A/N: The following is a piece I wrote at work while thinking of a PJOxYJ crossover idea that keeps bouncing around in my head. This is an explorative piece about the father of a character I have yet to flesh out.

Enjoy.

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 John Dawson always loved the night.

Specifically, the night sky

The way it twinkled

With all the planets and stars and far away galaxies and satellites.

But, also for the spots that didn't.

The voids of pure unadulterated blackness that laid between all those aforementioned twinkly bits. The spots that, to most observers and professionals, were written off and labeled as empty space. But, John knew better. He knew that nothing could truly be empty. Much as an "empty" glass void of liquid on the Kitchen counter was still filled with air, the same had to be true of the night and its sky. Such a belief in emptiness was as two-dimensional as the glowing-in-the-dark stickers he brother and father helped plaster the ceiling and walls of his childhood bedroom. Said stickers were added not was a way to deter the darkness of the night—much to the contrary belief of John's teasing brother—, but instead to welcome it.

John would fill those "empty spaces" in the sky with every trip to the Star City Public Library. To its credit, the shimmering city seemed to have had plenty of books and videos on the subject. Nearly enough to fill the gaps that lay between the city's shimmering namesakes. The new computer he got during high school aided in John's fascination, too. He'd spend most nights—some with friends and family, some without—doing more and more research.

Thinking he could get closer to those beautiful voids with the more he learned.

Closer to the beautiful goddess of night.

He would get that chance, one day.