And who is up for Capture the Flag? These two kids!
Yes, we're getting into the story of "Lightning Thief" in earnest now. If it seems to be following the plot of the original a little too closely, just bear with it, things are going to change pretty drastically. Well, besides the ways they already have.
Splitting the chapter into two parts, but it's worth it to get this posted today! Happy Birthday to Thalia Grace.
Disclaimer: I don't own "Percy Jackson & the Olympians".
The new kid took to Camp much better, much easier, than Thalia did. Which is to say, he was forgettable to a fault in the first week aside from an incident that involved Clarisse and her crony-siblings trying to give him a swirlie and instead getting soaked.
Weird, maybe a little funny, but ultimately that turned out to be pretty forgettable too. Some people still hung about, waiting for him to make a move, to be extraordinary like he was only pretending to be average, like the Stolls and that Annabeth Chase girl, but eventually they gave up too.
Thalia didn't like admitting that it hurt a little, how the Stolls were so quick to latch onto someone new like they did with her before Queen Hera dealt with them, pushed them away from her. On the other hand, she didn't care a lick what that girl Annabeth thought of her, she was the most angry, and judgey, person that she had ever had the displeasure to end up knowing. Hopefully nothing else would come of it. They wouldn't need to be dealing with each other anytime soon, thankfully.
Now the one thing that kept her wondering about the boy was how much attention Luke was paying to him even as everyone else's interest dwindled away. A whole week had passed by and Luke kept treating the new kid like he was some sort of protegee he wanted to take under his wing.
Of course, Thalia told herself that he probably did that for all the unclaimed children who had to stay in the Hermes cabin, at least when they first arrived, but a whole week seemed a little excessive. Probably wasn't a big deal though.
Didn't mean she was going to stop keeping an eye on that, see how things turned out.
What better way than to make sure that she was on the same team as those two boys then? And for Capture the Flag no less.
Yes, Thalia didn't put much stock in the majority of the team-building excercises that Chiron insisted that they run during their time at Camp, especially since an actual Quest rarely had more than five people (seven would be unheard of), mostly three, though in Annabeth's case it was a rare one-time solo journey. Perhaps the idea was that they would be prepared for anything, or at least to work with whoever was lumped together one Quest or another, often by the whims of the gods or the Oracle's vague prophecies instead of actual preparation or bonds of friendship. So in a twisted logic way, maybe it was best to prepare to work with anyone in Camp.
Either way, it made Capture the Flag a pain. They did it regularly enough that everyone knew the terrain of the forest well enough, and they worked with enough people (or at least with enough people with the same powers) so many times that it was clear which teams did the best, who worked with who better than others, and of course the ever popular 'who couldn't stand who'. Thankfully, Clarisse and Luke were the leaders of the largest cabins, and they couldn't stand each other for a multitude, really just a whole messy bunch, of reasons.
First reason, definitely, was that Luke was much smarter than Clarisse and just smart enough to make sure that Clarisse knew it. He was also smart enough to not be rude about it, but decided to be anyway, for 'shiggles'. (Thalia had to ask the Stolls what that word meant, that had been embarrassing.)
Through some adroit manipulations, and lots of passive-aggressive taunting, Luke's team outnumbered Clarisse's yet again. Teams were divided not by number of halfblood campers but by the number of Cabins, each counting as 'one'. This meant that even though the Hermes cabin had the largest (twenty-seven, counting unclaimed demigods) number of occupants, it would still be counted the same as Hera's cabin (where Thalia was still the sole occupant).
Between the Hermes, Athena, Demeter, and Dionysus' cabins under his command, Luke easily could afford to take on Hera's cabin as well without any handicap.
In the meantime Clarisse had the Ares kids (obviously) along with Apollo, Hephaestus, and Aphrodite's cabin. Artemis' cabin remained closed as the Hunt didn't make a stop (for which everyone in Camp Halfblood, including Chiron, Mr. D, and Thalia herself privately were grateful for), while both Poseidon and Zeus didn't have any children to fill the empty buildings dedicated to them...
Never would if Jason wasn't really alive.
"Shut up," Thalia muttered.
"What?" Another camper, looked like one of the unclaimed kids in Hermes' cabin, looked at her with some alarm.
"Hm? Oh, er," Thalia looked embarrassed enough to make it seem like she just was caught 'psyching herself out', though all she really felt was angry for losing control. "Pair up?"
"Nope!" Wheeling himself to their chosen 'base of operations', Luke wore an avuncular grin, one of many smiles (that Thalia was beginning to take pleasure cataloging) he had at his disposal that signaled that trouble was on it's way. "No buddy-system, we're spreading out."
"We could press for better advantage together," Thalia objected. "In groups of two or three we could cover more ground than they could, or as one single unit, half or a third of the team on a pressure offensive we could smash our way through any defenses they could build up in half-an-hour prep-time."
"We could," Luke nodded, looking pleased. "Nice job picking that out by the way."
Against better judgement, Thalia straightened at the careless bit of praise. "Thank you, but it still doesn't make any sense. Splitting up a larger group into solitary sentries and agents? The Ares cabin never sends it's people out alone, they never pick a fair fight if they can help it. We'd be at a disadvantage at every ambush, and that's not counting the Apollo kids sniping from a distance if any of us have to break cover-"
Throughout all her critiques Luke just nodded politely, secretive smile on his face, like she was being given a moment to be hysterical. It was infuriating and intriguing all at once, and Thalia found if she lost her momentum now she'd just end up feeling more foolish than ever before.
