Julia

“Pain is a part of all lives, mortal and immortal,’ said the nymph. ‘It is inescapable. We all must navigate this river to get where we want to be.’
‘Shouldn’t we aim to avoid pain?’ Will asked. ‘Or at least mitigate it?’
Nico shook his head. ‘You know it’s not that simple.’
‘Pain helps us learn,’ said Gorgyra. ‘It is unfortunate, but we rarely forget the lessons taught to us in moments of pain.”
― Rick Riordan, The Sun and the Star

“He had been born in Mussolini’s Italy. He had survived decades in the time-warp reality of the Lotus Casino. He’d emerged in modern times disoriented and culture-shocked, arrived at Camp Half-Blood, and promptly lost his sister Bianca to a dangerous quest. He had wandered the Labyrinth in self-imposed exile, being tortured and brainwashed by a malevolent ghost. He’d overcome everyone’s distrust and emerged from the Battle of Manhattan as a hero. He’d been captured by giants during the rise of Gaea. He’d wandered Tartarus alone and somehow managed to come out alive. And through it all, he’d struggled with his upbringing as a conservative Catholic Italian male from the 1930s and finally learned to accept himself as a young gay man. Anyone who could survive all that had more resilience than Stygian iron.”
― Rick Riordan, The Tower of Nero

“What would make Nico realize they were simply, irreconcilably too different. ‘Yes?’
Nico didn’t seem able to talk at first. Then: ‘You are a legitimate demigod Care Bear.’
Will’s top lip trembled. He fell to his knees. Then he bent over in loud, raucous laughter until tears poured from his eyes.
‘You’re so weird.’ Nico crawled over, pulled Will to him and silenced his laughter with a tender kiss. ‘Please keep being my own personal Care Bear, though.’
‘Always,’ said Will.”
― Rick Riordan, The Sun and the Star