Charmspeak

**charm-speaking** is a rare type of hypnotism ability that the children of Love deities (and Loki's children) possess. It can also be taught to people who are able to use magic, like Circe or Medea too. charm-speak can be a very powerful weapon, as it can make people do anything on command.

## Description

Charm-speak is a type of hypnotism or persuasion in which it allows the speaker to convince someone else to do or get whatever they want. The strength of the command depends on the tone and the emotion of the charm-speaker's voice, as well as their skill with it. Eventually, charm-speak wears off and the person has no recollection of why they did or what they were commanded to do. For those children of Aphrodite blessed with this gift, they may not realize that they are using this ability and although not trying to put any power into their words, can still charm-speak other people.

Some notable demigods with his power are the children of Aphrodite, Aubrey Pena (Hera's daughter who was blessed with this ability), Hayden Sterling, Malcolm Bellerose, Asher Patel, Rhiannon Cariad, The Mirroring Sisters, and Karina Willows, Circe has charm-speak powers and taught it to her niece, Medea (as stated in *The Missing Soldier*). Circe herself had seemingly used charm-speak in *The Ocean of Beasts*, charm-speaking Caspian into drinking a potion turn him into a guinea pig. A charm-speaker can reverse other people being charm-spoken if they are skilled enough.

### Weaknesses

Charm-speak can be negated through a number of ways. It has a diminished effect on other charm-speakers. It is neutralized by the power of gold (though not necessarily by gold itself, but rather the magical ability to turn people to gold). People with strong wills or intentions are unaffected, and the more powerful the being, the stronger their resistance is. If someone is aware of a person's ability to charm-speak, then it will have a reduced effect as they will be on guard in case, they are the subject to it. Angelica also wasn't able to charm-speak Khione, because "wind gods are creatures of chaos."

## Caspian Portal and The Old Gods

### *The Ocean of Beasts*

Circe uses a form of charm-speak on Caspian. As Caspian listens to her, he feels bad that he does not meet her standards in physical appearance and was willing to do almost anything to meet the said standards. This eventually leads to him drinking a potion that turns him into a guinea pig.

Both Aubrey Pena and Max Palacios-Balcazar use their charm speak multiple times through out the first series

## The Saviors of Olympus

### *The Missing Soldier*

Growing up, Angelica Charity would unknowingly use this ability on people in order to gain the attention of her father. The people she used it on would give her whatever she asked for, but would eventually come to their senses. They would feel so foolish for just giving her things, that they would instead call the cops and report it as theft. This eventually lead to her being sent to the Wilderness School, a school for troubled kids. Eventually, Angelica made it to Camp Olympia, where she met a girl named Drew (Daughter of Hermaphroditus), who was the current head of Aphrodite's Cabin. Drew would use her charm-speak ability to control the other members of her cabin and occasionally others as well. During the campfire, Tempest was tasked with picking a child of a love deity for his quest. Drew used this ability to get everyone to agree that she should be on the quest. Angelica also claimed that she should go, as Juno had contacted her. Angelica unknowingly was using charm-speak and the crowd started swaying back and forth between Drew and Angelica until Angelica was claimed.

When Angelica was given a room at the cabin, Max and Angelica explained exactly what charm-speak was and how Drew had used it to take complete control of their cabin. Angelica had been the first to stand up to her as she was able to resist Drew's ability. However, the other campers talked about how Drew would use her ability to get them to do embarrassing things in front of the camp as a form of punishment. While Angelica was on the quest, she became much more skilled with her ability. She almost managed to get two cyclopes to release her when she was captured, if it wasn't for Ma Gasket, who saw through the trick and called Angelica "Venus's spawn". However, The Vasquez Twins managed to set them free.

When the group entered Medea's shopping mall, Medea used her ability to charm-speak to get Tempest and the others to shop around the store. They became quickly drawn in by her products, including potions that could kill someone instantly and a chair made by Hephaestus that had trapped Hera previously. Angelica was able to resist Medea's charm-speak, but still felt the effects as Medea had perfected the art. While Angelica tried her hardest to cancel out Medea's charm-speak, she just wasn't strong enough to do so. It wasn't until Medea told Tempest and Talia to kill each other that Angelica poured all her power into her voice, canceling out Medea's charm-speak.

When arriving to save Angelica's dad, Angelica was furious that Enceladus had threatened to kill her friends, so she used her voice that carried across the clearing. She commanded that the Earthborn wouldn't hurt the ones she cared about, and it seemed to work until Enceladus ordered them to attack, but even then, they were hesitant. Later, Angelica used charm-speak to get a helicopter pilot to fly them away from Mount Diablo, and later to give them her helicopter. After arriving at the Wolf House, Angelica used her charm-speak to try and get Gaea to go back to sleep while Quiara tried and cut the cage. Her voice caused nearby monsters and wolves to fall asleep. After Juno was freed and unleashed her true form, Tempest saw it and almost died. Piper thought she saw her take a breath and used her charm-speak to wake her up, although given that the Doors of Death were open at the time, her charm-speak played no role in bringing her back.

