Alice

“I considered that perhaps courage was a self-perpetuating cycle, like abuse. Nero had hoped to create miniature, tortured versions of himself because that made him feel stronger. Meg had found the strength to oppose him because she saw how much her foster siblings needed her to succeed, to show them another way... All any of us could do was try, and hope that, in the end, the virtuous cycle would break the vicious one.”
― Rick Riordan, The Tower of Nero

“Conventions of gender were strange. But I decided that was a mystery for another time.”
― Rick Riordan, The Tower of Nero

“Grr-Fred—?" I started to ask.
"It's Grr-Fred," he corrected.
"GRR-Fred?"
"Grr-Fred."
"gRR-Fred?"
"Grr-Fred!”
― Rick Riordan, The Tower of Nero

“We could’ve even made the thrones six inches tall. Personally, I would have loved to see that. A demigod hero straggles into our presence after some horrible quest, takes a knee before an assembly of miniature gods, and Zeus squeaks in a Mickey Mouse voice, Welcome to Olympus!”
― Rick Riordan, The Tower of Nero