Chapter Text
Grover had figured out Percy was a demigod even before he’d been close enough to smell him. Humans are not that sort of eerily pretty, the type you can’t keep your eyes off of, but also know better than to touch. The type that makes you think of pretty, poisonous flowers, brightly colored and lethally venomous animals. But Percy Jackson is that.
He was the boy all the girls had crushes on, and all the other boys wanted to be. The only person that seemed to dislike him was Mrs. Dodds, and seeing as she was a monster Grover didn’t consider as really counting.
He is disappointed Chiron seems to be so wary of Percy.
He didn’t want to call Ms. Jackson, to speak with her about camp, and didn't want to get close enough to mentor Percy. Instead Chiron constantly seemed to shy away from Percy. It was frustrating, especially with Mrs. Dodds, and the too terrifyingly familiar scent she had.
Erinyes. One of the Erinyes.
(A girl, and a tree, and an uncle too angry to let her existence go)
She’s been at Windsor School since just after the solstice, and Grover just knows that isn’t a coincidence, but he can’t entirely decide why. Did the King Below know something he didn’t?
(His mind shies away from what god Percy looks so much alike, tries to hide behind the idea that the prettiness is the only divine thing about his appearance.
Aphrodite is of the sea anyway. Right? Right?)
Grover is still determined to make sure Percy makes it to Camp Half-Blood for the summer. While he’s not seen too many monsters around, the fact one of the Erinyes was around is a bad sign. Maybe her presence was keeping other monsters away? Not wanting to get into the way of whatever the King of the Underworld is up to?
Grover nods a bit to himself. After the trip to the Met today, the one Chiron had arranged, he’ll talk to Percy about camp. There’s only a month or so left of the school year, and wow. Grover really should have had this discussion before, thinking about that.
But a month is enough time.
Right?
Percy sometimes really wonders if people think he’s stupid.
That they look at him and just think ‘pretty face’ and miss he’s at the top of all his classes (if admittedly with extensive outside tutoring), and that the reason he’s a teacher’s pet is due to that (and if it had been for the former, his uncles would have committed multiple murders by now). It did, however, make it more obvious when a teacher was uncomfortable around him, or targeting him.
Such as Mr. Brunner, and Mrs. Dodds.
Or as he liked to pretend he didn’t realize, Chiron and Alecto.
He knows who his father is, and knows Mom’s plan to send him to the Greek demigod summer camp to investigate what has the Thunderbitch’s panties in a knot if he can. He can recognize the famous ‘Trainer of Heroes’ and an Erinyes. They aren’t even doing a good job of hiding what they are! Ah yes, the Latin teacher teaching Greek myths makes perfect sense. Or the mathematics teacher who spends most of her time being a complete bitch to him.
If nothing else, did both forget Clear Sighted mortals are a thing? He’s been reassuring Rachel since they were five that she’s not seeing things.
(Well mostly, but Grandma Rhea and Uncle Shamash had already reassured Rachel on what else she’s been seeing, and Grandma Rhea even gave him permission to keep any oracle or other prophetic types he finds.
He wonders if the Romans have noticed yet that he stole their augur.)
Percy adjusts his bag, stepping off the school bus and ignoring his classmates other than Grover and Rachel. Most of them were just hangar ons, looking to latch onto the Dare heiress, or wanting his attention. Annoying as hell…dating a mortal is not a good idea for him.
As they step into the Met he spots his Uncle Gil out of the corner of his eye, the man somehow staying hidden even though he was built like a wall and over six feet tall. Uncle Ea has to have given him something for that, no way he could otherwise stay hidden.
Percy zones out as Chiron gives his lecture, already knowing all the relevant myths. He’s been to this exhibition plenty of times before, and probably knows some of the myths better than the horse. Better to keep an eye on Alecto, especially since she’s a threat and this is a field trip worthless in his eyes.
On one hand, he probably could have had a more useful ‘sick’ day than this, on the other hand Alecto seemed to be getting more and more tense as time went on and it may be time to deal with her.
“Mr. Jackson, do you know what this stele is showing?” Chiron asks, making Percy actually pay attention to him.
Percy glances at the stele and has to bite back a snort. Of course that’s the one he’d draw his attention to. Of course.
“The Titan Kronos devouring his children due to a prophecy telling him he’d be overthrown by a son. Even though his oldest three children were daughters, he’d still consumed them, along with his older sons, Hades and Poseidon. Only Zeus, the youngest son and later King of the Gods, avoided that fate when the Titaness Rhea, Kronos’s wife, gave him a swaddled rock to consume instead. Zeus would later trick his father into consuming something that would make him vomit up his older siblings with help of the Titaness Metis, Zeus’s first wife who Zeus ate to avoid being overthrown by a child of Metis and himself, and then the Titanomachy occurred,” Percy says, keeping his tone casual. He also knows he’s messed up the timeline slightly just when Metis got eaten but meh.
(Why do deities never get that trying to subvert prophecy never ends well??)
Chiron gives him an almost disturbed look, probably due to his tone. Alecto on the other hand gives him an interested one.
It…it’s not exactly like it’s an unknown myth, what the hell. Why are they giving him those looks? Why. Chiron is literally a son of Kronos, even if a lesser one not considered a Kronide.
