So, I want to do the demigod side of things. This is the result. Hope you like it!
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Percy's POV
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I'd only been at Camp Jupiter for two days, but I'd already heard plenty of stories about Octavian, legacy of Apollo and camp augur. I had no idea what an augur was, but it didn't sound pleasant. I also hadn't personally gone up to the lanky blonde, but I'd caught glances of him. He always had a long dagger at his side, which he gripped like he was going to gut his comrades. People respected him, but out of fear. Octavian seemed like a lonely, sour little legacy.
"You're staring again," Hazel informed me. I flushed bright red and glanced away. "Octavian isn't anything special," she whispered. No one else in the Fifth Cohort was paying us any attention. Frank included. Frank Zhang. Now there's a guy. He followed Hazel like an overprotective shadow. The affect wasn't lost since he practically towered over her. He was a big boy with an impish face. Not necessarily scary, but fiercely loyal. I liked Frank. And Hazel.
"Is he staring at Octavian again?" Frank asked, looking at me. Obviously, he had been paying some attention. He'd just chosen not to let on that he was. "Percy, Octavian is bad news. He's a sour thing, like bad candy. He looks sweet on the outside, but inside he's full of poison. He'd gut you faster than the stuffed animals he sacrifices. I should know. He's almost stabbed me a few times. He's a little dagger happy."
"You don't say?" I mumbled. But I couldn't help it. I let my gaze wander back over to him. He was seat hopping, laughing without humor with a few members of the Second Cohort. He wasn't anything impressive looking. He was of average height, and not very muscular. His blonde hair was cut close, in true Roman style. He wore blue jeans and a purple Camp shirt, like everyone else here. I think the only thing that was actually worth noticing were his eyes. They were crystalline blue, like the clearest sea where you can see the sandy bottom underneath. But those eyes didn't betray much. They constantly shifted like we were the enemy and needed a good poking with his dagger. Octavian got up and moved to sit with some people from the First Cohort again. "Who voted him augur?" I asked Hazel. She and Frank shared a look.
"Supposedly, he's got the gift of prophecy," Hazel replied at last. "He's just being a giant pain in the poddex about it though. I don't think he can really see anything. He just plays it up to appeal to Reyna and her crowd." I glanced at the lanky augur with new interest. So he was kind of like a book of spells. Mysterious and not trustworthy. Fascinating. "Don't get your hopes up Percy," Hazel said as gently as possible. "Octavian's not known for being warm and friendly. Especially to those who want to date him."
"I'm not getting my hopes up," I lied, forcing myself to turn to face her. I forced a smile. "I'm just observing him, that's all." Hazel gave me a doubtful look, but I smiled reassuringly and waved my arms around in an animated way. Soon I had her and Frank's attention as I made up a story. Though I wasn't sure how much of it was made up or not. I knew I'd had a life before coming here. I just wasn't one hundred percent sure what said life was like. I remembered a girl's name, Annabeth. Maybe she was my best friend or something. It didn't seem too far-fetched. "Here he comes!" I hissed. Hazel and Frank swiveled to watch Octavian make his way over. He plopped down beside me, and it took everything I had to not turn into a pile of fangirl mush.
"Hello Fifth Cohort," Octavian said breezily. His crystalline blue eyes travelled over me. "Well well, if it isn't our little amnesia patient," he purred. "How are you settling in?" Hazel shot him stunned looks. Apparently, he wasn't known for greeting new campers.
"Fine," I said with a little smile Octavian scowled at me. "What did you expect? So far, everyone's nice." Octavian rolled his eyes and shook his head.
"Show's how little you really know," he told me. "Listen Amnesia, Rome was full of backstabbers. Watch for real friends and real enemies." He let the threat hang in the air as he got up and walked back over to his own table. The rest of the members of the Fifth Cohort stirred uneasily. Invoking Octavian's rage was definitely not a smiled upon activity. I didn't want to upset the augur. I hadn't even been kidding when I said everyone was nice. So far, they had been. Hazel took me on a tour of the barracks, the bath house, and New Rome. The idea was a fascinating one. A place where demigods were welcome to settle down and live long lives? I might not remember where I'd come from, but I knew the idea was unheard of. Maybe I could bring Annabeth here. I knew she'd like it, somehow. It wasn't just her though. I wanted to stay here. Close to my new friends. And close to a certain blonde legacy of Apollo.
…
I sat in dad's temple and tried, unsuccessfully, to think. I was trying to bring back the memories of my previous life. I knew I didn't belong here. I heard it enough, especially when I called my dad Poseidon instead of Neptune. So I sat in Neptune's Temple, hoping that the memories would come flooding back.
"It won't work," a voice behind me said. I twisted, and found myself staring at Octavian's dazzling blue eyes. "The gods are closed off. They won't answer any of us." He leaned against the wall and casually ran his dagger over the fluff of teddy bear, like he was debating giving it a haircut. "They certainly won't give you back your stolen memories."
