Section 52: Terrible Transgressions

Athena drops her books!

Poseidon: OH MY GOODNESS!

Percy: HA! Now she can punish herself, too.

Hermes: Athena, are you sure you're feeling well? Temperature is 37 degree Celsius or not? Should I call Apollo?

Poseidon: I simply am incapable of expressing my thoughts for this unforgivable misdeed? How could you PERFORM such a vulgar act? You have treated your own sacred possession with such…such blasphemy! I can hardly—

Athena: Oh, SHUT UP, POSEIDON! And since when did you learn such long words?

Poseidon: Do not drop this matter! This—

Athena: I'm not dropping it, I'm telling you how it happened. Weren't you the one who bumped into me yesterday while coming out of the terrace?

Poseidon: So? THAT doesn't matter. You should still have been able to protect the books? Tripping is no excuse for not being able to protect books! You have completely ruined your image. The goddess of books—

Athena: Since when do you care?

Poseidon:… dropping books! Now you can take off that curse from my son.

(Everyone silent for a few seconds)

Annabeth: What was this?

Connor: An epic argument of the gods? We're videotaping it right now.

Zeus: STOP videotaping us! Poseidon, has your tiny brain finally cracked under the pressure?

Poseidon: No, but I think Athena's has. She actually, really, genuinely, truly dropped her books!

Athena: By accident. And it was you who bumped me. I'm beginning to think you set this all up.

Poseidon: Ha! Don't you always say that I don't have the brain capacity to cook up plans? So why be suspicious now?

Athena: Well, that's true. But….

Poseidon: Oh, forget it, Mistress Owly. You need to remember only one thing: you have disgraced yourself!

Dionysus: Poseidon has a point here. You're not doing anything to me next time I drop one of your fifty—ton history novels!

Hermes: And neither am I getting torched if one of your Spanish dictionaries gets lost in the mail.

Poseidon: See? Now these innocent people will stop getting punished for things they do not have in control. They will be free to exercise their own will. Independence will reign! Freedom will rule! Liberty will have a voice of its own—

Annabeth: Oh GODS. Now I know where you get your dramatic genes from.

Percy: Is that supposed to be a compliment?