“Some academics speculate it’s a commentary on violent dynastic changes,” Rachel adds, with a more cheerful tone and a definite desire to screw with both Chiron and Alecto.
Grover is now giving them both a concerned look.
“Yes, that is…correct,” Chiron says a bit faintly, and definitely a look of regret for thinking that question had been a good idea.
Percy zones back out again, knowing Chiron won’t repeat his mistake of asking Percy a question again.
Gilgamesh does not like museums very much. He hates getting reminded that his time is ‘ancient history’ and something to gawk at, rather than respect and be in awe of. He’s even more offended that this particular museum doesn’t even have a section dedicated to his homeland. Instead it was shoved ‘Ancient West Asian Art’ and left to rot. But he is stuck visiting the stupid museum.
All because the Greek god of the underworld had decided to set one of his pets on Percy. Because this visit would be the easiest time to murder the irritating Erinyes, and slip the replacement teacher that Ea had ready at hand.
Why the god couldn’t do it himself is still not clear to Gilgamesh. They all knew sooner rather than later they’d have to show their hand to the Greeks. Sally would soon enough find her last two divine powers, and truly be Ishtar once more. Queen Rhea knows what is going on. They could probably have made a gamble but nooooo.
Oh well, at least he gets to kill something.
He tilts his head as he hears footsteps enter the closed off display area, and slips back over. He knows a man of his size should not be able to move so quietly or easily, but Ea had been generous in his boons and gifts to keep Percy and Sally safe. The god had been fond of him millennia ago, but not to the extent he seems now.
It’s not even like protecting Percy and Sally is a bad job. Ishtar had become much more tolerable in living as Sally, and the surreality of her raising a child aside, the goddess seemed weirdly happy in ways he didn’t think he’d heard of her before. Oh, it’s not due to motherhood. It’s due to being Percy’s mother. Any other child she’d probably have smothered in its crib. It’s simply something about Percy that made her adore him.
(Maybe because he’d been a really cute baby? Or maybe it was whatever led to the lingering fondness and sadness when Sally spoke of Poseidon to Percy?)
Gilgamesh is not surprised to see the Erinyes. He is exasperated to see Percy alone, even as he sees the twelve year old fiddling with his dangling earring.
The Erinyes opens her mouth to say something. It may even be something that could explain why the Greek King of the Underworld is hunting his nephew when he’s spent more than a decade ignoring Percy’s existence. Gilgamesh doesn’t really care.
Instead he moves swiftly behind her, takes her head between his hands, and twists, snapping her throat and then crushes her head between his hands for good measure.
He wipes gold dust off on his jeans, and feels something shift with a familiar power, as Ea manipulates things so his chosen teacher takes what he thinks had been Alecto’s place. Useful.
“I wanted to stab her,” Percy informs him.
“Thank you for demonstrating you got your mother’s homicidal tendencies,” Gilgamesh says, desert dry. “This was both less suspicious and more effective, or did you forget that you’re not supposed to have any weapons on you, let alone one capable of killing a monster of her class?”
Percy pouts at him in response, an expression that somehow manages to still be as endearing as it was when he’d been a toddler denied an extra serving of ice cream.
Gilgamesh raises his head as he hears a wheelchair approach, well after what could have been useful. The horse feigning paralysis appears, freezing at the sight of him and Percy with no Erinyes in sight.
“Yes?” Gilgamesh asks, meeting the almost panicked gaze of the horse.
“I’m sorry, I had been looking for Mr. Jackson. He had wandered off from the rest of the class,” the horse lies.
“My nephew was simply meeting me. I had been having a meeting here with one of the curators over an artifact I’d located recently on a dig and was discussing possibly displaying here,” Gilgamesh says, not even truly lying. He had spoken with a curator over something he’d located last time he’d been in Iraq. It had even been about a potential display! It’s just that the entire point had been Erinyes-murder. “I wanted to check in on him, since I had heard him mention something interesting about one of the teachers who was supposed to be on this trip a mister…Brunner I believe he said?”
“I am he,” the disguised horse says.
Gilgamesh smiles thinly.
“Then I must speak to you about how you’ve been treating my nephew in your classes. Percy, head back to your friends and remember to tell Rachel that she’s invited to dinner tonight,” Gilgamesh says.
Chiron blanches.
Gilgamesh’s smile deepens.
He can’t kill the centaur, but he can certainly traumatize the hell out of it.
The rest of the school year in Percy’s opinion is boring. Oh, it’s a bit fun messing with Chiron and Grover over the change from ‘Ms. Dodds’ to Ms. Ahmed. Especially since there had been some weird blonde woman who’d tried to take Ms. Ahmed’s spot and instead ended up Chiron’s TA. He’s pretty sure the woman has to be a Greek demigod, and he’s definitely side-eyeing Chiron having someone ready to go if ‘Ms. Dodds’ was eliminated, especially since it had been his uncle to do so.
Had the horse planned on finally doing something about the Erinyes? Or had he just had a ‘just in case’ plan in place in case, say, his father reacted as expected and triggered a fight with his uncle below by revealing Percy’s existence? After all, it’s not as if Alecto could prove shit. Hydrokinesis was common in children of all water gods, not just children of Poseidon. Children of Poseidon simply had some of the strongest, and he knows it wasn’t a universal power.
