Chapter 15 - Getting jumped in an Alley
June 14. Seven days before we have to show up on Mt. Olympus or Perce here will get smited.
We were on the train for a little over a day, until we reached the destination. Denver, Colorado.
Annabeth said something about wanting to contact Chiron, so of course, the four of us went over to a car wash.
"Got any money Alex?" asks Annabeth, looking through her pockets for change.
"I have a single drachma, but nothing else. Why?"
She ignores me and says, "Grover. Percy. Do ya'll have anything?"
Grover fishes out a couple of quarters, and Perce gives her another two drachmas.
"We only need one..." she mutters and then puts the mortal coins into the slot for the car wash machine, turns the dial to "Spot Free Rinse", and presses start.
The overhead nozzle springs to life, and begins spraying water directly at the ground where Grover was standing. Grover gets soaked and says, "Somebody should have picked it up before we started..." and walks over to the now active nozzle in order to pick it up.
"What are we doing guys?" Perce asks, probably very confused about why the four of us were trying to take a shower in a car wash.
"We're doing an IM. Iris message. Goddess of the rainbow, and a messenger of the gods. She'll let us talk to people over long distances if we pay her," replies Annabeth, as Grover tilts the nozzle up, so the water is being hit by the sunlight, and soon a mini-rainbow is formed.
Annabeth takes a drachma, tosses it into the rainbow, and says, "O goddess, accept our offering." Ah, so that's what you say... should probably remember that for later. Very useful tool...
Annabeth continues and says, "Half-Blood Hill."
Nothing seems to happen until suddenly, we are having a Skype call with the porch of the Big House and a tall blonde Son of Hermes.
Annabeth gives off a sound that can best be described as a squeal (note - possible blackmail material?) once she sees who's on the other side of the line, while Perce just looks confused as to how he's seeing this from a rainbow.
Luke turns around and looks confused for a second, before smiling and saying, "Hey guys. Percy, Grover, Annabeth (another minor squeal, and it looks like some fixing of the hair), and Alex. How's it going? Ya'll aren't in trouble or anything..."
Perce says, "No, we're all okay. We just needed to talk to Chiron. Is everything okay on your end? You look tired..."
Luke sighs and says, "It's nothing major, just some campers acting up."
"Where is Chiron? We have to speak to him," I ask, not wanting to waste the money on the car wash machine.
"He's the one having to help with dealing with the campers..."
"Ah, okay then. Can we have you send him a message?" asks Perce.
"Sure, I'll be sure to tell him," says Luke.
Yeah, like hell you will. Anything that'll help our quest, you'll never do. Not like it matters all that much. There's only a few hard parts left in this quest, so it shouldn't be too bad.
Right before Perce was going to say something, a loud ass car pulled into the car-stall next to us, music blaring and subwoofers turned to the max. Not even I could have ever blasted music that loudly, even in my previous life...
"What's that? Are you guys on a battlefield?" asks Luke, only partially joking.
"It's a car, come on Grover. Let's deal with it," Annabeth says, as she looks happy to move away from the eyes of her crush. Grover on the other hand, can't take a hint, and I had to pry the nozzle from his hands, and Annabeth had to drag him away. Much to my, and Luke's, amusement.
Suddenly serious, Luke asks, "So what did ya'll want to tell me?"
Almost immediately, Perce starts to spill the beans on everything that has happened on our quest. Dang, I did not know that Perce trusted Luke this much. They must've gotten real close over the three weeks I was out cold in order to be like this.
Luke is listening with great interest to Perce's story, and I'm regretting this call more and more with every sentence Perce lets out of his mouth. I can't go straight out and say that Luke is not somebody to be trusted, but I gotta do something, or else Luke is gonna report a whole bunch of stuff to Kronos, and even though he probably did the same thing in the original books, the less information that Mr. Time Lord has,m the better.
Perce is just getting the part with Medusa, and I have to interrupt.
"Perce, we only got a little bit under a minute left, lemme take over."
Perce looks crestfallen. He lost his chance to be the spokesperson for the quest group, I guess. Regardless, he is quiet and I tell the rest of the story to Luke. Of course, I don't even mention Medusa, I do mention Echidna and the chimera, but all I say about them is that they said Zeus sent them, and I say that we are headed for L.A.
Perce then interrupts and says, "Well it's actually Santa Monica. that's the specific place we're going."
Dammit Perce. L.A. is so big that if we just told Luke we were going there, Kronos could never find us and send extra enemies, but if he knows we're going to Santa Monica... I guarantee there'll be a "welcome package" waiting for us once we get there.
