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Chapter Text

Cody hitched the backpack higher on his back and waved to his mom from where she was leaning on their blue station wagon at the bottom of the hill. She grinned and made a little shooing motion with her hand. Cody rolled his eyes. He was aware he was walking into a hell of his own making. His mom had been brutally honest about the state of the Messenger’s cabin. Cody already had plans in place to fix it. He just needed to get a feel for the place before he called in his team. And to do that he needed to suck it up and deal with hanging out with a bunch of ADHD children in close quarters.

He sighed, turning his back to his amused mother and began trekking down the hill towards the cabins. He had experience in his previous life with demigods; Penelope’s fosterlings were well behaved, but extremely hyper. But back then he had had a room to himself to retreat to and at least nominal authority over them. Now? He was to be one of their peers. There was no way this could go wrong. Except for all the ways it could.

“Hi,” he smiled at the first demigod he saw, a son of Harvest he thought. “I’m Cody, my mom just dropped me off; it’s my first time in Camp.”

“Hi,” was the cheerful response, “I’m Brady. I’ll take you to see Chiron and he’ll get you set up with the orientation video.”

Cody blinked slightly. That was it? The extent of the security of Camp? He could be anyone! Then reality clocked him in the face. He was currently twelve years old. What threat did he present to the more experienced camper. Not that he was inexperienced but he could see why Brady thought he was. Still processing he was led to Chiron, who waved him away with barely a glance and told Brady to set him up with the orientation video.

“That’s Chiron?” He asked Brady, leaning into his age as he fished for information.

“Yeah,” Brady admitted, “don’t take his attitude personally, he’s not really been into his training of heroes thing lately.”

“But the video will answer all my questions?” Cody asked curiously.

“No,” Brady snorted, “it’s actually kind of terrible. Your Cabin Councillor should answer any questions you have. Do you know who your godly parent is?” He asked leadingly.

“No,” Cody lied shaking his head. “Does that matter?”

“It’s not ideal,” Brady grimaced. “It means you’ll be put in with the Traveller’s cabin. And they don’t really have a Head Councillor at the moment.”

“Why not?” He asked innocently. In reality he knew it was because the last Councillor turned out to be a traitor, but that wasn’t public knowledge yet.

“Some stuff happened.” Brady said awkwardly. “And they can’t decide who’ll be the new Councillor.”

“Huh,” Cody hummed. “That makes sense. It must be an important job. Is there a vote?”

Brady raised an amused eyebrow.

“A vote?” he ventured sceptically. “That would require organisation. Which is one of the reasons there isn’t a new Councillor. None of the candidates are very organised.”

Cody sighed.

“That means I’m not likely to get my questions answered, doesn’t it,” he lamented rhetorically. Not that he really needed it, but the fact that an actual twelve-year-old could be experiencing this level of neglect stuck in his craw a little.

“Nope,” Brady decided firmly. It looked like the older demigod had had some sort of revelation, and a new determination burned in his eyes. “I’m going to take you to Clarisse. She’s Councillor for the War cabin and will make a good mentor for you while the Messenger cabin sorts itself out.”

Cody blinked.

“Okay?” He queried, confused.

“She will also,” Brady enlightened him, “bully the Messenger cabin into taking care of you.”

“Really?” Cody asked sceptically.

“Oh yeah,” Brady snorted. “She’s a real personality is our Clarisse. The Messenger cabin doesn’t stand a chance.”

…………………………………

Two weeks later, Cody had to admit that Clarisse was a force to be reckoned with. She had indeed given him a perfectly tailored run-down of Greek Mythology in modern times. Even if half of the things she’d mentioned were the result of Cody and his mother’s outreach programs. Not that Cody would tell her that. Still, even he’d managed to learn something new. The Lotus eaters having moved locations was indeed significant, and not something he could get intelligence about from the Underworld. After all, the whole point of the Lotus Eaters was that their victims took a long time to die. And that they had no clue what killed them afterwards.

Clarisse had also shamed the rest of the Messenger cabin into taking better care of their younger campers, Cody included. They were still arguing over who would become Councillor, but someone was always deputised to ensure they attended their lessons and activities, and there was a head-count to ensure everyone was in bed before curfew. It was much less crowded than the summer session, which did help when wrangling the children, but there still weren’t enough proper beds for everyone in the cabin. And Cody was going to change that, today.

