Yay! A nice reception! I am pleased! Thank you!
RascalJoy: Thanks! This was a big help!
Sydy: Funnily enough, I've been rolling a PJATO/DW crossover around in my mind. But, this first. The other reference was also from DW. 'Bananas are good' is one of the 9th Doctor's catchphrases. Ten says it once too.
ReAdErSfEvEr: Oh, YES! I've seen both, sad to see Smith go T_T. Ten was always my fav, I CRIED on his regeneration. 'I don't want to go'. TTT_TTT SO BEAUTIFUL! Seen the 50th anniversary? So COOL!
Disclaimer: Nothing has changed here, and it never will.
WARNING: Spoilers for HoH! (Kinda goes without saying, but you know…)
Time to make a choice.
Percy was happy. He'd had his first dreamless night since Tartarus. He felt great, probably because he'd just gone swimming. He could keep up with the ship easily, and he'd bumped into some old dolphin friends from Long Island. Something about migrating (A/N: do dolphins even migrate?). They'd spent the last hour or so racing and having competitions to see who could jump highest out of the water.
Now, he was back on board, and his fellow questers were just waking up. The 'not-Leo' thing was well cleared-up, the monster attacks were slowly lessening and nothing weird was going on.
And then he heard the THUMP.
"How did I jinx it with my mind!?" he muttered, pressing his fingers to his temples. THUMP. THUMP. The noise was coming from Jason's cabin, which he was passing in the hall. THUMP. Okay, now it was just mocking him. Slowly, he uncapped Riptide. You can never be too careful.
As he drew near the door, he heard voices.
"Ouch, will you just-"
"That's my foot-"
"Okay, you go that way, and I'll-"
"OW!"
Percy was confused – he could hear Jason, but who else was in there? There were no screams of terror, so he assumed Jason wasn't dying and put away the sword. He knocked twice and opened the door.
"Hey, man what are you – WHAT!?" Percy gaped at the scene in front of him. Jason gaped back. All seven of him.
Seven Jason Graces were awkwardly trying to detangle themselves from the enormous seven person pile that was on his bed. Apparently, he'd split over night. They all stared at Percy like he'd grown a third eye. Then, with a groan and a CRASH, the bed collapsed.
Before Percy could decide between helping him – them – up and simply going back to bed, the others came running.
"Jason? What was-" Piper broke off when she saw her boyfriend (boyfriends?). Annabeth groaned and buried her head in her hands, like 'Not again'. Frank was so surprised he turned into a rabbit. Leo's eyes went wide as dollars (A/N: Okay, in Australia, we have dollar coins. I'm not sure how big other currencies are (sorry). Dollars are around 1-2cm across, which is around two-thirds of an inch, I think.). Hazel simply stared.
"That." Piper finished.
Soon, they were once again gathered in the mess hall. Annabeth took the head of the table, as per usual. Percy and Frank sat on opposite sides of the table, closest to the exits – just in case.
"Okay," Annabeth brush some hair out of her eyes. "Firstly, Leo, I think you want an explanation?"
"Nope. I woke Jason up after I saw some weird stuff on the ship's security footage, just last night, in fact." Leo answered breezily. Frank frowned.
"Security footage?" he asked. Leo realised everyone was staring at him oddly.
"Not in the cabins!" he threw up his hands in exasperation. There were general sighs of relief all round. Seriously, what do they get up to in there? Percy was still frowning.
"What about the training area?" he asked. Leo's eye twitched slightly as he tried not to smile.
"Yes, even there." Percy turned slightly pink. Leo considered telling him not to be embarrassed; he had a wonderful singing voice. But he decided against it. Annabeth didn't know what was going on there, but there were more important matters at hand.
"Alright, we've done this before." She addressed the seven Jason's. "Introduce yourselves – by personality, not just as 'Jason' -, no you're not leaving, you are helping us brainstorm things you can all agree on, let's wrap it up before breakfast." Annabeth folded her arms and looked at them. In short, she was hacked off with Hera. They had a quest to complete, for Hade's sake! End of the world, ring a bell?
"Honesty." A Jason with bright, happy, yellow eyes piped up, waving at them.
