4/10/21

Writer's block is honestly the worst. No thoughts brain empty. Hope everyone had a happy Easter if you celebrate. See you guys when I next post!

Wordcount: 3733

Haircuts And Hanging Out

Percy POV:

After nearly an hour, Zoë, who had emerged from the depths of the ship a few minutes after the trio departed, spotted three figures on top of the cliff. We had been debating sending Frank up to check on them when Zoë shouted that she could see them. Percy raised his binoculars and sure enough, he could see three figures making their way down the cliff.

They only took a few minutes to reach the bottom, Jason flying down Piper and Frank turning into an eagle to fly Hazel down. Deciding against going inside to debrief, the crew stayed on the deck as Jason, Piper, and Hazel explained what happened. Besides, the breeze was nice and the sun was shining, even if it did hurt his eyes.

"Well? Percy prompted, "What happened? I can tell you got into a least a little scuffle." He gestured to their shoes, which had a light dusting of gold.

Jason blushed as Hazel explained, "When we got there, the disguises worked, and Jason split off to get info as we eavesdropped as waiters. There was this big fountain, too, but instead of water, it was dirt, and one of the suitors threw in a marble bust of one of the gods."

"A sacrifice to the Earth mother" Jason recalled, shaking his head, "They were delusional, thinking she would bring them back to life if they tried hard enough." Percy nodded, remembering the poor kids who had sided with Kronos in the last war, thinking he would help them.

"After a little while, Jason signaled that we should get ready for a fight, though he hasn't explained why." She glared at Jason, who raised his hands in surrender, "The dude I was talking to started mentioning the seven, and that Gaia expected us to arrive soon, so I signaled them to be ready for a fight, just in case. He started talking more about Gaia's plans and he, well, he mentioned Annabeth." He shot Percy a sorrowful glance, and the entire crew seemed to hold their breath.

In his mind, he knew he should be sad. Or happy they had new info about Annabeth at all, something. But he didn't. He felt absolutely fucking nothing. Nothing at all. And it scared him far more than any titan or giant ever would. He gestured for Jason to continue, his face still blank.

Jason looked uncomfortable, but continued nonetheless, "Well, we know for certain that Gaia has her, though they didn't know exactly where, probably Athens."

Percy nodded slowly, "Was that it?" Jason nodded, continuing with the story, though Percy tuned him out, lost in thought. What he feared had just been confirmed, Gaia has Annabeth. All she needed was one of the boys and then she could rise and destroy civilization as they knew it, and he just felt numb.

Tuning back into the tail end of Jason's explanation, he heard him say the name of the backstabbing bitch known as the queen of the gods, "Juno? Why'd she show her face? Try and kidnap you again?"

From the half-hearted glare Jason gave him, he could tell they had slightly differing opinions on the goddess, "No, she gave me some directions to pacify some rouge gods. Phobos and Demos in Sparta and Nike in Olympia. I was hoping she could help us a little more, considering I'm her champion and all, but…"

Had he been drinking something, Percy would've definitely choked on it, "Sorry, say that last bit again?"

The son of Jupiter looked at him as he had gone a bit weird, which granted he was, but repeated himself again, "...I'm her champion? My dad gifted me to her to appease her or something, did you not know?" He rolled up his sleeve, baring his SPQR tattoo, and sure enough next to the lightning bolt for Jupiter was a peacock feather.

"No, no I didn't. That's, um, interesting." Percy stuttered. He could hear Leo snort, but he didn't bother to look at the other boy. Jason looked suspiciously at Percy, before continuing to wrap up his tale. Percy kept the Roman demigod in the corner of his eye. Hopefully, Juno and Nyx both owned the same copy of Champions for Dummies, because he was going to be asking Jason some questions about what he had gotten himself into.

Piper POV:

After Jason finished telling Leo where they needed to go next, Piper shuffled downstairs to the kitchen. It was an hour past lunchtime and she had just been waitressing for gods knows how long, she was starving. Hazel, it seemed, had the same idea, as she made her way down as well.

The enchanted bowl filled up with Stir Fry, and the goblet filled itself with plain water. Hazel sat down across from her, grilled cheese materializing on her plate. Piper struck up a conversation with the Roman girl, asking how she was holding up. She was, understandably, worn out from keeping the disguises working, and the ensuing fight at the end.

The conversation then moved to her boyfriend, Frank. She was worried about him, as he complained of headaches and overhead himself muttering to himself when he thought he was alone. Piper reassured the younger girl, saying he was probably just sleep-deprived and just needed a good rest. Hazel didn't seem convinced but seemed to appreciate the effort.

They talked a bit more, until Hazel brought up the elephant in the room, Percy. Now, Piper hadn't even known Percy well, but even she could tell something was off about the guy, especially after he came back from Tartarus. He acted the same as he did before, which was concerning. From what she knew, people don't just walk through the worst place in the universe and come out unscathed, yet Percy acted as if he has just gone to the gas station to pick up some drinks.