Everyone was gathered for a game of Capture the Flag in the woods, meaning Camp would be deserted for the next little while. They had been keeping track of Cody and the other young campers, assigning them menial jobs that would keep them out of the thick of the fighting. However, there weren’t enough older campers to partner up with the youngsters and to provide a sufficient fighting force. Which made it cake for Cody to slip away and make an Iris Message. His team moved in the very next minute, darting over the Camp border and fetching up at the Messenger Cabin where Cody met them.

The thing was, as long as they waited for official permission to change the cabin there would be no response. After all, there were Twelve Olympians, and twelve cabins. Renovations to one, would mean renovations to all. To keep the balance of power fair. If, on the other hand, you framed some renovations as a prank, and only one of the current occupants were involved, the others being outsiders… there was a lot of leeway. Cody would never try this with one of the other Olympians cabins, except maybe the Sun god’s. But he knew Hermes. The god would be delighted by both the prank, and the cleverness involved. He loved mischief.

Ruth, an adult daughter of Hecate and the one in charge of the team took command immediately. They had only an hour or so to make these changes before they were caught, and they definitely wanted to make a clean getaway. First, she ordered her team to yank out everything that was already in the cabin, co-opting Cody to do so as well. With several demigods working together, they quickly had a pile, including the beds and toiletries outside the cabin. And a lot of evidently stolen goods, although they were talking about the cabin of the Thief god.

Not wasting a second, Ruth and two more of her siblings stepped forwards and started their enchantments. Expanding space charms were a staple of Hecate children, but permanently anchoring them to a building took a fair bit of effort. Cody winced in sympathy at the frantic chanting and paling of their complexions as they expanded the inside of the cabin inch by inch, foot by foot. It wasn’t anything fancy; no extra rooms were being added nor any wards or traps or anything you might expect in an enchanted building, but the massive cavernous space they ended up with had maybe twice the space of the Big House. Definitely enough for their purposes.

Next, while Ruth and her accomplices sat down to recover, the two Hephaestus children of the team got to work expanding the existing plumbing for the single lonely toilet the cabin featured. It took them at least half-an-hour to set up the bathroom space to their satisfaction, which was phenomenally fast, but had Cody glancing at his watch every few seconds, twitchy that someone was going to come back before they’d even reached phase two. To speed things up, once Ruth had recovered more, he asked her to divine which belongings belonged to which camper, what stolen goods should be returned to other campers and which could be reallocated to their thief. The neat piles that he helped her make of everyone’s belongings at least soothed his need to do something as time ticked away. It wasn’t a nice prank if everyone’s stuff got mixed up or lost. He was aiming for awe, not hysterics.

When the plumbing work was finally done, not that even the best mortal team could compare to the speed with which the two Hephaestus demigods, James and Laena had managed it, it was time for phase two. And the contents of the Bags of Holding, which were helpfully labelled with the donated contents. Apparently, there were a lot of adult demigods who felt strongly about the state of the Messenger cabin and wanted to contribute.

“Beds first,” Ruth decided. “How many of the Hermes beds do we need Cody?”

“There are five kids here now that are Hermes kids.” Cody replied. “Plus, a sixth that should really have been claimed, so you can include him too. I’m a grandchild of Hermes, so I’d like one as well, seeing as I’m saying nothing about my godly parent.”

“Bet you’ve been claimed already you little mischief,” Ruth chuckled fondly, but pulled out the required beds and handed them off to the rest of the crew to be installed. They were only going to place beds for the campers already there, and leave the rest to be handed out once the summer campers returned. The Bags of Holding, neatly labelled as they were, would be going in a new storage area of the cabin.

“Two children of Nike and a son of Iris,” Cody continued. “Another three Hecate children. And five unclaimed, or just not saying, like I am.”

“And this is after the summer session?” Scoffed James, even as he collected the required beds and went off to set them up.

“We warned you it was bad,” Ruth retorted, reaching for the remaining Bags of Holding containing furniture.

“Not this bad,” James grumbled as he installed a tricky screen.

“It’s always been this bad,” Ashala a daughter of Aphrodite said flatly from where she was touching up some paint.

