A/N: Aha! I'm back. Sorry for the delay, guys. Good lord, I had a frenzy of writing today. Today's a teacher workday and I was under the impression I'd be spending the entire day with my "Math Coach" who has yet to come and really talk to me. So I got all my new posters up in my classroom...and sat down to write. Everything else I need to and should be working on is at home...figures, so I did this.
ZOMG! Explanations!
Lil' Line O' Litiguous Lard: I own neither universe nor any of the characters.
Chapter VIII
Piper
A silent battle of wills was taking place between the demigods as they settled into what Piper liked to think of as a storytelling circle. Considering their personalities, such a battle was neither completely unexpected nor uncommon. What was strange about this one was between whom it was taking place. Annabeth and Hazel were staring each other down, nodding, shaking their heads, and making other small gestures.
Piper could see that Percy was following the silent argument as well, clearly torn about which side he wanted to land on. His face lit up with a sudden realization. Piper couldn't help imagining a light bulb popping on above his head.
"Captain," Percy said, "before we begin, do you think you could get a world map for us?"
The captain nodded and gave a hand signal to one of the crewmen remaining on deck. Annabeth was giving Percy a warily curious look, while Hazel was a picture of amazed gratitude.
A crewman came up with a rolled-up chart in his hand and handed it to the Captain, who handed it to Percy. Percy unrolled it in his hands so that Annabeth could see. Piper had never seen Annabeth's eyes bug out like that before. She watched as the blonde gulped and looked up at Hazel, giving a small nod.
Annabeth then turned her attention to the other five teens, who'd been watching the exchange with interest. "So," she said cautiously, most of her focus on the older boy that seemed in charge, "what do you know about Greece, Mr. Zuko?"
Leo let out a snort that quickly dissolved into a small fit of giggles, and Piper grinned. She knew exactly what had set the boy off, and if her read of Percy's quirked lips was right, he did as well.
The boy—Zuko—was thoroughly confused. "It's just Zuko, and what's gotten into him?"
Piper couldn't leave it alone for any longer. "I think he just made the mental connection of the name Zuko and the word Grease. Don't mind him; it's a cultural reference that we'll explain later." She ignored the confused glances the four demigods that didn't get the reference were throwing her.
Zuko blinked at her. "Ookaay. Sounds like a long story, and I am going to want that explanation later." The last he said with a small half-smile. Good, it looked like he had a halfway-decent sense of humor. "But in answer to your question—Annabeth was it?—the only grease I know of is the type used for cooking or to lubricate machinery."
They ignored Leo's redoubled giggles. "Ah, no…wrong kind of Greece. Greece is a country with a long ancient history. The Ancient Greeks had an entire pantheon of gods and goddesses to embody aspects of nature and their lives. The culture they developed has had massive impact on our culture today."
"Question," the dark boy—Sokka—interjected, "What are 'gods and goddesses'? The things you're talking about sound more like spirits."
"You don't know what gods are?" Jason asked, aghast. His reaction was understandable, considering he'd essentially been raised by the Roman Legion and had never really not known about the Gods.
Piper decided to intervene before anything bad came of this. "Calm down, Jason." She turned to address the boy known as Sokka, "I'm familiar with the 'spirits' you refer to. The Gods are a similar idea, but on a much grander scale. For instance, you may have a spirit of a specific lake, river, or forest, yes?" At the quintet's collective nod, she continued "Well, the Gods embody things greater than that, some physical and some abstract. Poseidon, for instance, is the god of the Seas, Storms, and Earthquakes; while Aphrodite is the goddess of love and beauty."
"Oh. So they're like Super-Spirits!" The boy said enthusiastically.
"Um…close enough, I guess." Said Annabeth, taking charge again. "Thank you for that, Piper. Anyway, those gods and goddesses…are real and still around today." She paused, awaiting the reaction she usually received when declaring this little nugget.
The others just stared at her for a few moments before the until-now silent bald boy spoke up. "Well, of course they are. I've met and conversed with a number of spirits, heck it's part of my job description. If the spirits are around, why shouldn't your super-spirit things be?"