Luke nods and says, "That's a good idea..." and it looks like he was going to say something else, but I was tired of trying to leak as little info as possible to this guy, so I "dropped" the nozzle.
"Shit Alex! You dropped it! The call ended..." yells Perce.
"Sorry man, it was slippery..."
There isn't much I can say, as I did drop it. Of course it was on purpose, but I still dropped it so I just let Perce get on to me for a bit. Annabeth and Grover return, and when Annabeth sees that the call has ended, she had the most conflicted face I've ever seen. You could tell that half of her was happy that the call ended, while the other half was disappointed that she couldn't talk to Luke.
"This dimwit here dropped the nozzle and ended the call," Perce says angrily while pointing at me.
Grover just shakes his head while Annabeth says, "Well it is about time that we got moving anyways... I for one am hungry."
The four of us wandered around for a little bit until we encountered a nice family diner that we could probably mooch some food off of. We hadn't eaten since the night before, and even though we were on a train and not running around fighting monsters, kids get hungry quick...
The four of us walked in and picked the booth closest to the entrance in order to make a quick escape if something not so lucky were to happen. Like what was just about to happen.
No sooner than the second the four of us sat down, six teenagers that looked as close as you can to being homeless, but still being allowed inside of a family diner, came over to our table. They had really thick dark red hair covering their entire body. Like those stereotypical Italian men and their chests, but this was covering their bodies. It wasn't even taken care of either, as all of them looked like they had the worst hair tangles you could get. Anywhere that their torn-up jeans and stained tank top didn't cover, there was hair. All six of them had abnormally large noses, and they were somehow all the same height, except for the guy in the middle. He was a good foot or so taller than the other five, who were just narrowly shorter than me. This is too suspicious to be normal.
I look over at Grover, and it looks like I'm right. He's sweating and looking very nervous, which can only mean one thing. The six of these dudes are some types of monster.
The only problem is, I have no clue what they are. I don't remember anything like this happening in the books, cause I'm pretty sure we just go straight from here to the Lotus Casino, then to hell. I cannot remember some sort of fight with six hairy teenagers, much less with six monsters.
It doesn't look like they were going to say anything, as they were just standing next to our table, watching us, so I was about to say something, but Annabeth beat me to it. "What do you want?"
This isn't good. It seems like Annabeth gets a little bit upset when she gets hungry, and I do not want to make some unknown monster upset. I look up at the hairy guys, hoping to not see a bad reaction, and I really shouldn't have, cause now I'm even more scared. Their faces conveyed one of the most primal feelings possible.
Hunger.
One was licking its lips, another I could swear was thinking of the best way to cook a human, and another was looking at Annabeth with... let's just say "not so pure eyes".
We're in trouble now.
They didn't say anything though, and I was beginning to worry another mythical fight was going to take place with a bunch of witnesses to view it. I make eye contact with Perce, and he is thankfully figuring out the situation. I mean, when six, silent, hairy people are just staring at you hungrily, something is bound to be wrong. Annabeth is smart, so she's probably figured it out, and I know Grover knows what's going on.
"We... food... dark," says the tall one in the middle all of the sudden. He then points through the window, and at a very suspicious-looking alley nearby. "Come."
The six of them start to simultaneously walk away without even waiting for us to get up. It looks like a few of them are limping though, so they might already have been weakened. good for us, I guess. They leave the diner, and I just look at Annabeth and say, "What the hell are we gonna do. They're obviously gonna attack us in the alley..." I say.
Annabeth nods and says, "But we should deal with them. They're monsters and dangerous to the mortals. Grover, do you have any clue as to what they are?"
Grover shakes his head and says, "All I do is know that they smell like absolute sh- poop. They smell like poop. I can't even tell what they would be, cause all I smell is feces. I personally don't want to go near them again, but I don't think I have a choice..."
Perce stands up, bumping his knee into the table earning a smirk from me, and says, "I think we need to deal with them now. As Annabeth said, they're a danger to the mortals and we should fix that danger."
"I agree with Perce on this one. Regardless of what they are, if they are trying to ambush us, I doubt they have good fighting power. I say we just run in guns blazing, as they say, and mop them up," I say, looking at Annabeth and continuing, "You should use your invisibility cap. I have a bad suspicion that they are targeting you..."
Annabeth nods, and I assume she also saw the looks she earned. It's disgusting.
I stand up, and the three of us walk out of the diner, leaving Grover as he said, "You can't smell it like I can! It reeks! I could barely stop myself from puking when they came over."