The sound of a hunting horn cut off any more conversation, as the crews heads all came up to stare at the woods. It seemed that the game had been won and they were out of time. There was a rush to return belongings to the correct bed and then the entire team was booking it back across the border, only pausing to ruffle Cody’s hair on their way past. Cody himself slipped away, darting into the shadows and emerging at his designated station in time to avoid suspicion. He couldn’t wait to see the faces of his cabinmates.

…………………………….

Travis sighed to himself as he led his cabinmates back to the cabin. They hadn’t been victorious in Capture the Flag this week, but that wasn’t what was upsetting him. Nominally he was one of the oldest and so should be the Cabin Councillor after Luke’s betrayal. In actuality, he didn’t have the temperament for riding herd on a bunch of kids, nor for the administration of running the Cabin. He could cheer up a sad kid no problem, he and Connor were pros. But when it came to discipline Travis was a lost cause. See exhibit A.

Cody Lennox, the twelve-year-old unclaimed demigod. Trouble with a capital T. And Travis’ responsibility. Travis knew that Cody had snuck off during Capture the Flag. He had no idea what that kid was scheming, just that he was. Occasionally, Travis thought that he might be a spy sent by Luke. He might try and act normal, but Travis was the son of the God of Lies. He knew falsehoods when he heard and saw them and Cody had a lot to hide. But Cody wasn’t malicious, far from it. He helped out Rachel, the youngest of Travis’ siblings, without even thinking about it. Cuddled her after nightmares before Travis had even woken up, helped her out with her schoolwork, showed her dagger tricks. Rachel absolutely adored him. Travis hadn’t missed the subtle way Cody had been helping out the older campers either. If he wasn’t only twelve and unclaimed Travis might even put him up for the Councillors position. The gods knew Travis didn’t want the position.

Travis was jerked out of his thoughts as he came to an abrupt stop at the front of his cabin. At the newly painted cabin. Gone was the peeling paint and the impression of neglect, the caduceus hanging over the door looking refreshed and a proper symbol of his godly father. In place of the boring brown paint were instead numerous murals depicting his father’s deeds of helping demigods. There he was, offering winged sandals to Perseus. Another depicting him guiding Hercules down to the Underworld for one of his labours. There was even an incredibly detailed illustration of him handing the wind bag to Odysseus. Travis paused and squinted at the painting of Odysseus; he looked incredibly familiar. Where had he seen…? He shrugged it off; it was probably nothing.

Pushed on by the excited whispers of the entire cabin behind him, Travis stepped up and opened the door. And walked into the best thing that had ever happened to him. The entire cabin was like an entirely different building! For one thing it was expanded inside TARDIS style. For another, there was actually nice furniture in the building and the crappy, falling apart, beds which were the previous luxuries had entirely disappeared. The gasps and shrieks of awe made by the rest of his cabin mates massed up behind him seemed almost like an understatement.

To begin with, the scene they’d stepped into was an extremely cozy sitting area. There were two massive squashy couches facing each other at right angles to the door. A low, beautifully carved, coffee table set between them. Several bean bags were scattered about around the floor, as well as plenty of comfortable armchairs, perfect for curling up in. Screening off where the bedrooms presumably were, was a work of art, a tapestry depicting some of his father’s greatest deeds woven with incredible skill and stretched via a wooden frame to conceal the space beyond. All in all, it was clear that this was a hangout zone designed for more than just the Messenger cabins occupants. There was even a bookshelf bulging with games tucked into one corner.

Almost in a trance, Travis drifted into the next “room” expecting to find the bedroom. Instead, he found an enormous library. The shelves were all warm cherry wood and carved with elegant depictions of his father’s deeds, shading towards communication this time instead of his other domains. The shelves were already crammed with books, one segregated off that held only texts in Ancient Greek. The others were in a range of languages, but Travis could pick out at least one title despite his dyslexia. The Art of the Con sounded like a great addition to the cabin if he did say so himself. He was definitely hogging that one. Blinking and looking closer at the shelves, Travis squinted at them. Was that a hidden compartment? How appropriate for the cabin of the Thief. He grinned. He’d have to find out all the secrets of the new cabin. He couldn’t wait! But there seemed to be even more to discover. The cherry wood screen that concealed what was beyond also looked like it had a lot of secret compartments, even as it displayed Hermes and his first trick; stealing his brother’s cows.