"Um...okay, let's leave that one as it is for now and move on." Piper noticed that Frank and Hazel were now studying the tattooed boy with renewed curiosity. "Anyway, sometimes these gods and goddesses fall in love with a mortal, and sometimes children are born from these couplings. These children are called demigods. The seven of us are such demigods."
Now that elicited the right reaction. "Wait, you're saying you're half-spirits?" the boy called Sokka said incredulously. "How does that even work? Never mind, I don't want to think about it."
Zuko merely observed them with mild surprise and only mildly said, "Toph?"
The young girl in green and yellow piped up, "Oh, they're telling the truth alright. As much as I approve of anyone yanking Twinkletoes's over there's chain, they actually believe every word they're saying."
The eyes of all seven demigods snapped to the girl; even Leo was cut off in mid-snicker to stare at her in stunned silence. How had she been so certain of that? She hadn't looked like she'd even been listening, staring somewhere off to the side during the entire conversation. Piper looked more carefully at her under the girl's concealing bangs. She realized what had been off about the girl at the same time as Leo exclaimed, "Wait…you're blind!"
"Amazing powers of observation, Tinderbox. Yeah, I'm blind, what of it?" She shot back.
"I…just…um…" Leo, unable to answer the question trailed off into an embarrassed silence.
Toph just smirked, "I thought so. Back to the explanation now, sister!" The last she shot in Annabeth's direction.
Also clearly intrigued, Annabeth fought down her Athenian desire to question and continued. "Yes, as I said, we're all demigods. My mother was the goddess Athena, Goddess of Wisdom, Law, Righteous Warfare, Strategy and Skill. I inherited a good deal of my battle prowess from my mother, and she fell in love with my father for his intelligence and fascination with military strategy."
Percy quickly picked up the thread that Annabeth had left for him. "I'm a son of Poseidon, whom Piper already told you is the God of the Seas, Storms, and Earthquakes. I can control water, as Katie over there can attest to." Piper had to stop herself from facepalming. Percy had never been very good at names, and it looked like it was going to continue here. Zuko, Sokka, and the tattooed boy identified as Aang all had confused looks on their faces, while Katara was giving Percy an exasperated glare and Toph's mouth quirked up in amusement.
"Katara, Percy." Annabeth tiredly corrected as she massaged the bridge of her nose. Realization dawned on the three boys' faces.
"Katara, right. Yeah…I'm also guessing by the state of my clothes that you also saw that seawater heals me?" He directed his question to Katara, who nodded wide-eyed back at him. "Yeah, that was definitely a pleasant surprise for me the first time I found out. The storm thing I've only ever done in the middle of battle. I've made a whirlwind around myself when fighting a large number of enemies before, but it's very tiring. Earthquakes…yep, never caused one and never tried to. I'm pretty sure that's not one of the things I got from my dad."
Percy left things at that, although Piper knew he'd left out his absolute bearings at sea, his ability to control any sea vessel he was aboard perfectly and his ability to communicate with sea creatures and horses. It was good, after all, to hold some information in reserve.
Hazel took up the exposition next. "My father is Pluto, God of the Underworld and…other things found under the earth. I have some small control over groundwork and tunnels, and better control over precious metals and gemstones." Piper watched the shy girl speak and felt a pang of sympathy for her. Hazel had made great strides, but was still lacking in the confidence department.
Before anyone could question her, Frank protectively took the reins. "My father is Mars, God of War." He winced a bit. "It's not as bad as it sounds. Mars was more of a War-for-the-goal-of-Peace type of deity than one of carnage. I can use any type of weapon well with just a little practice…and Percy likes to tell me that I'm a good tactician." Percy nodded emphatically at this declaration, making Hazel smile. Frank had only mentioned what he'd received from his father's side and not his mother's. His shapeshifting would probably come out later, but he had not explicitly lied by keeping that information out. Well done. It looked like they were being careful of honesty levels with Little Miss Lie-Detector on hand.
Now it was Jason's turn, "My father is Jupiter, God of the Sky and Thunder. As such, I have control over the air and lightning." Boy had he left that empty, but technically all true. He'd left out his control over skybound creatures or the fact that he could actually fly. Heck, considering Percy's little laundry list from earlier, Jason was making himself sound completely wimpy.