(From what his father had said once to his mother, Theseus had had earth manipulation, not water)
But it still was suspect. He knows that something had gone wrong on the winter solstice for Olympus, and that it had led to Chiron eyeing him, and a sudden Erinyes slipping into the school when he’s never seen a major chthonic anything near before.
Something is happening. He wants to know what. He wants to know what is stirring.
He wants to know if his mother will be endangered.
(Two more powers. Just two more powers.
The crown and the girdle, and then Zeus will pay.)
“So it’s at the end of Long Island? We might as well have pushed this off a week and enjoyed Montauk, or visited grandma at Shelter Island,” Percy whines to his mom. The stupid camp was probably only a twenty minute drive away from Montauk, or a short drive from the Shelter Island ferry!
She side-eyes him. “You know perfectly well why you’re starting this quickly. If we linger at all, doubtless Thunderbitch will make a move seeing as he’s bafflingly convinced you were the one to commit the theft of his little toy, even though we were in Boston and that’s easy enough to check.”
“And this way you and Dad can screw for a week without me being around.”
“Well yes. That is also an encouragement,” his mom agrees shamelessly. That had been a conversation Percy really wishes he hadn’t overheard, but his mom had a pretty limited filter. “You’ll spend a week unclaimed, then come the end of the week your father will claim you, and the following day send your Queenly step mother to open the cabin to all other children of the sea so you may make a court.”
It would also give him more influence and good will in general at camp. Why exactly unclaimed children and those of the minor gods lived in the Messenger's cabin rather than the empty cabins of the King and Queen wasn’t clear to Percy even though it would have made more sense. Thunderbitch’s domain includes xenia, and the camp sounds like a miserable display of it.
Good job at offering hospitality, you’ve put all the kids of ‘minor’ gods on the floor and disclaimed your own children, well done everyone.
No wonder a prophecy is rotting over Olympic heads.
(He kind of hopes at least part of it results in the gods properly caring for their children.)
“It makes sense but I still don’t like it,” Percy says, sulking a bit.
He loves spending time in Montauk or on Shelter Island, and he doubts being at this camp will allow him to spend as much time in the water as he’d like, plus he’s skeptical of how good the training will be there. The only real teacher his dad had mentioned being there was Chiron. Couldn’t they at least spring for Heracles? He’d love to be able to compare his cousin to Uncle Gil and Uncle En.
“Percy. This may be the only summer I”ll make you attend,” his mom says, keeping a hand on the steering wheel so she can squeeze his shoulder. “Our biggest concern is locating your uncle’s little toy and making sure his eyes are off of you.”
Percy resists pointing out how likely this is to result in Thunderbitcher’s eyes staying on him.
He knows his mom already is aware.
But maybe going forward Grandma Rhea will involve herself? He knows she has something planned for some time in the near future involving his paternal grandfather, but it had sounded like that was at least a year away. At least.
Also he’s not entirely clear why she’s planning something about him when he’s in Tartarus.
(If that something is his grandfather somehow getting out, he reserves the right to stab him for making his grandmother sad.)
“Still,” his mother says with a sigh.
“Fine. One summer,” Percy says with a pout. He’ll figure out how to deal with things if he draws too much attention. Or invoke his grandmother.
He’ll probably just invoke his grandmother.
He dozes off, only waking when he hears the car go over gravel. A haze covers a sign, but he forces his gaze through.
Camp Half Blood.
They’ve arrived.
Percy wonders if Chiron realizes how stupid it is to immediately show himself to two people he lied to repeatedly for months. At least Grover is young and clearly unsure of himself, but this is a millennia old centaur who’s raised multiple heroes. He should be at least slightly smarter than he’s shown himself to be. But nope. Immediately comes out instead of having any one else on the staff do it, even though that’s a better means of drawing them in.
“Oh, so you’ve stopped pretending?” Mom says, a slow smile creeping onto her face.
Chiron pauses. Mom’s smile turns sharp.
“I’m Clear Sighted,” she says flatly. “And you are obvious to any Clear Sighted individual. Please stop pretending to use a wheelchair, it’s frankly an insult to any who actually need one.”
Chiron now looks uncomfortable.
Did he seriously not think his mom would be Clear Sighted after driving up the path? Did he think his mom, his mother who sends him to a top private school, would decide to send him to some random, dinky summer camp for no reason?
“I…Yes,” Chiron says, clearly not saying what he’d intended to say. “I try to introduce myself to any new campers,” well that sounds like bullshit, “especially if I have previously met them.” Okay at least the last sounds plausible. Still likely bullshit, but more plausible bullshit.
His mom hmms, and Chiron shifts, now looking even more uncomfortable.
“If you lie to me or my son again, I will have you turned into glue,” his mom says even more flatly, making Chiron’s eyes go wide and Percy resist the urge to facepalm.
Well that’ll make it pretty damn obvious his divine parent has to be someone important for her to be so comfortable threatening Chiron, good job at being subtle.
…Actually wait, his mom is almost never subtle, never mind.
“I will…take that into account and only lie if there is no other choice,” the horse says, looking as if he’d rather be anywhere else.
In what sort of scenario would a lie be the only choice? He could only see it being the ‘only choice’ if truth would result in a death.
