I think that would be interesting, really. Reynie, who so very fears being alone, who has never known his parents, who comes to camp eleven and more than a little desperate to be loved. Reynie, who learns he does have a parent, and learns soon after with a slow cold dread that he isn't wanted, or isn't worth the bother.
(later, when they're all friends, the others will take turns kidnapping him out of the unclaimed cabin and bringing him into theirs for sleepovers. Later, Ms. Perumal- another clear-sighted human- will be scared enough for her student who vanished off the face of the earth that she'll track him down and give him a place to come home to. Later, Reynie's going to realise that family can be something you make, and that he is so damn loved. It's just going to take time to get there.)
Constance is a daughter of Morpheus. Yes, she is sleepy all the time because she is two years old. Yes, the urge to nap is infinitely stronger due to her parentage. Constance, especially as she grows older, stays awake out of sheer stubbornness. She has things to do! Poetry to write! Sleeping can come later!
That said, Constance's powers are stupidly strong for her age, especially considering the fact that she is so young. She sends and recieves dreams like nothing else. The subconscious thoughts people have are wide open to her. She walks through other people's memories at night and has an annoying habit of wondering into other people's dreams.
It means the monster attacks are real and prevelent. Constance is too smart to not realise something is off, and it just makes things worse once she knows the truth. When she arrives at the camp, she sleeps in a real bed for the first time in weeks and does not move for a solid twelve hours.
(Constance still cures Mr. Benedict's narcolepsy, but the first couple of years are rough because he tends to sleep much deeper around her- as most people do. A Constance in the room means a few second drop could become an hour long one.
Mr. Benedict is a bit of an enigma. He knows way too much about the gods- about all of the gods, non greek ones included. He has connections miles long and no one is really sure who his godly parent is, but must have one. Right?
Wrong. If Mr. Benedict is of godly heritage, it's multiple generations back. He's just clear sighted, too. Are you sensing a theme? You should be. When Mr. Benedict writes his advertisement for the paper, one of his questions is about "seeing the ghings that no one else sees." He means it literally.
It's about loving truth so hard your eyes pierce a veil between your world and a more magical one. It's about growing up lonely and scared and finding people who love you. It's about letting go of hurts and breaking cycles. It's about quests, and adventures, and what you make of them. I dunno. Maybe I just really love the idea of giving all of the kids celestial bronze weapons. Especially Constance. Constance deserves at least a dagger. It will be beautiful.