Travis shook himself out of his contemplation and stalked through to the next area. As expected, the next area was the bedroom. And what a bedroom it was! Not only was it big enough that you could comfortably house the summer load of campers, but the beds that had been set up were works of art. Seven beds were clearly for the actual children of Hermes. They were solid four posters, carved with caduceus’ as the posts and his father’s sacred animals playing around the headboard, and the curtains when drawn would, again, display his dad’s great deeds. They were tasteful, but Travis was sensing a theme with these decorations. The sheets themselves also displayed caducei and some extra blankets featured winged sandals. There was enough room behind the curtains for some privacy, each encompassing a bedside table, a chest at the end of the bed for belongings, and cupboards under the bed to store anything else. Travis was just betting they had secret compartments built in as well.

There were four poster beds set up for the minor god’s children as well. Each displaying the deeds of their respective god on the curtains and symbols on the bedding. It was more respect shown to the minor gods than Travis had really expected. But they were the same quality, if not the same theme as the rest of the cabin. The unclaimed even had themed beds, a white pegasus with widespread wings set onto a bright blue background. The posts even had feathers carved into them. It was an amazing way to show they were valued and Travis loved it! Unfortunately, he had more experience with his father than most other demigods, and he immediately knew his father hadn’t done this. It wouldn’t have even occurred to him. Which meant mortal hands had changed the cabin into this amazing paradise, and most likely hadn’t gotten permission. Another thing to worry about.

Further into his tour of the new changes, idly listening to the exclamations of awe as his cabin mates found their belongings assigned to beds already, Travis had to admire the sheer skill involved in these renovations. The cabins lone toilet had been expanded on until there was a full bathroom suite that could cater to the many, many kids needing a shower in the morning. There was an office area for whoever ended up being made Head Councillor, along with an extra bedroom for whoever got chosen. Not that it had any furniture in it at that point, but Travis could read between the lines. It had open access to the office, that meant it was for the Head Councillor. There was also a great storage area, with neatly labelled bags, which stated the contents were beds, labelled by minor god, and his father. There was also clothes and toiletries labelled. Each were hung neatly on pegs or stowed securely on shelves, and Travis had almost had a heart attack as he realised that they were all Bags of Holding. He knew exactly how rare they were!

Well, Travis thought to himself, he now had to find out who had organised this. They were clearly destined to be Head Councillor. Maybe some discreet questioning around the Campfire tonight? Travis considered briefly if this was what Cody had sneaked off to do during Capture the Flag, before dismissing the notion. The kid was twelve, there was no way he’d even be able to lift one of these beds, let alone alter the plumbing. As it was it was going to be hard enough to herd his cabinmates out of the cabin to go to dinner. He’d better get started. After he checked out his new bed.

Chapter Text

Dinner that night was a jubilant affair for the Messenger Cabin. They were so very excited, narrating the changes to their cabin to anyone who would listen. Cody couldn’t play the excited twelve-year-old convincingly enough to fool everyone, he knew his own weaknesses and while he could manipulate with the best of them, he wasn’t the best at acting his current age. Instead, he sat next to a vibrating Rachel, who he’d taken under his wing, and input on her conversations, which was hopefully enough to allay suspicion.

Unfortunately, when the time came for offerings, it wasn’t enough to deflect attention from the absolute glut of gratitude Hermes was getting. After all, he hadn’t done anything and his curiosity knew no bounds. Cody should have expected it really, the god would definitely investigate and he had no sense of boundaries. Hermes cheerfully manifested himself in the dining pavilion the minute the offerings were finished. And it didn’t take him a second before he was blowing Cody’s cover.

“Darling descendant!” he crooned, throwing his arms wide as if gesturing for a hug. “What’s this I hear about improvements being done to my cabin?”

“It all mysteriously appeared while the majority of the camp were off playing Capture the Flag,” Cody deadpanned from the suddenly silenced Hermes table. “The common theory is that it was divine intervention.”

A delighted grin spread across Hermes face, blue eyes beginning to twinkle with mischief.

“I’m afraid Father had forbidden me from doing anything with my cabin,” the god admitted, faux sorrowfully. “I know I told your mother this when she asked.”