She knew what she was talking about, dammit.
"-cool, cool cool cool." Luke nodded once again as politely as he could be, and immediately followed with, "but I'm still going with the first plan. It's going to work."
"You seem very confident," Thalia admitted in her most carefully neutral, not at all visibly annoyed, tone of voice.
"He should be," spoke up Annabeth. She was looking a good deal more fierce in her armor, if that was even possible. Still no sword or spear, the daughter of Athena seemed to prefer that knife, with a buckler-type looking shield that must've been a custom job from Hephaestus' cabin, a little larger than a dinner-plate. "It's my plan."
She sure did stand very close to him, Annabeth was just behind and to the right of Luke. If it wasn't for the age difference and Luke's questionable ability to perform with his unspecific injury, Thalia would've thought they were a couple. At the very least she marked Annabeth as emotionally dependent on a mentor figure and Luke as either oblivious or casually manipulative of her feelings. As much as Thalia would've liked to have given him the benefit of the doubt, her training with Queen Hera taught her that better natures were fragile and untrustworthy, so she mentally marked the relationship down from a friendship to an intentionally one-sided crush. Hopefully, that would mean that Luke wasn't a pervert, just manipulative. She could understand manipulative people, that was almost half the training Queen Hera had put her through.
Of course, having been trained alone with Queen Hera without anyone else to actually practice these emotional and political machinations on? Maybe she was underestimating people. Or overestimating them? It was hard to tell most days, everyone was so different, except for one thing; none of them were as devious as the Queen could be. But she never would be prepared to ever make a move against Queen Hera, so what good did that do?
And what did it matter what Luke did and if he could perform or not? Or who was manipulating who? Or whose plan they went with? It was all just a fun game that Thalia couldn't care about winning anyway. Wasn't like it was life-or-death that she win and bring honor and glory to Queen Hera, Destroyer of the Unworthy.
Alright so many issues to unpack, after the 'fun' game of Capture the Flag.
"I assure you, you're going for the wrong plan" Thalia said, insistent.
"Mm, we'll see," Luke waved. "Take care! And remember, try to have fun! Make friends, and make good choices!"
Just a 'fun' game. "Is that an order captain?"
That got Luke to laugh, and of course it was a nice laugh that Thalia wouldn't mind hearing again as long as she didn't think he was laughing at her. "Of course not... you report to Annabeth."
The scary little blonde girl folded her arms, steely eyes narrowing. "The make good choices part? I'm not sure I can trust you to do that on your own. So do exactly as I say instead. That is an order. Understood?"
Every fiber of Thalia's being called for pummeling and humiliating this arrogant daughter of Athena, so she did as she was trained and buried those feelings deep down and added 'Annabeth Chase being herself' to a long list of slights that would be answered tenfold.
"As you command," Thalia agreed, and managed an impossibly sarcastic curtsy. She hadn't quite broken the habit, but she had different curtsies for different people at Camp by now; a sincere one for Chiron, a brief and perfunctory one for casual acquaintances like the Stolls (who could've been her friends but she didn't think that was possible anymore), an impressive and intimidating one for new arrivals like that Jackson boy, and one especially sarcastic for Clarisse and now Annabeth.
Let them think she was weak, she would have revenge for every single insult if Queen Hera proved willing.
And the Queen would be willing to defend her servant, as long as her servant remained true and played her part excellently.
What that meant was Thalia would have to play along and be the bronze-age cannon-fodder for this stupid game, following a stuck-up thirteen-year-old girl's battle strategy (or lack of strategy). Was that really such a blow to her pride? Like she hadn't been ridiculed and much abused by Queen Hera during years of harsh, miserable, merciless training?
(though Queen Hera preferred to call it 'mercy-free', the same way people might refer to food as 'organic' or 'home-made', since mercy was a cheap substitute for things like 'capable' in her eyes)
It was to teach her patience, for moments like this. For these people. Her 'peers' wouldn't be able to compete with her superior training and tutelage.
All she would need to do was swallow her pride and be a follower, just for a little while longer.
What was the shame in that?
Only little things like she was put on patrol with a few twelve-year-olds from the Cabin Twelve, and they gave her some distance like she had something embarrassing and contagious. And she couldn't help but think that her plan had the better chance of working, it really did. And that if she didn't contribute, when they lost she'd have to deal with Clarisse's bragging and unimaginative put-downs.
'So where was the princess when everything was getting dirty?'
'What, did you get your knees dirty and swoon missy?'
'Ooh, everyone watch out, she'll curtsy you to death.'
Not that any of that managed to get under Thalia's skin, no way.
... Yup, no way.
And besides, what would she even do if she did end up running into the Ares cabin? She'd just have to run or hide, Queen Hera strictly forbade her from using any of her natural powers as a child of Zeus, it wouldn't do for her to reveal herself before... whatever the plan was.
What would she even do if she got jumped by those jackasses? Well, she might have been taught a few tricks.
And yes, maybe she was thinking very vividly about how she'd go and use those tricks on some loudmouthed members of the Ares cabin.
But.
... But..?
"Forget this," Thalia put on her helmet and charged through the underbrush before the horns let loose. Her 'squadmates' didn't complain, probably were glad to see the weirdo from Cabin Two make a break for it and leave them in peace.
Fine by Thalia, there were some things she didn't need an audience to see. Just victims.
Queen Hera might have taught patience, but as it turned out Thalia had too much of her father in her.
