[Chapter 6] ?: Be John

AN: Okay so now that the Gigapause has ended I guess I should probably say that this story takes place during the Gigapause. You know, before all that *ahem* stuff happened. If you are current on Homestuck you'll know what I'm talking about. Anyway, as for the Heroes of Olympus, this story takes place after House of Hades, because I haven't read the last one yet. I'm trying to make this story as canon as possible, buuuut I'm probably just going to ignore everything that happened in the last Homestuck update and continue writing as if the Gigapause was still a thing that was happening. But you never know, I might incorporate some of that stuff later. (Sorry this note was so long) Anyways on with the story!

The "mysterious boy" turns out to be John. You are totally blown away by this startling and unexpected realization. The question mark kid? He's John? Really? Huh.

Okay Moving On

"So," I say, turning back to Chiron. "How about that prophecy? It's pretty prolific."

Annabeth stares at me like she can't quite figure out what to make of me.

Her stormy grey eyes scrutinize me like I'm some kind of death omen. I haven't the slightest clue what's going on. Someone had better tell me who these people are ASAP.

"So," I say again, "Does someone wanna tell me, I don't know, who you all are?"

"I could ask you the same question." Annabeth says, though her voice is slightly detached and she still has that look like she's trying to stare through my head and analyze my thoughts. She scowls slightly as she looks at me, then makes the executive decision. "Rachel will you take our new addition to the Hermes cabin to get situated? I have to talk to Chiron for a minute."

Rachel nods with a friendly, albeit nervous, smile. "Sure no problem Annabeth."

"Thanks."

Rachel beckons me with a nod and I follow her, though I'm strangely aware of Annabeth and Chiron's eyes locked on my back as I leave. Well this has been pleasant…

Finally we walk out into the open air. For the first time, I take in my surroundings. So of course, there is the big house that I was in. It seems like a pretty important building to me – sky blue, four stories high, strategically placed at the top of the hill. We walk through several patches of strawberries, pass a rock wall that appears to be oozing lava, and are almost hit by an airborne watermelon some kid catapulted from the top of one of the Cabins for some reason.

"Leo what are you doing up there?" Rachel shouts as she dodges the high-velocity produce.

That's when I recognize the curly-haired kid from before. He smiles down at Rachel with a devilish grin and an almost psychotic look in his eyes. "Making war preparations! Take that Mother Earth! Gaea and her army of Giants shall not triumph against my makeshift catapults and the melon bombs provided by Piper's poultry vomiting cornucopia!" Leo shouts back.

Rachel makes a face like 'ew' and mutters something about Cabin 9 and their deadly "inventions" before Jason makes his presence known behind us.

"He's just upping our defense is all. I don't think he's actually planning on using fresh fruit as a main weapon against one of the oldest gods. At least, I hope not. The kid one time tried to take on a Giant with nothing but a box of breath mints, so I guess it's a possibility."

I turn around to face Jason, who is looking up at Leo with an inquiring look on his face. After a moment he shrugs and meets my eyes. "So," I say, "What's all this talk about gods? And who are you people? Why do you have a giant wall that oozes lava? Why do you talk about evil Mother Earth? Who's Gaea? Is she Mother Earth? Why is Mother Earth evil? What war are you preparing for? Can I help? Also where should I stay? And what should you call me…?"

"Whoa slow down!" Rachel says with a laugh. "Okay, I've got to go, but maybe Jason could answer your questions for you?" She looks up at Jason with a smile and says, "He was in your shoes once after all. So he'd probably be the best person to talk to about getting situated at a Camp for half-gods without a memory."

"Half… gods?" I ask. No one answers me.

"Bye whoever you are!" Rachel says. And with that, she turns and runs back to the Big House. Weird. Then again, I have a feeling I've met weirder people before so…

Jason smiles halfheartedly. "Don't worry I'll explain everything. Follow me." He starts walking down the hill closer to the crazy kid flinging melons. He holds his arms out as he walks as if to gesture to the land all around us. "Welcome to Camp Half-Blood. If you're here, it means you must be like us. Which is to say, you're part god."