"I'm Storm." This one's hair stood up crazily and seemed to have lightning in his eyes.
"Would you be the crazy, creepy one?" asked Leo. Storm shook his head.
"Lightning powers are common among Zeus's kids." Unlike Fire. There was no need to say it aloud.
"Hey," This one was plain old Jason – blond hair with a groove and level blue eyes. "Fire's made to be crazy and creepy. It has nothing to do with you, man." He addressed the room confidently. "I'm Leadership, by the way."
"Guilt." He looked sad and his eyes were dark, murky green, like shadows behind cellophane.
"Over what?" asked Percy incredulously.
"Doesn't matter." said another quickly. He had neat hair, perfect posture and dark eyes that continuously moved, like he was noting and calculating everything in the room and beyond. He nodded politely. "Caution."
"Courage." said another proudly. He had a confident smile and royal purple eyes that sparkled like, Yeah, bring it on world!
"Romance." Said the last one, who had pink eyes. He gave Piper a grin.
"Hey, Leo had a Romance too!" said Frank.
"On this ship, I think everyone has a Romance, Frank." said Leo. He grinned easily, but was a little concerned. His Romance wouldn't have told them about Calypso, would he? Leadership noted his hidden nervousness. He'd intentionally left Calypso out of the story last night, thinking he'd made Leo feel awkward enough. Hazel sighed.
"Okay. So, now, what are you going to agree on?" Everyone looked expectantly at them. Surprisingly, Courage shot Leadership a look.
"It would be nice if we could agree on something." he said pointedly.
"Not this again." sighed Guilt. Leadership glared back at Courage.
"I stand by what I've already said on the matter." he said.
"Well, we have to decide! You both know we do!" snapped Honesty. "Let's stop putting it off and choose!" He looked directly at Leadership, speaking calmer. "If we're, well… honest with ourselves, we want to stay at Camp Half-Blood."
"We have duties at Camp Jupiter!" cried Guilt.
"Not anymore," said Courage. "Frank's Praetor now."
"And who's going to help him?" snapped Leadership. "What, we just throw him in the deep end?"
"Reyna's Praetor too. She'll teach him." said Romance. Guilt shot to his feet.
"Y'KNOW, AFTER WE'VE PUT REYNA THROUGH, MAYBE WE SHOULD STOP TAKING HER FOR GRANTED!" he shouted. He continued a little quieter, but only a little. "You're just saying that because we love Piper!"
"Exactly!" yelled Romance. "That's why we have to go to Camp Half-Blood!"
Suddenly, they were all on their feet, arguing. Courage, Romance and Honesty wanted to go to Camp Half-Blood. Leadership, Caution and Guilt felt obliged to aid the Legion. Storm tried desperately to stop the fighting. Courage shoved Leadership. Leadership shoved him back. Soon, all six would start brawling.
Storm jumped on the table and shoot mild electricity into the air – just enough to make everyone's hair stand up in a cartoonish sort of way and the lights flicker.
"WHAT IF WE HELD A CONTEST?" The six Jason's turned to him, suddenly interested. Storm hesitated. He'd only been interested in stopping the fighting. A contest could resolve this, or it could make it worse. He shrugged. You could get struck by lightning – does that mean you shouldn't risk going outside?
"So, we hold a contest – say three events – and the winners choose the camp. Team Greek," he gestured to Courage, Romance and Honesty. "Versus, Team Roman." He gestured to Leadership, Caution and Guilt. "No arguing at the end, no 'if's', no 'buts', no swaps and no hard feelings. OK?" The Jason's started nodding. The idea made sense.
"Or!" said Annabeth. Was she the only one who could see how badly this could go? "You could talk to each, sort out your differences and come to a mutual decision! Won't that be fun?" They stared at her strangely. She smiled hopefully at them.
The two new teams shook hands. Annabeth face-palmed. The questers groaned.
"Let the games begin!"
Whoo, it just got INTERESTING! Don't forget, I welcome Piper and Hazel plot ideas and don't forget – LOVE CURSE or SILENCE CURSE? (seriously, I can't decide, help me out here).
Or, if you have a nifty curse to throw in, go ahead. I'm open-minded.
Till next time!