We approach the alley, and Annabeth puts on her Yankee's cap and vanishes.
I look at Perce, and he already has his pen out, so I pre-emptively reach and grab Makeleio and the two of us (and I assume Annabeth, but you know... I can't see her...) head into the alley.
We walk down space for a little bit, until four figures approach us from the front. I do a quick scan of the alley and find the other two are on the fire escape ladders on the two sides of the alleyway. How did they get so high up? There aren't any ladders down right now, so I can only assume they either jumped or flew up there. Weird...
"So uh... what're we doing in this dark ass alley?" I ask, directing my question to the tall one in the front, but I don't get an answer. Just another question.
"Where. Lady," he says.
Before I can say anything, Perce answers, "None-ya."
Oh no. Don't you dare say it Perce. I know you're 12, but you don't gotta act like it.
"None-ya?"
Don't do it Perce...
"None-ya business!" Perce says, and I break a little inside. We're going to have a talk once this is over.
Upon saying that, the leader or I assume he is cause he's the tallest and the only one that talks, makes a guttural growling sound, and the other three next to him join in. As if my spidey-senses were tingling, I look up to see the remaining two getting ready to jump.
"Perce, I'll go for the four on the ground. You cover the air," I say, and rush towards the leader of the group before Perce can argue.
"Cover the air?" Perce says, and looks up, swinging his blade just in time to miss the claws of one of the six monsters that jumped at him from the sky.
Swinging Makeleio, I have surprised the four of them enough to where I'm able to get one good hit on one of them, with him instantly turning into golden dust and going into the sky. Noticing that their comrade has been vanquished, the three remaining ones start to grunt faster, and... start to take off their pants?
I would say that this was weird until I realized why they were stripping. It was the same reason Grover takes off his pants. These si– five monsters were Satyrs!
"Perce, they're satyrs..." I yell and swing my dagger to block the swipe of one of them.
"Wait, really?" He replies, seemingly in a struggle with two at once. "They seem a bit hairy to be Grover's cousins..."
All of a sudden, one of the 'satyrs' I was fighting erupts into golden sand, and I hear a feminine voice say, "They're a different species of Satyr. Grover has a direct ancestral line to Pan. These are likely the more tribal and barbaric satyrs. The ones that rejected Pan's gift. Once this is over, ask Grover. He can tell you all about them."
I nod and continue my fight, now two-on-one. Dodging and blocking the swings of the two of these satyrs, they don't seem all that smart. One of their comrades straight up disappeared without anybody stabbing him, but it doesn't seem like they care. The two of them are strong though. They're pushing me back, into a wall, as their swipes are relentless, and I do not want to be cut by their mangled claws. It looked like they had fingernails, but they very about an inch long and sharpened to a point. Five mini knives on each hand, and I had one.
"Not like numbers matter," I say, as I duck under the swing of the normal satyr, and stab him right in the armpits. Presented the beautiful look of a monster turning into golden sand, I stand back up and lock eyes with the leader. I turn and see that Annabeth has taken off her invisibility cap (ughh... why would she do that...) and is fighting alongside Perce against the remaining Satyr.
Looking back at the leader, I say, "Are you like part human-part goat? Or like, part hair and part goat? Cause you do not look like any Satyr I've heard of..."
Seemingly, that pissed him off even more, as he lept at me with more ferocity and swinging even crazier. I bring up my dagger just in time to block one of his swings, but the blade is too short, and the claws on his right-hand graze the hand I use to hold Makeleio, but it was barely even a scratch, so I should be fine. Plus, the guy can't even scratch through the pelt of the Nemean Lion, so I basically don't have anything to worry about.
"Damn, and I thought I could do this uninjured..." I say, and swing the blade right across his arm, chopping it straight off. He falls to the ground in agony, and as the good demigod I am, I stab him right through the skull and watch as the leader of the Satyr gang turns into golden dust. "Next time, don't try to pick a fight with three demigods when you can't even deal with one..."
I turn around and see that Perce and Annabeth have finished off the final one, so we're good to rest. Perce caps his sword and I put Makeleio away, then walk up to Perce, wrap my arm around his shoulder, and say, "None-ya. Really."
Perce looks offended by that and says, "It was the only thing I could think of. I thought it'd be cool..."
"Well it sure wasn't," I say, and Annabeth laughs, making Perce go even more red in the face.
"But thanks for defending me, I guess. Seaweed brain," she says, and smiles at Perce. At least they're becoming friends now...