"Okay, everyone keeps mentioning gods and not explaining why."

"How much do you know about Greek and Roman mythology?" Jason asks.

"Um, Zeus is like, the king god and Kronos ate his babies and Cupid is a fat baby with wings – "

"That's actually not true. You probably don't want to say that or he'll get offended."

"Wait… are you trying to tell me that all these gods are real?"

Jason nods. "And every one of the people you see are their children. Including you."

"Me?" I start, pointing at myself. "No, no that's not possible. I mean I couldn't be… no that doesn't make any sense." Me? The son of a god?

"It's the only thing that would make sense, actually. You see, mortals can't get past the barrier to Camp Half-Blood. If you were human, it wouldn't have been possible for you to land in the lake; you would have been shot somewhere else. And you wouldn't know this, but while you were passed out we gave you ambrosia, a healing drink that would have killed you if you were mortal. I know it's a lot to take in, believe me I do, but kid, you're part god."

"Oh man, I don't know how I feel about this…" I say. "Does this mean I have weird godly powers? Geez there are like, a million of those guys aren't there? Which one's my parent?"

"We don't know." Jason says, "It's likely that you've already been claimed, given that you're what, sixteen?"

I shrug. "Sounds about right. Okay, so if all of you people are the children of gods, who are your parents?"

"Mine is Jupiter."

I give him an incredulous look. "… I thought that was a planet…"

Jason cracks a grin. "It is. The planet was named after my father, Jupiter. You see the gods have gone a little bipolar lately, ever since the Greeks and the Romans started to mix. Jupiter is Zeus' Roman personality."

I stare blankly. "You know what, I don't want to know."

Jason laughs. "You'll figure it out after spending a couple of days here. Anyways," We keep walking down the hill towards the crazy kid. I do not want to talk to the crazy kid. He kind of freaks me out; crazy eyes, imp face, melon launching. Nope. I want to talk to normal people for once in my life. Jason continues, "These are the cabins. Each one is dedicated to a different god and their children all stay together. The Roman camp is different, but you don't need to know about that right now. All you need to worry about is getting settled in the Hermes Cabin, and learning how to fight before Gaea makes her move. Have you ever picked up a sword?"

"Sword? No that was always Dave's thing."

Jason stops. "Who?"

I scratch my head. "I don't know. Fuck not having a memory. Anyway, as you were saying…"

"Right, we need to teach you how to fight before the battle really breaks out. Me and some friends are heading back to Greece tomorrow, but you'll have to stay here and help defend the camp with Reyna and Nico."

"Why are you going to Greece?" I inquire. The middle of a war seems like an odd time to take a vacation to me, but I mean, that's just me I guess.

Jason shoves his hands in his pocket, looking somewhat distracted. "Long story." Finally, we arrive at a cabin which I take to be my temporary home. "We're here." Jason says, taking a step to the door. But I freeze. For some reason, my eyes are locked on the caduceus etched into the door. It's making me feel uneasy, which I know it shouldn't, because a caduceus is a symbol for like, a doctor and by extension, good health. Isn't it? Oh man, I'm going nuts. Oh, gosh.

"Uh, you okay dude?" Jason asks.

"Me? What? I'm fine. I'm awesome. Whee!"

Jason gives me a look.

"I'm great! Fantastic! Wow this place looks so rad! Did I mention how awesome I'm feeling?! Because I feel great!"

I mentally facepalm. What the actually hell is wrong with me? What the fuck was this: "Whee!" I do not make that noise. I am a man. Like Nick Cage in Con Air.

God that movie is so sweet.

"Um, we can come back here later if you want…?" Jason suggests, giving me a quizzical look.

"That thing you just said, that sounds like a good idea. Let's do that thing."