"Stolen?" I asked, the small amount of ice in my chest growing. "How do you know they were stolen?" Octavian mimed stabbing with me with his dagger, but instead plunged it into the teddy bear and spilling its innards. I gagged, even though it was a real person. "Was that necessary?" I asked him. He grinned.
"Probably not," he replied. "But it scares the shit outta people, so I do it anyway. As for your stolen memories, the stuffing told me. You caused quite a stir the first day you arrived, so I checked you out. Consider it the demigod version of Google. Anyway, it said that you would regain them once you go to Alaska. Not that I plan to tell everyone this." My stomach churned. My memories! Everything from my past life would come back to me! But…
"If I did get my memories back," I told him. "I don't think I could stay here. I…I don't belong here." Octavian snorted.
"It took you two days to figure that out?" he asked me. "No shit Sherlock. You most definitely do not belong here. But what do I know? I'm just the camp augur!" His eyes blazed fire, and I took a step back. This one scared me a little. This Octavian. "Look, it's your destiny, okay? I don't just toss out that word to make you feel good. You're supposed to go and get your memories back. Then you can get out of our hair and go back to wherever you came from."
"What if I don't want to?" I blurted. Octavian made a face like he sucked on a lemon. "What if I actually like it here? I can rewrite my destiny. After all, no destiny is set in stone." But Octavian was shaking his head.
"It would be dangerous to stay here," he warned. "You won't have many friends. Hazel and Frank can only help carry you so far."
"Then I'll make my own place," I insisted. "I'm rewriting my destiny Octavian. Try and convince me all you want. It won't work. I'm staying." An evil sort of smirk played on his lips, which began to tweak up at the sides. Wait, was he actually smiling?
"Then you are in for a world of hurt Amnesia." I gulped, afraid of him again. He had a way of playing with feelings, didn't he?
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Octavian's POV
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Stubborn little fuck. I was trying to send him on his way. Rewriting his destiny? That was practically unheard of! I wasn't one hundred percent sure it could be done. I hadn't been able to rewrite mine. You think I wanted to be camp augur? You think I wanted the gift of prophecy? It was like getting a gag gift. Funny, but useless. I loved putting on a show and scaring the shit out of people though. Teddy bear stuffing. Yeah, like that could actually tell the future. If it did, I'd stock up on more. Nonetheless, I had enough teddies to make the children's ward in a hospital turn over on its head.
"You look even more sour than normal," Reyna commented as I made my way to the bath house. I had my towel slung over my shoulder, and my swim trunks in place. Nothing like a hot bath with twenty people to calm your nerves, I always say. "What gives Octavian? It's not like you to actually, you know, care about campers.
"Yes, yes, I know," I said with a sigh, adjusting my towel so it laid across both shoulders. "Being augur comes with those kinds of things you know. But this one, Percy, he's got me confused. What demigod gets amnesia, but can still fight? And not like a typical Roman either." Reyna shrugged.
"He's quick to learn though," she pointed out. "He learned to fight as a group. A few more days, a haircut, and we'll make a Roman out of him yet." But I was shaking my head.
"His destiny doesn't lie with us," I said, feeling the usual pang of guilt. I hated lying to people. Maybe that was why I was turning so bitter. "His destiny lies elsewhere. Stupid sea brat thinks he can rewrite his destiny." I laughed without humor. "That's a good one."
"I don't know," Reyna said, making me glare at her. She glared back, and I dropped my gaze. There were a lot of people I could intimidate. She wasn't one of them. "He seems like he could get whatever he wanted if he put his mind to it. If he really wanted to be Roman, he could do it." I sighed.
"I know," I told her. "That's what scares me. What if he does it? I may not be able to control myself if he sticks around." I guess you could say I had a hidden agenda. See, the first time I laid eyes on Percy, I had to a double take. He seemed too good to be true. He didn't have the hair of a Roman. It was too long. It was also jet black. And his eyes. They were my favorite shade of green. Sea-green, I think it's called. He had a good few inches on me, also appealing. I liked tall men. Well, I liked men. Of any kind. Especially one like Percy.
"You can and you will," Reyna said with a hard look. "Don't scare him away now. Let him get comfortable with everyone first. Then we can decide what to do with him. Send him on that little quest you were talking about, or keep him here to be raised as a Roman demigod." Reyna left, leaving me to stare at the bath house. Suddenly, it didn't seem so appealing and refreshing. The closed off space would make me feel confined. So instead I went back to the barracks and changed back into my jeans and shirt, sitting down on my bunk. Reyna was wrong. If Percy stayed, I wouldn't be able to control myself. And I almost wouldn't want to.
…
Well, it's not a bad start. Or a good start. It's a medium start.