"Woah, there," I say, and unwrap my arm from Perce, then crouch down. "Since when did that dumpster have a face?" I say, and try to point at the dumpster, but it seems like my arm doesn't want to listen to my brain, as it just flops to my side uselessly.
"What the hell are you talking about Alex?"
"Woah, who turned on the lights?" I say, and move my left arm to cover my eyes. My right arm still isn't listening to me, so I just use my non-dagger hand.
"Alex, are you feeling all right?" I hear Annabeth say.
"Yeah, I'm fine but it just got super bright? Are your eyes okay?"
"Dude... there isn't any bright light..." says Perce.
"Whaddya, mean? It's crazy bright..." I respond, lowering my arm and squinting my eyes. It's still crazy bright, and I feel a bunch of sweat going into my eyes. "Dang, when did I get so sweaty..."
"You sho... -et..." I hear somebody say, but I can barely hear them.
"I can't hear ya'll," I say, as I turn around and am met with about thirty different twin brothers of Perce. Annabeth looks like she's melting right now, so she should probably fix that. "Hayyyyy, Perce... when did you get so many, twins?"
Once I say that some of the Perce twins start to run over to me, and I just know they're trying to do something. I reach into my pocket and grab something. Why did I do that? Wait, what's in my pocket? I don't have time to think though, because these Percy clones are coming after me.
I turn around and feel my head get a lot heavier. And it hurts. I feel like I really need some water right now.
I move to stand up... wait. When did I lay down on the floor? It's cold. Too cold. It feels like I'm touching some super cold water. Super cold water turns into ice or something... or at least I'm pretty sure about that. I remember reading something like that once.
Oh, and it's back to being dark. I didn't notice, but the lights died down.
Something is grabbing my side. I try to move and push it away, but it seems like my entire body doesn't want to listen to me. Not just my... my... what was it again? Oh yeah, I couldn't move my leg. Now my whole body doesn't want to move.
I guess I'm just tired or something.
Wait, why is my face so wet now. And it's hot. But whatever it is, it smells pretty good. My tongue listens to my brain so I can move it.
I try to lick up as much of the stuff as possible and find out that it isn't just some water or juice. It's got chunks of something in it, but it doesn't have a taste so it feels like I'm just licking hot water.
I try to see what I'm trying to eat, but now my eyes won't even open. My eyes probably just don't want to open anymore, and who could blame them? They've had to work a long time, and they deserve some time off.
Maybe I should get some time off...
Like a vacation.
Then I won't have to work in this stupid burger place anymore. No, it's not burgers, it's pizza that I make. Or was it sandwiches? It doesn't matter, I'll just take a nap and then I can eat my breakfast.
The first thing I'm greeted with when I awaken is the rumbling sound of a truck on a highway.
Secondly, I am met with a stench that can literally be described as a "zoo".
And thirdly, I put my head off to the side and start puking. Until my stomach starts to feel like it's trying to eat itself. It hurt.
"Ughhh...shit... what the hell happened..." I mumble, and try to stand up, but am immediately thrown back down onto my feet by the combination of the movement of whatever I am in right now, and me just being unbalanced. "If I didn't know better, I would say this is the worse hangover I've ever had..."
I squint my eyes, as it hurts to fully open them, and look around my new confinement zone. I appear to be in some sort of shipping container, with some animals in it. I first see a very sickly looking Zebra with gum stuck in its mane, there's an antelope that looks like it's leg would be better off not attached to the body, and an albino lion that is skinny enough for me to count its ribs, even in this low of light.
I attempt to stand back up again and using the cage bars next to me for stability, I am able to get to my feet, and realize that I am having a very strange craving for grapes.
I try to take a step forward, but my foot hits somethings and I hear somebody mutter, "Piss off Grover, back up..."
Looking down, there is a very tired looking Perce curled up and looking asleep. It also looks like his entire bottom half has been completely covered in the food that was once in my stomach, so I should probably apologize for that. He's using a blue backpack as a pillow, and right next to him is Grover, also laying down (asleep) and using a sack of what appear to be turnips as a pillow. Annabeth is on the other side of the shipping container, also passed out, but she doesn't have a pillow.
"Where are we..." I say, and feel a familiar sensation come up in my stomach, so I rush over to the turnip sack, trip and fall onto Grover, and start puking into the sack.
"Wait, who's on me?!" Grover says, springing to life, as I continue to hurl. "Eww, what the heck Perce..." Grover says, obviously having seen Perce's new style of pants.