### *The Symbol of Minerva*

Primrose is seen on the *Argo II,* practicing her speech, nearly charm-speaking Gianna Washington into putting her spear down and chatting. She also used her charm-speak against the Roman demigods when they attacked her and Tempest to stall them and the eidolons that were possessing Isaac Reynoso, Caspian Portal, and Ryan Anderson, to get them out of the boys' bodies. Charm-speak is also used later in the start of the book when Moana de Mare and Tempest Leos fight with each other till they are killed but are stopped by Aubrey when she used Charm-speak.

### *The Lair of Pluto*

Damian mentions that the Empousai are able to charm-speak. Angelica also stops Tempest from crashing to the ground after he was flying and asleep by waking him up and flying away before he impacted with the ground.  The Charm-speak user demigods realizes the secret of charm-speak is a lot like using the Mist. When Khoine and her half-brothers freeze everyone on the ship and send The Hephaestus kids flying, Primrose uses her charm-speak to anger Khoine and to wake Festus up. The charm-speaker has to push the intended target to do the things they wanted to do, not the charm-speaker and the user that is manipulating the Mist has to make the intended targets see what they want to see. Aubrey charm-speaks the monsters to fall in the opening in the ground and the Empousai counter it. Max then charmspeaks the Empousai to fight each other by saying that they insulted each other.

### *The Ichor of The Gods*

During the final battle against Gaea, once Festus and Tempest Leos lift her high in the air, Angelica uses her charmspeak ability to put Gaea to sleep. While it requires Angelica to get very close to her, it works, and it allows Oscar Vasquez to scatter and defeat Gaea once and for all.

## Known Users

### Immortals

* Aphrodite
* Loki
* Hera
* Athena
* Hermes
* Circe
* Medea
* Calliope
* Empousai
	+ Stacy
	+ Kelly
	+ Serephone
* The Charities
* Oshun
* Momos
* Erzulie Freda Dahomey
* Ocean Deities (Via Siren Speak)

### Demigod/Semi-Divine Users

* Children of Aphrodite
	+ Max Palacios-Balcazar
	+ Angelica Charity
	+ Primrose White
	+ Damon Argos
	+ Markell Lafayette
	+ Vanessa Palacios-Balcazar
* Hayden Sterling
* Malcolm Bellerose
* Rhiannon Cariad
* Cora Williams
* Kayden Amador
* Aubrey Pena
* Sapphire Locks (Limited)
* The Portal Siblings (via Siren Speak)
* Moana de Mare (via Siren Speak)
* Kaimana Seabrook (via Siren Speak)
* Brandon Rivera (via Siren Speak)
* Thana Amada (via Siren Speak)
* Noelani Liú (via Siren Speak)
* Naida Kelly (via Siren Speak)
* Magic Users
	+ Lydia Alecto
	+ Jaden Colchis
* Octavia Baker
* Hermes Children (Limited)
	+ Hector Pineda
	+ Malachi Messenger
	+ Travis Atleta
	+ Michael Pineda
* The Athena Children (limited)
	+ Daedalus
	+ Athanasia Ithaca
	+ Damian Mendoza
	+ Skye O'Connell Rosenberg
	+ Gianna Washington
* The Children of The Charities
	+ Avery Weiss
	+ Emma Jones
	+ Trinity Jacobs

## Trivia

1. It can be used on mortals, demigods, monsters, spirits, Titans, and even gods (though powerful deities are more resistant to it).
2. Although it is said to be a power of Aphrodite's children, beings with magical abilities or Loki's children are also able to use it.
3. Oaths made under charm-speak are valid and must be obeyed, despite the promise being made against their will.
4. However, Damian does claim in *The Missing Solider* that Hermes can be "very convincing" and Andrew, his grandson, was described by Zora to be "charming" when explaining how he convinced her to betray the camp, though whether or not this is via charm-speak is unknown.
	1. Although Hermes is just very skilled in negotiation and argumentation, as he demonstrated in *Caspian's Miscellaneous Myths* when he negotiated with Apollo for, he does not kill him and being capable of trade with Apollo the shepherd's pipe for his golden staff, sword and knowledge of the art of prophecy (although he can't teach the last).
5. A case could also be made that children of Athena may have this ability, as Athena herself has been able to talk her way out of trouble even with her temperamental father even during the rebellion. As the Goddess of the Arts and Wisdom, any argument she or her children make would be logical, passionate and sophisticatedly beautiful. While not driven by love, it would be just as potent.