“Annabeth,” the horse calls, grabbing a blonde girl’s attention who jogs over. “Annabeth will show you around.”
“Hi,” the girl says, and her eyes are an unsettling gray he doesn’t really like. They’re studying him, as if looking for secrets she doesn’t deserve.
“Hi,” Percy says, not bothering to put any enthusiasm in his voice. He doesn’t have any real interest in being here, or even being shown around. He’s still holding his duffle bag, and for all his strength he’d still like to put that down in whatever cabin he’s meant to stay in rather than wander around with it. He gets the impression she won’t give him that time.
The girl (Anna something) frowns at his lack of enthusiasm, as if not understanding him, not admiring, or at least being stressed. Why would he be any of those things? He’d been dropped off by his mom, this camp is kind of pathetic, and he didn’t exactly get chased in by monsters (Uncle Gil and Uncle En had cleared the area before hand, apparently finding the Minotaur for some reason).
“Percy?” Mom says, drawing his attention and making him turn. “I’m going to head to Montauk.”
“Okay,” he says, hugging her and feeling her kiss the top of his head. “Say ‘hi’ to dad for me,” he adds quietly.
When he turns back to face the blonde (Annalou?), she seems almost irritated, as if she’d somehow missed that the woman he’d been standing next to would be anyone but his mother. What, did she think a mother wouldn't drop off their child?
“Show me around,” he says, the words both an order but not.
“Fine,” the girl says, and he lazily follows her, still not really caring.
The cabins must be the temples for the 12 Olympians, he muses, quickly able to count. But that still seems a bit odd. Why only twelve cabins? There’s dramatically more gods than twelve, and per his father some of the campers are ‘unclaimed’. Why not make additional cabins for ever known god, or at least say, a cabin per realm? Underworld, Earth, Sea, and Sky? Why do Thunderbitch and the Anassa keep theirs closed, its not as if the Thunderbitch has children, and the Anassa has had champions in the past. She could always poke around the children of minor gods or the unclaimed for new ones.
The girl is still talking, and he’s still not really paying attention. Not until he sees five campers suddenly head towards them, and Percy can feel exactly what they are. Children of a war god, and since none seem bright eyed, he doubts they are children of Athena.
“So you're a new kid,” the girl in front says, cracking her knuckles.
“Yes. Are you going to say anything else obvious?” Percy drawls, thinking it should be obvious in light of him not wearing the hideous shirts everyone he sees is wearing.
He’s not wearing those. They look like a color a toddler would choose.
The girl goes to grab him, and it’s obvious what she’s going to attempt to do. It’s obvious what she even is.
A bully.
Percy drops his bag and grabs her arm, throwing her over his hip so she slams down hard on the ground. The others freeze, clearly not expecting that, and he punches another in the gut, and then sweeps the legs out from under another. The last two go at him together, and he gives them as little chance as he gave the others, dragging one by the shirt and down and kneeing them in the face, and then kicking the last in the crotch.
All five are groaning, and he rolls his eyes. Really, he didn’t even hit any of them that hard, and do they think just because he’s new he’s never fought? Really?
The blonde is staring wide eyed at him, as if she can’t believe what she’s just seen.
“Um. Let’s keep going,” she says faintly.
He picks up his bag, and even though he follows, continues to ignore what she says.
Percy pauses near the strawberry fields, ignoring the annoying blonde’s (Annabell? Annamarie? Something like that?) attempts to get his attention now that she’s finally realized she doesn’t have it. If she hadn’t figured out by his monosyllabic responses that he had no interest in speaking to her and still has no interest in her little ‘tour’ that isn’t his problem. It’s not like this is some complicated camp. Cabins that are insults to the gods, or monuments to their egos, little training grounds with a lack of appropriate teachers, friendly naiads in the lake, and the bafflingly limited water activities (since he knows he’s not the only sea kid here, what the fuck Chiron), and strawberry fields using child labor.
He strolls towards the strawberry fields, not entirely sure what’s caught his attention. He can vaguely hear the blonde stomp away, finally understanding she’s not going to get his attention.
Then he sees her.
Around his age, with brown hair the color of rich earth tied back in a bun, with green ribbon holding it, wearing the same hideous orange shirt every camper seems to wear, and knee length shorts. She’s kneeling in the dirt, hands buried in the soil as she encourages the strawberries to ripen. She must feel his eyes on her, and turns to look over her shoulder at him, letting him see beautiful eyes the color of new growth which meet his own.
Percy gulps, his own ocean green eyes widening slightly at the sight of her.
“Hello,” he says, thankful his voice doesn’t crack. Puberty is a bitch.
“Hello,” she says, drawing her hands out of the soil and patting the disturbed dirt down.
“I’m Percy Jackson,” he says, offering her his hand to help her stand up.
“Katie Gardner, daughter of Demeter,” she says, taking his hand. “Whose your divine parent?”
“They’ve not yet claimed me,” Percy says, pulling her up, and then taking advantage of having her hand to press a polite kiss against her knuckles. She flushes as red as the strawberries she’d just been ripening.
He can’t draw his eyes away from her.
(Is this how his father felt the day he saw Mom on the beach in Montauk?)
“Would you like to show me around?” Percy asks, offering his arm. He’d been raised to be polite in certain circumstances after all.