I ignore these new revelations Grover has received, until he says, "Wait, Alex? You're up?" I can't really do anything but nod, and continue my current task.
Grover moves away, from out underneath me, and goes over to the spaces in between the cage, and just sits there in silence.
Soon I'm done puking, so I set the sack down and turn to look at Grover. "What the hell happened? I remember fighting satyrs or something, then I remember being awake but nothing else. All of a sudden I'm in a shipping crate with a bunch of Madagascar rejects, my head feels like it's gonna split in two, and for some reason, I really want to eat some grapes."
Grover just nods and says, "The first thing you should probably know is that we aren't in a shipping container. We're on a 16-wheeler, headed straight west. It was a gift from Ares–"
"Wait, Ares? God of War, Ares?" I interject.
"Yes, that Ares. We had to fetch something for him, and in return, he said he would watch over you while you were out and would give us a ride west."
"He said he would watch over me? And he gave ya'll something to do?"
Grover gets me up to speed with what the three of them did while I was out, and it was pretty weird. They met Ares right after I passed out, he told them to go to a water park and fetch his shield while he protects me, the three of them go to the waterpark, ends up being a trap, they get the shield, return to Ares, and our ride west turned out to be this truck. But that does seem kind of weird, as I don't remember this part in the books. I know that Ares is the "God who has turned" but I don't remember the crew ever meeting him until after they leave Hades. I'm probably just wrong, but this might be a change from the books, and I have no idea what caused it.
(Everything that happened while at the waterpark is exactly what happened in the books. Nothing changed except Ares had to babysit Alex while he was out)
"That doesn't make much sense though. Why would Ares watch over me? I don't see the God of War as the type of person who would go out of his way to help some kid..." I say, looking at Grover.
Grover never could lie, so when he says, "It wasn't anything, he just said he felt like it." I knew something was off. I try to press him for more, but he wouldn't budge, so I just let it go.
"Whatever... anyways, what happened to me?"
Grover sheepishly shakes his head and says, "It's partially my fault. You see, I knew exactly who those six monsters were, they just weren't the type that I should deal with."
I glare at him and say, "You could have at least told us what they were."
"I can't, it's ancient Satyr rules and stuff. Going all the way back to Pan." I just look at him, and he eventually figures out that I'm asking him to continue. "So basically, way back when the humans didn't even have fire, we Satyr's were made and we were the children of Pan," says Grover proudly. "The gifts and blessings of Pan were numerous and bountiful, but we Satyrs who lived by these gifts also had to live by the rules placed upon us."
"What do you mean?"
"There were many different rules we have to follow. Things like being vegetarian, avoiding the affairs of those not-connected to the wild, and strangely enough, we all had to grow grapes to make wine and appease Dionysius. Those rules were changed and most were abolished in the Naxos Council of 43..."
"Get to the point Grover..."
"Ah yeah, of course. So we had those rules to follow, in order to keep the blessing of Pan, but some Satyrs didn't like to follow the rules. They in fact hated the rules so much, that they rebelled against Pan and refused his gifts. Upon doing so, they were banished from any land that was in the direct control of the gods. So they went south and lived on many different islands and regions in the northern areas of Africa. These satyrs would then de-evolve into a much more primal form, resembling more of a monkey than an actual satyr. These wild satyrs would eventually form tribes, and would terrorize anybody who enters their land."
"Okay, so we fought with some of those guys..."
Grover interrupts and says, "You had a fight with the worst kind of these satyrs. Nesoi Satyrs."
"Island Satyrs," I translate.
Grover nods grimly. "Yes, and they are the most brutal of any of the tribes. They are the only tribe Pan disowned, the other ones Pan will admit back into his fold whenever they wish to return. But the Nesoi..."
Grover looks away from me for a second, and I say, "It's good man, you don't have to tell me what they're like. Just tell me what happened."
"These Satyrs, the ones who rejected Pan, but actually are the wildest satyrs of them all, use a special strategy for taking down their prey. I assume you say their claws," Grover says, and I nod. "Well, they cover their claws in... uh..."
"What is it?"
"Umm... they take their feces, and smear it on their claws before they go into battle or to hunt."
"Ok, and?" I say, getting impatient.
"Their poop has some... interesting qualities. One of which is the fact that their poop is a very deadly neurotoxin. It can completely shut down the body of a human, in under five minutes."
"Is that it?" I ask, vaguely remembering something more that happened before I went out.