Piper was broken out of her musings by an elbow to the side from Jason. Right, it was her turn. "My mother is Aphrodite. Like I said before, she's the Goddess of Love and Beauty. I didn't get much from her, as you might expect, but I've got a knack for being persuasive." She poured a trickle of Charmspeak into her statement to encourage them to believe her and leave it at that. Her Charmspeak was a distinct tactical advantage that could be neutralized easily, so she didn't want to give it away too early.
Leo had finished his study of the blind girl and was ready to finish off the round. "My father's Hephaestus, God of Blacksmiths, Craftsmen, Artisans, Fire and Volcanos. I can build and/or fix just about anything, and you've already seen my fire-creation and –immunity skills. And that's about it."
The others didn't seem to know what to make of all of this, but were saved from answering when a crewman tapped Zuko on the shoulder. "Sir, it's almost nightfall."
Piper watched as Zuko and Sokka's eyes widened and the two paled. "Thank you, Ensign, we were almost late!" Then the two spooked teens vaulted onto the giant fluffy flying monster, yelled "Yip Yip!" and took off eastward.
Felt completely lost as Toph began to laugh. Aang and Katara started to snicker not long after. Even the Captain had a small smile on his face.
The demigods exchanged glances, but no answer was forthcoming from the amused quartet. They were going to have to wait for their answer.
For those that didn't get the joke about Zuko's name, I'll explain it now. I was thinking Danny Zuko, as in the lead from the show "Grease." This led to some fun homonym play with Grease/Greece.
Here's also my logic for who got the joke:
Piper's the daughter of a movie star, so she's had a lot of exposure to the arts in multiple forms.
Percy grew up in New York City, which I think he would've had to at least heard some of the details in passing of the various shows around. His initial reaction was just because the name felt a little familiar; he couldn't place it until the homonym fun.
Leo got bounced around foster homes and such...plus he's an Engineering nerd, and being one of those, I know that there's a surprising correlation between the two interests. Plus, I just thought it'd be funny for him to get it.
Jason and Annabeth didn't get it because they essentially spent their childhoods at their respective camps. The play came out well after Hazel died, and she hasn't actually been trying to pick up on all of the pop culture she missed. Frank...well...I just got the feeling that that wasn't the environment he was raised in. As wonderful as his mom was, she and his grandma weren't the musicals types.
Review Responses!
HaideeAlmightyXD: Awww, thanks! I am definitely trying to keep everyone in character, even though it's not easy sometimes. I agree with you that one of the first things that'll turn me away from a fic is if a character, especially one I particularly like, is grossly out of character. Even though I'm not a Grammar-Nazi, when it's bad it does tend to jump out at me and ruin my enjoyment of an otherwise-great fic. I've really only been able to overcome that with one of the fics I read, and even then each new chapter is a war between completely enjoying the plot and wanting to grab a red pen.
fluddershy: In case you missed my post-edit on the previous chapter. Leo + Concussion = much less control over fire creation. Leo + Surprise = smoking/smoldering on any normal occasion. Leo + Concussion + Surprise = full-on spontaneous combustion.
awspairs: Yep, Toph's my favorite, too. I actually have a poster up in my classroom of Toph vs. the Weeping Angels. Leo's my favorite little mischief-maker in the PJOverse, and the two are each the 7th wheels of their respective groups...so yeah...
Azulabeifong: Refer to my comments to awspairs.
Green nook: Yep, and I would've loved to see the faces of my readers as they read that.
I look forward to even more reviews on this chapter!
To everyone else: Thanks for the reviews! I have no idea when the next update'll be. I've got a pretty hectic couple of weeks coming up.
I'll also take this time to plug my other two stories that I have going:
Gate-Broken Solitudes is an SG-1/Rise of the Guardians crossover that's been getting fairly rapidly updated...largely due to the fact that I got a bit of a buffer of material written. It's going to be relatively short. I doubt it'll go more than 15 chapters or so.
The intro to Between Worlds is up and I'll be adding to it when I have the time to sit and write it. It's a big ol' Eragon/Dragonriders of Pern/Drizzt Books/Cleric Quintet/Warlock of Gramarye crossover, which I largely know what I plan to do with it, just need to get down to the gritty details and write. I'll readily admit that it'll be updated rather slowly.
Tzapporah signing off!
Tzappora