“Of course,” Katie says, placing her hand on his arm. “First, we’ve got the strawberry fields…”
Annabeth turns around when she doesn’t hear Jackson follow after her, or ask her to stop. Instead he’s offering Katie Gardner his hand to help her stand, and then pressing a kiss against the knuckles of the Demeter cabin junior counselor. Then he offers the brunette his arm, which she takes, and they start walking, with Jackson giving Gardner all his attention.
All the attention he’d refused to give her.
Annabeth clenches her firsts.
She’s not used to being as completely ignored as he’d been ignoring her. Being dismissed like that, especially for a Demeter kid. But Jackson had been apathetic towards speaking with her, even though she’d been spending her time showing him around. While it’s true at first she hadn’t been impressed by him, that had changed with the Ares campers.
Most campers, even those whose parents clearly knew they had slept with a god, didn’t really know how to fight before getting to camp. Luke and Thalia (or at least if Thalia had made it all the way) had, but they’d both spent more than a year running. Jackson had been dropped off by his mother, and showed nothing like the wariness Luke and Thalia had.
It meant in most cases, when Clarisse or her siblings tried to pull their ‘initiation’ thing, the new camper couldn’t fight back, or even if they did, needed a visit to the infirmary.
Not Jackson.
Instead, when Clarisse and her siblings tried, he handed them their asses so thoroughly they’d probably still be feeling it by Capture the Flag if Chiron refused to give them nectar or ambrosia. And he may, as punishment for trying to ‘initiate’ yet another new camper. But it had made Jackson go from ‘unlikely to get a quest’ to ‘almost certain to get a quest’.
(Maybe Chiron had already known and it’s why he’d been so insistent she give Jackson the tour?)
And she is determined to make sure she’s on that quest, proving herself, and showing that she deserves to be given quests.
Now, what would be the best way to prove to the gods that Jackson should be sent on something…
Hmmm.
Jackson had been able to handle the Ares kids with no warning.
Could he do it again?
Capture the Flag is only a few days away, and her cabin is allied with Cabin 11.
Mom, did you forget to claim a sibling?
Aphrodite blinks as she hears Silena’s prayer, absolutely baffled by that. She always claims her children when they arrive at camp. Always.
She peers down at Camp Half Blood’s pavilion, biting back a sigh as she sees the overfull Cabin 11 table. She still can’t fathom why Zeus is ignoring Chiron’s requests to open Cabins 1, 2, and 3 for use. Hera had approved! Poseidon had approved! Hera’s approval may be a bit suspect and she’s probably just looking for a new champion, but she had still approved. Poseidon always got tetchy about disrespect to other water gods. But for some stupid reason Zeus would not approve, and Chiron is too much of a coward to go against Zeus even with Hera and Poseidon’s approvals, and Aphrodite only can hope someone can force the matter.
(Maybe she should send a message to her half sister and tell her to smack her son upside the head?)
Still, she studies Cabin 11’s table, raising a brow as she spots a boy who can only be the one her daughter is praying about. Oh my. If she didn’t actually know better she’d wonder too. Certainly attractive enough to be one of hers, and even from here she can feel an oddly familiar thrum from the boy.
She’ll need to let Silena know that no, she has not forgotten a sibling, but do still keep an eye on the boy.
Since while the boy is certainly attractive enough to be one of hers, he’s still one face Poseidon.
And Capture the Flag is tonight, and may be able to explain the thrum under the boy’s skin. After all, a week has passed and she can’t see Poseidon allowing the travesty of his own child sleeping on the floor of Cabin 11 much longer.
(Maybe his mother had been a legacy of hers, or Venus’s? But that still didn’t feel quite right…)
She’ll watch to see how Capture the Flag went this time.
(Watching the boy who’s doubtlessly Poseidon’s son wander off with a daughter of Demeter to be shown around the woods and blushing at giving her a kiss on the cheek is adorable even if not helpful in figuring out if he’s a legacy of hers or Venus.)
Percy can’t help but wonder if someone dropped the blonde Athena counselor (Elizabeth? Annalise? Seriously he can never remember her name…) on her head as a small child. It would explain a lot of things about her, such as being stupid enough to insult major goddesses and think they won’t take insult (which still morbidly fascinates him after learning about it from Katie and Silena that she’s stupid enough to insult Horaphoros and Cythera of all goddesses; only the Anassa would have been worse).
“You just tried to use me as fucking bait, and have the gall to whine about me ‘leaving my post’ rather than allowing me to be ambushed by ten Ares campers,” Percy says flatly, staring (Bethany?) down. “I have to ask, are you a fucking sociopath?”
She looks like he slapped her, and opens her mouth in what’s probably some stupid defense that relies on Chiron covering her ass like the horse apparently always does. The Dionysus duo are great for gossip.
“No,” Percy says, cutting her off. “You, to reiterate, tried to use me as bait against ten other campers, with no intended support, all while fucking hiding like a coward in an invisibility hat. You’re stupid enough to insult major goddesses, and somehow think that isn’t going to backfire on you. Do you really think your mother will go against a Kronide and a council member who happens to be married to another council member, and the lover of a second?
“Do you know what Horaphoros does to those who insult her? The painful death of Kolantas for not showing her proper respect? The punishment Erysikhthon faced for chopping down her sacred grove? Do you think your mother will defend you, if Horaphorus wants to punish you?