Jason raises his eyebrows but says nothing. "Okay, I'll show you around some more – "

"Jason!" A guy's voice shouts from the top of the hill. It's that Asian kid, What's His Face. Shoot what was his name… too many people/demi-gods/psychopaths. I am so done with this. And troll girls. Troll girls are the worst. ß(WTF DOES THIS MEAN).

"What's up Frank?" Frank. That's right… gotta remember that one.

"Chiron wants us in the Big House. They want him to come too." Frank says pointing at me.

"Ugh!" I groan. "Annabeth is just going to keep giving me those creepy looks!"

"Creepy looks?" Frank says. "Like what?"

"I dunno! They're looks and they're creepy! And that's all there really is to say on that matter."

"Uh, okay then." Frank says, deciding to ignore me. "I'm going to gather up the rest of the seven…. And you take him to the Big House. We'll meet you there." Franks voice audibly wavered on 'seven'. Clearly stuff is going on here that I don't fully understand. I'm calling shenanigans.

"Sounds good." Jason says. "Alright, let's go."

And with that we make the trek all the way back to the first place I remember.

Zeus: Be Jupiter

Zeus can't be Jupiter right now because Jupiter is too busy being Zeus. Dionysus just talks to Hera instead.

"I'm Juno."

"Right, July." Mr. D says. Juno scowls.

"Why are you here Dionysus? Can't you see we're dealing with a crisis? You're lucky we even sent you back to Camp Half-blood, given the current circumstances."

Mr. D looks displeased. "I know, I know, just listen. A child appeared at Camp Half-Blood earlier today – "

"Is this supposed to mean something to me?"

"Yes he – "

"Children appear at your camp all the time. That is what it is there for, remember? Or have you found a loophole in the terms of your curse and have started drinking again? Are you intoxicated, Dionysus?"

Mr. D scowls. "No, Juno. However, taking recent events at that horrible little camp into consideration, I will undoubtedly be drinking to my heart's content prematurely."

Juno's eyes flash. She keeps her outward composure in check, but Dionysus's threat has set her on edge. "What would make you say that?"

"We're all royally fucked." Dionysus says. "Like I've been trying to tell you, something's happened. A boy was pulled out of the lake today without a memory. You wouldn't happen to know anything about this would you?"

Juno scowls. "I do not."

"Well, we took the boy in, and the Oracle of Delphi accidentally gave him a prophecy. The prophecy was… quite distressing."

"Out with it already, Dionysus!" Juno snaps. "I do not have all day and you are trying my patience."

Mr. D scowls "It said something along the lines of 'blah blah blah Lord of Time/blah another session's knight blah blah/ something about Fish Boy blah blah blah/ blah Heir blah Seer blah blah.' The point is, when the boy heard the term the 'Lord of Time' he mentioned… He mentioned Him."

"Him?" Juno says. "I'm not sure what you are implying – "

"English. He mentioned English. The Lord of Time. Not only this, but the prophecy in itself mentions a session and two more of the Game's titles. Juno, this is not a coincidence. I think it's finally happeni – "

"No." Juno says, holding up a hand. Her eyes are fierce and cold. "I will not hear this. It is not going to happen any time soon. Do not speak that name. Do not mention that "game" in my presence. Right now the only one we need to worry about is the Muse of Life, who is currently threatening to destroy our only habitable planet. Do you understand?"

Mr. D clenches his fists. "No. Juno, this is a problem that really needs to be addressed. I know you're scared. Hell, I'm scared. But nothing is going to come of us not addressing this issue. Either way, the boy is here, without a memory, and this time you are not responsible for taking his memory. The only name he remembered, is that of a demon we've all learned to fear. His new prophecy alone references the game enough for us to be certain that it has something to do with his appearance. Juno, it's happening. If you don't believe me, you are welcome to come back to Camp Half-Blood with me right now and see for yourself."

Juno seems to think things over for a moment then decides, "No. But bring him here along with the other seven. I will call a meeting of the Olympians to hear you out. This better not be a joke, Dionysus."