Cody shrugged nonchalantly.

“Must have been a prank then,” he brushed off. “I know how much you like those. Pretty sure it’s permanent too, so I would hope you like this one.”

“Oh, I do,” Hermes beamed, appearing on the bench beside Cody to pinch his cheeks. Ignoring the shocked reactions of the other occupants of his table. “Are you satisfied with the changes my most favoured of descendants?”

“I like them,” Cody conceded, scowling grumpily as he was dragged into the god’s lap for a cuddle. Did he always have to be so affectionate? Granted he had used a loophole to help out the gods children, but still. The guy had been stalking him ever since he’d been re-incarnated as his grandson. Did he really have no chill?

The next second, one of the god’s wide sweeping gestures managed to catch one of the unclaimed campers in the arm. The one that should have been claimed previously. Hermes’ action was immediate, lunging to grab on to the unsuspecting demigod with wide eyes. Cody, from where he had unceremoniously been dumped on the floor, groaned.

“Chris?” Hermes demanded of his captive in shock.

“Yes?” Chris answered back hesitantly. The demigod squawked when he was then dragged into a bone crushing hug by the god, who began sniffling with tears into his hair.

“I thought you died,” Hermes admitted emotionally. “After that hellhound attack when you were three. They killed Laura and I couldn’t sense you at all. Where have you been?”

“In foster care mostly,” Chris admitted bemusedly. “Mom told me to hide when the monsters attacked, and there was this massive flash of light that disintegrated half the block just a few minutes later. When the police found me, they stuck me in foster care until a satyr came across me at school.” He patted Hermes on the back, looking highly bewildered. “I hadn’t had any monster attacks, but Camp was better than my current foster placement, so I got brought here. I’ve been here for five years,” he admitted with a frown.

“You must have inherited really strongly from my concealment domain,” Hermes chuckled wetly, reaching up a hand to wipe away his tears. “Until I touched you, I didn’t even know you were there. I’m so glad you’re alive.”

“Is that why I’ve never been claimed?” Chris asked, ever so slightly resentful.

“I can’t get enough of a grip on you with my power to claim you even now,” Hermes answered, sounding slightly worried. “You are mine; I’ve been mourning you for years, but I can’t get through whatever you’re doing.”

“It’s probably unconscious,” Cody input from where he was still sprawled in the dirt. “He’s had no more monster attacks after the first one.”

“True,” Hermes mused. “Which will make it harder to turn off if you’ve been doing it most of your life,” he informed Chris.

“So, I’ve been preventing you from seeing me, and that’s why you’ve never answered my prayers and offerings?” Chris said slowly.

“Right,” Hermes nodded rapidly, tightening his grip slightly on Chris’ shoulders. “Any remote viewing or other application of my power seems to slide right off you. You don’t even have a Scent as far as monsters are concerned.”

“I can work on it,” Chris conceded quietly. “On trying to stop whatever I’m doing to block you out.”

“I would be very grateful,” Hermes told him softly. “I didn’t like not knowing you were alive. I’ll rely on your siblings for updates until you manage to get it right, there’s no rush.”

Thunder crashed above them and Hermes winced.

“That’s Father calling me back,” he informed them. He drew Chris into a hug again, before letting go. “I love you.” He told his children. “All of you. I’m very proud of you.” He smirked. “Including my clever little grandson, who gambled with a gods’ temper and won. Despite knowing better.”

Having gained the last word, Hermes vanished again, as if he’d never been. Except of course for all the metaphorical carnage he’d caused.

“I vote,” Travis said into the silence, “that we make Chris the Hermes Councillor.”

“I second that vote,” Connor stuck in. “He’s organised and responsible, and now dad’s claimed him, there’s no excuse not to.”

The rest of the Cabin debated briefly, before standing up in unison, and drawing an astonished Chris to his feet.

“The vote is unanimous,” Travis intoned to the shellshocked dining pavilion filled with the rest of the demigods who could only silently witness the fall out. Casually he raised Chris’ arm in celebration, taking advantage of his shock to ensure compliance. “Chris Rodriguez is the Councillor for Hermes.”

“Well, it’s about damn time,” Clarisse blurted from the War table. “I was getting tired of picking up your guys’ slack.”