“Or Cythera, who orchestrated the murder of one of my nephews all because he had no interest in sex or romance? Who made it so Diomedes, a mortal so favored by your mother some think she made him immortal, was betrayed by his wife and lost his throne? Do you really fucking think you’re so special?” Percy hisses.
“Do you?” Percy repeats, all as a trident glows over his head, a claim and implicit agreement of his words.
Cabin 3 is a nice cabin. Six double beds with chests at the end of each, with a dedicated bedroom for Percy’s own use. A massive pool and fountain made up the backwall, with small fish darting around the pool’s waters, along with an absolute dragon’s hoard of drachma. Katie had mentioned something called ‘Iris Messaging’ which he’d probably be able to use through the fountain.
Six double beds meant six other children of the seas and waters at camp, since he had a private room. Six other children who’d been made to sleep on the Hermes cabin for who knows how long, and who will soon have a comfortable home with him.
Just once his Queenly step mother should be arriving in the next hour. Queen Amphitrite apparently had no patience for wasting time, unless apparently it involved his parents in bed.
(Why had his mom felt the need to tell him that???)
Percy sprawls on his bed, enjoying having something comfortable to rest on after an uncomfortable week on the floor. If nothing else, why hasn’t Cabin 11 been expanded to allow for more beds? Even if they’re just cots, it would still be better than evacuation center. Hell, he wasn’t even sure everyone had enough pillows and blankets. He’d had a sleeping bag and pillow, but that was more because he thought they might do actual outdoor camping at some point. He’ll donate it to Cabin 11 once he’s got all the sea kids.
(What the fuck is this camp spending it’s money on? Shouldn’t the cabin with the most residents get the most money so they could all get taken care of?)
He closes his eyes.
Something is not quite right here, and he’ll need to figure out what.
Chiron knows the only chance of Zeus being calmed is for the Master Bolt to be found, and preferably found in a way he avoids humiliation. Percy Jackson needed to be an oathbroken child. Needed to be. If he was not, every hope came apart.
He’d sent Annabeth to guide him, assuming the Athena counselor would be the perfect person to capture Jackson's attention, and then she failed. She failed, and instead Gardner succeeded without even trying. All she’d needed to do was work in the strawberry fields, and that drew his eyes in ways Annabeth’s guidance had failed to do.
Dionysus watches him, expressionless. There is something unnerving in the god’s neutrality towards Jackson. Neutrality where there should be loathing, but instead it was neutrality. Instead it was the god allowing his sons to befriend Jackson, as the Demeter and Aphrodite cabins have. Instead it is the god immediately approving Queen Amphitrite’s demands for all children of water and sea to move into Cabin 3, and strongly implying he will force through the matter of Lady Hera’s own approval for her cabin to be used for the unclaimed and minor gods’ children.
(Did he intend to invoke Queen Rhea to do that?)
For all Dionysus groans under the unfair punishment from Zeus, now the god seems to be taking an unnerving stand. Making strange choices ever since Jackson arrived. Willing to court further punishment (though in doing something Hera actually wants, may be able to for once get the goddess’s protection, and it even be from his father, which is a very strange thing to think about. Then again, she did seem to have grown to tolerate Dionysus over the millennia, likely due to his marriage being a happy one).
“If Jackson is killed or maimed, this camp will get fucking drowned, you get that, right?” Dionysus says flatly. “That uncle will not tolerate harm coming to his youngest just because my father is shit at keeping track of his own object of power?”
Chiron gulps, having forgotten that when he’d sent Lee to ask for Jackson to come to the Big House. Ah. That may be an issue, but Poseidon should be willing to take pity on children? Hopefully?
Jackson arrives swiftly, once more not wearing the appropriate t-shirt. Much like an Aphrodite camper he refused to wear one, even asking if they were trying to teach demigods to dress like monster bait. They weren’t, they were supposed to create unity! And now all of the Demeter cabin and Cabin 3 refused to wear them too.
“What do you want?” Jackson asks bluntly, fiddling with the long earring he wore.
“Well, in my case, to be off to Olympus to deal with such stupidity you’d better off me turning you into a dolphin so you can swim to Atlantis,” Dionysus says to Jackson, earning the god a huff of laughter.
“And you?” Jackson asks, turning to look more directly at Chiron.
He explains the matter as Dionysus leaves. Explains why he thinks Perseus would be the best choice, and his own theories of who could be behind the theft (because who else but the King of the Underworld? Why wouldn’t he want to rule above as below?). Jackson looks thoughtful, no longer fiddling with his earring.
“Sure,” Jackson says, and something about the tone and look in his eyes unnerves Chiron. Something that’s starting to question the wisdom of what he’s doing.
Instead he allows Jackson to walk up the stairs to the attic to speak with the Oracle, who will hopefully agree that Jackson should be the one to find the Master Bolt. After only a few minutes Jackson returns, looking even more thoughtful.
“What was the prophecy?” Chiron asks, needing to have it said aloud.
(He avoids looking at the haze that is Annabeth in the corner)
Jackson rattles it off, something about his wording feeling oddly disinterested in saying it. As if it didn’t matter.
But as he finishes, Annabeth pulls her hat off, offering herself for the quest, the perfect possible option.