"Yeah," a voice says behind me. I turn to see that Perce is awake, looking grouchy, and he continues, "It'll give you a hell of an acid trip. Their poop is more potent than LSD.. or at least that's what Grover here told me. And it's gotta be pretty strong if it made you fall to the ground and try to lick up your own vomit..."
Speaking of which...
"Wait, what is this on my pants!" Perce says, standing up all too quickly, only to immediately fall.
"Shut up Percy, I'm trying to sleep..." says Annabeth.
"I got chunky soup all over my pants Annabeth! How am I supposed to get to sleep... wait a minute." Perce says, then glares at me. "IS this chunky soup! Alex!"
If this were any other situation, I would've laughed, but I did not want to make Perce and madder than he already was, so I guess it's time to calm him down.
Eventually, we all got settled down and Perce changed his pants. Turns out Ares gave us all a change of clothes, so there were some extra pants for Perce in the backpack. Not like that'll make him any less pissed.
"I need to take a shower..." Perce mutters.
"We all do," says Annabeth.
"Well ya'll don't have some dude's stomach bile stuck on your leg," he shoots back, then glares at me.
We sit in silence for a little bit (as silent as it can be, in a huge 16 wheeler) until I realize how thirsty I am. Then I have an idea.
"Hey, can somebody pass me the thermos of Nectar?" I ask, and Grover starts to fish around in the bag for it.
Annabeth says, "You know if you drink too much of it, your body will spontaneously combust, right?"
"Yeah, I know. But I just had the acid trip of a lifetime, and now I have the worst hangover I've ever had," I say and reach for the thermos Grover procured.
"You've never had a hangover, loser," says Perce, smirking. Yeah, not in this life, loser.
Holding the thermos I try to think of the stuff Virgo said. It's been a while since the talk with her, and I haven't had time to test out the blessing. Sure, I had plenty of free time on the train, but none of us were injured so there wasn't a good excuse to borrow the nectar.
What did she say again? I know I have to think of a picture of the constellation, then I feel something or another, then the blessing is active. Okay, so let's do this in steps.
1) Think of the constellation.
That's easy, and I think of the connect the dot puzzle Virgo showed me. There were 8 stars, and it was basically symmetrical and looked like a really wide cup. (AN - It is incredibly hard for me to explain what the constellations actually look like, cause they are just literally connect the dot puzzles, so please just look up pictures of the constellations whenever they are used. Thanks.)
2) You gotta feel something.
I'm not feeling anything. I have the exact image of the constellation in my mind, but I don't feel anything going through my body. I vaguely remember Virgo saying something about the feeling for each blessing being different for each person, but I can't feel anything.
This is pretty much pointless. I'm just sitting in a box, holding a half-filled thermos, and thinking of a bunch of stars. What are we even doing in here? Going to find some spark rod? That's stupid, I just wanna go home.
I'm about to set the thermos down until it clicks.
Wait, was that the feeling? I'm still feeling it. The constant desire to be a pessimist, and to just give up. I've never felt this way, this strongly before, so it's gotta be "the feeling", right?
I smile and move onto the third, and hopefully final, step.
3) Blessing is active?
I bring the thermos up to my lips, and tilt back thinking "This better work, and not make me combust". I taste the liquid pizza going down my throat, and am happy. Not because of the taste, of course, but the thermos doesn't seem like it's getting any lighter. I sip on the Nectar for a little bit, until I feel my body start to heat up and I figure I should stop now. Or else there will be one casualty for this quest...
"Hahh, that's pretty great," I say, and pass the cup back over to Grover.
"I thought you said you didn't like the taste," says Perce.
"Oh no, not the taste. My killer headache is gone," I reply, and Perce just nods and leans back.
"Well hopefully we'll get to Cali soon," he says.
In the original story, I know we make a stop in Las Vegas, but I forget the reason for that, and all I remember is that the Lotus Hotel and Casino, is a place that should be avoided like the plague. There is no way anybody could convince me that wasting half a week on this quest will bring any sort of benefit to this quest, or any quests down the line. The only other time I can think of where the Hotel has an influence on the plot is with the two kids of Hades, but that isn't even a major problem. Easy enough to figure out, and we don't have to waste time on this quest.
The pessimist within me hasn't left, and it's taking most of my effort to shut it down and ignore it until I remember a very important step that Virgo didn't tell me.
4) How do I turn off a blessing?
AN - Added a new monster encounter, tell me what ya'll think about it. I have an idea that would completely change most of the story from this point on, but I don't know if I'll do it, but I guess ya'll will find out next chapter. Now I've had three cans of RedBull and I should probably stop. Thanks for reading!