Jackson looks as unimpressed as he’s looked at her the entire time he’s been at camp.
“Not a chance in hell,” Percy says, smile cold and sharp. “I’m not taking some spoiled brat who thought it was okay to use me as bait for a meaningless game. I’m especially not taking someone so untrustworthy she’d spy on me.” He tilts his head in the same fashion his mother does, the same way her lions do on a hunt. “I will call my uncles. They’re both Clear Sighted and know this world, and I trust them much more than a twelve year old I’ve barely known a week and to reiterate, attempted to use me as bait in a stupid game. On top of that, why would I want someone my own age rather than an older camper with real experience or knowledge of the outside world?” Though admittedly, he’d likely only offer Katie the chance to quest with him. He’d grab one of the older Apollo kids if he didn’t want to involve his uncles, but since he was going to, he’d only want to trust Katie with the knowledge of them.
Annalee looks like she’s about to yell at him, and then a door slams behind them.
“He doesn’t have to take you, calm down right now,” Mr. D says, sounding as unimpressed as possible. Also bafflingly already back from Olympus. Did he want to turn him into a dolphin that badly? “And Chiron, we’re going to have a chat about you letting her spy on something like this,” he adds warningly.
Percy can’t resist side eyeing that. It had already been clear Mr. D was neutral to him, which is odd due to his half brother’s stupidity with Lady Ariadne (though then again he seemed more…irritated with the other campers not his sons? So why neutral towards him?). Polite neutrality was about all Percy could hope out of him, and he’ll take it. That is a deceptively supportive thing to do, especially with the hint of irritation that had flashed on Chiron’s face when he’d said ‘no’ to Annabeth’s ‘generous’ offer.
Interesting.
“I…”
“Know nothing,” Mr. D says. “You’re being an arrogant brat. Jackson is right about your age and having used him as bait in Capture the Flag. You are not special just because you’re favored by Chiron. You have risked seriously pissing off my very protective of his children uncle, who is presently already in a foul move over my father’s accusations. As is, I'm already trying to figure out how to handle him if he does find out about what you and those Ares brats pulled, because frankly my sister is not going to protect you, and neither am I.
“I’m guessing these are the uncles who taught you how to fight?” Mr. D asks, focusing on Percy and dismissing the blonde. She puffs up, but also keeps quiet, as if realizing how thin of ice she’s on.
“Yes. How to wrestle, sword fight, hand to hand, how to use a spear and archery,” Percy rattles off. They’d also taught him more than that, but Percy knows he’s tempting fate even to say that much. Too many hints and someone could decide to look too deep and may figure out what they’re hiding.
“Go call them. Tell them to pick you up tomorrow,” Mr. D orders. “And Annamarie, go back to your Cabin and if I find out you’re using your hat to spy like this again I will confiscate it. I don’t care if it’s a present from my sister, that is not what she intended you to use it for.”
Bethany stomps out, and Percy rolls his eyes. He gets they’re twelve, but she’s acting like a toddler told no for the first time.
“Is there a phone here?” Percy asks.
“Yeah. Two rooms over,” Mr. D says, gesturing to another closed door.
“Thanks.”
Chiron resists the urge to wince as Dionysus’s full attention hits him. He’d once trained the god, he could handle his temper, Dionysus respects him, Dionysus is…furious.
“What were you thinking?” he demands. “How well do you think my uncle would have reacted to a child of Athena questing with one of his sons, especially after she tried to use him as bait in that stupid game?! He would have had to fight multiple, larger campers, and if you don’t think someone endangering a child of my uncle’s with a spear, orchestrated by a child of Athena, especially after what happened to Pallas, you're an idiot.”
That is…an unfortunately fair point that hadn’t occurred to him. He just wanted Annabeth to be able to have a quest! He knew she could succeed if she had the chance, and this was the first one called in years. If she had succeeded in finding the Master Bolt Zeus may even favor her in ways he normally only does his own children.
“She is…”
“An arrogant little brat who hasn’t left camp in years,” Dionysus interrupts, echoing what he’d already said. “Jackson’s right to not want or trust her. She already broke his trust, great job raising her to be as hubristic as Jason! She’s going to get herself killed, especially since she’s powerless and fights with a dagger!”
“He wants to use mortals for his quest mates!”
“Clear Sighted ones who clearly trained him well, and are adults who can actually get him from New York to Los Angeles without having to rely on buses or trains! He came here with a sea-forged sword and I’d bet anything whoever these uncles are has either celestial bronze or imperial gold weapons.”
Chiron’s eyes widen.
“You’re the one who reported on how good his Latin is,” Dionysus reminds him. “He’s got uncles who know about this world and knew how to train him. New Rome allows for legacies, and we both know it’s perfectly plausible for Jackson to be a legacy on top of a demigod. I certainly wouldn’t be surprised to learn he’s a legacy of Venus. Either that or uncle armed them to keep that mortal lover of his safe along with Jackson. It’s obvious from Amphitrite’s words that she and he had been with Sally Jackson in between Jackson’s arrival and the claiming.”
“You are…feeling much more strongly than I would have expected on this,” Chiron says cautiously.
“Perseus isn’t Theseus,” Dionysus says. “That is a twelve year old who is likely a child of prophecy, and who the smart thing to do would be to encourage the loyalty of, since the one trait he and Theseus likely share is loyalty as a fatal flaw.”
Ah. That would do it.
“And Chiron? Let’s both be real. He’s taking Gardner with him and we both know it.”
Luke resists the urge to rub his temples after Annabeth leaves. Fuck. This could complicate his plans. Even if he'd be risking Annie on the quest with his first plan, it would still be easier than these unknown uncles of Percy, and likely Katie Gardner (who Percy seemed a bit obsessed with). The kid had already known about the Greek world in ways most don’t, and armed with such a specifically forged sword Poseidon had to already be hovering over him. He suspects the mysterious uncles are demigods, maybe sons of lesser sea gods. Those would be loyal enough to half raise and hide a son of Poseidon.
Okay. Unknown potential demigods or gods of unknown powers. A lot less easy to manipulate than some of the other campers. He’s also noticed Percy is a bit wary of him.
“Can’t make this easy for me, can you,” he mutters under his breath.
Kronos won’t let him not do something, but he can’t really think of anything other than cursing the shoes and hoping for the best. Admittedly Percy may realize the danger of wearing flying shoes when a sea kid, but at the same time if something happened to his regular shoes he may suck it up.
Fuck it, when Kronos torments him in his dreams tonight he’ll just ask for advice.
Dionysus watches the car pull up to the barrier and two men get out. Both are built like brick walls, with the one just barely on slimmer lines than the other. They both feel oddly familiar, like a name on the tip of his tongue or a play lost for millennia. Jackson walks past him with Gardner (and proves he’d been right to think he’d take the daughter of Demeter on the quest), and Dionysus decides to follow them to the car. After all, he should try and figure out who these guys are. The Romans are not supposed to know about the Greeks, and he knows there’s been nothing out of New Rome to imply they’ve noticed something, but still, potential legacies are a threat.
(Sons of lesser water gods? He’s crossed paths with demigods of the Great Lakes a few times and these two have similar builds)
He turns at the sudden sound of a horse’s hooves behind him, and watches Percy do the same. Unsurprisingly it’s Chiron, even though Dionysus can’t fathom what the centaur wants. He’s already repeatedly antagonized Jackson, and based on the suddenly bland look on Jackson’s face he isn’t going to trust shit coming from Chiron. Not after apparently trying to gaslight the kid over the Erinyes, or letting Annabeth be Annabeth.
(The thing is, he actually feels bad for the girl. Being Chiron’s favorite isn’t a good thing, and honestly is screwing her over. He won’t let her learn lessons she needs to, indulges her in ways he really should not, and almost put her in a situation that would at minimum result in her getting maimed, if not killed. Jackson did not like her, and as much as loyalty is a fatal flaw of children of the sea, she’s not got that loyalty, and sea kids can also be utter bastards to those they don’t like.
Theseus had not killed Creon of Thebes quickly or cleanly when he’d realized the other king was refusing to allow the Argive appropriate rites.)
Chiron freezes as he reaches them all, eyes on one of the men.
“Ah, using your real appearance now?” the broadest man asks, a slightly mocking lilt to his lips and why does he feel so familiar? And when the fuck did Chiron meet this guy?
“Hello again,” Chiron says stiffly.
“What do you want?” Percy asks, the boy not even bothering to be polite. “To give useless advice? To pretend you’ve done anything of help the entire time I’ve been here or at Windsor? Any training I’ve received I got through my uncles, any weapons I got through my father.” Then Percy smiles thinly. “Unless of course you’re going to hand over Riptide, my brother Theseus’s sword. Interesting to hear how you’ve had it and yet didn’t hand it over to me the second I was claimed by my father.”
“He has what,” Dionysus says flatly. Chiron had ended up with Riptide? How? That should have been in Poseidon’s hands, and he can’t imagine Poseidon risking Chiron telling Zeus about the possibility he had a son.
(Did he fucking steal Theseus’s sword?!)
“Yup. And since I know perfectly well from my Father that he’s had it for an unknown period of time,” oh, Chiron definitely somehow stole it, “so again, it should have been handed over to me immediately, not as I’m on my way out on a quest. Would you like to explain yourself now? Or would you like to explain yourself to my Father, my Queenly Stepmother, or my Princely brother? All apparently are very interested in that answer.” Jackson’s smile is as sharp as Riptides’s blade.
“I..” Chiron hands over the sword, which turns into a pen, hands shaking slightly. “You must start this quest quickly, I will explain myself when you return,” the centaur promises, and Dionysus can tell he’s full of shit.
He is definitely calling in Uncle P and Apollo to get answers.
(Wait, when had Percy met Triton?)
Dionysus watches as Percy holds the car door open for Katie, the daughter of Demeter blushing after they put their bags in the trunk. The other two, the two Percy calls his ‘uncles , start to head back to the car. Neither had given him their names but…
Finally he figures it out.
Finally he can name the taste on his tongue, this faded taste, the feeling of a millennia lost play.
Achilles.
Patroclus.
But he knows it's not them, having seen as recently as a year ago in Elysium when he’d dropped in to say ‘hi’ to Perseus. It’s not them but…
The slightly slimmer man looks back at him just slightly, a smirk on his lips.
And Dionysus watches Gilgamesh and Enkidu take their seats in the front of the car.