He hasn't said anything about his time in Tartarus except for a few throwaway lines when he explained how he met Zoë, and no one had the guts to ask him. Hades, they didn't even know how long he was down there for. For them, it had been almost 3 weeks, but she remembered Nico mentioning time was different down there, Distorted, as he put it.

Physically, he was different as well. He had lost a lot of weight, and his hair had grown out a good few inches. His once tan skin had lost all its color, turning the color of birch bark. Dark bags perpetually hung beneath his sunken eyes, and the massive scar that marred his face did nothing to help his sickly appearance.

He obviously wasn't very fit mentally, either. They had just told him that their worst enemy had his literal soulmate, and he barely even reacted.

The son of Poseidon looked halfway dead, not that she would say it to his face.

"What do you think happened down there?" Piper whispered as if worried he could hear them. Hazel shrugged helplessly, "I haven't a clue, but it must have been something major. The mist clings to him strongly, mostly around his left eye. Had I not known any better, I would've thought it the work of Hecate herself it's so strong."

Hazel paused to write something on a loose napkin, "I also woke up last night and found him manning the helm, a bunch of books opened around him."

"Reading doesn't exactly seem to be his style."

"Exactly. I went up to ask him what he was reading about, but he didn't really answer. I did get this one word, though." She slid the napkin over, the single word printed in Hazels' handwriting, Nyx.

"I asked him who they were, but he said that was what he was researching. Maybe he ran into them in Tartarus?"

Piper nodded, "Probably, we should ask him what happened down there. Maybe at dinner?"

Hazel disagreed, "Did you see how he reacted to the news about Annabeth a few minutes ago? I doubt now is a good time to ask such a sensitive question."

Piper opened her mouth to respond, but whatever she was going to say was cut short when the subject of their conversation walked into the room. He paused briefly when he saw Hazel, but came in anyway, "Hey Piper. You uhhh… You wouldn't happen to know how to cut hair would you?" He rubbed the back of his neck in obvious embarrassment, which Hazel didn't help any by giggling softly.

She frowned, "In theory, yeah, but I haven't tried before on a guy and it might come out choppy and I'm not sure-" Percy cut her off with a wave of his hand, "Don't worry about it, literally anything would be better than this," He gestured to his hair, which had fallen in front of his eyes, "If you couldn't cut it, I was just gonna bite the bullet and cut it with Riptide."

Piper shook her head as she stood, "Alright Waterboy, but don't start crying if it comes out bad." Percy rolled his eyes at the nickname but followed her as she walked out of the room.

When she reached her room, she opened the door and motioned for Percy to go in. He paused in front of the door, eyes darting around, "I-I'm not sure, can't we do it on the deck? Jason would kill me."

She scoffed, shoving Percy inside, "Sure Jason's gonna be pissed his girlfriend is giving another man a haircut, how scandalous." He blushed but entered without another word.

Her room was pretty simple, with the standard bed, desk, dresser, cabinet, and attached bathroom. The walls were a simple beige and a single porthole looked out into the sea. Simple, but comfortable, just as she liked it.

She pulled the chair away from the desk and motioned for Percy to sit in it as she dug into her cabinet, searching for the hairdressing kit Drew had given her. The heroes are going to need a hairdresser, after all, she had sneered. She shook the thought of her sister out of her mind as she snatched the case from under some loose clothing.

Opening the case, there were only a few items. The Hephaestus branded hair trimmers, a comb, and a pair of scissors. Plucking out the comb first, she turned to Percy, who was obediently sitting in the chair, bouncing one of his legs.

"Alright, I gotta comb your hair first, then I can get to trimming it." He snorted, "Good luck, my mom could never comb my hair without giving up a minute in."

Determined to prove him wrong, she began to comb his hair and immediately saw what he meant. His hair, which had looked fine, if a bit long, was horribly tangled in dozens of knots. Still, she went slow and began to make progress, one knot at a time.

Now, Piper had quite a few questions she wanted to ask him, not all he would want to answer. Thankfully, charm speak was perfect for this. As she asked questions, Percy would be compelled to answer, even if he didn't want to.

Breaking the silence as she worked, she asked, "So Aquaman, your old friend Zoë, what's she like? I haven't been able to talk to her yet but I know she used to be one of Artemis hunters."

He sighed at the nickname, but answered anyway, "As you said, she was one of Artemis' best hunters, and had been for several thousand years. She's strict at first but loosens up a little when you get to know her. Real loyal, if a bit old-fashioned. Literally, she used to speak like Shakespeare when I first met her, and don't tell her I said this, but it was hilarious, or at least we thought it was."

Laughing at the last bit, she continued, "Shakespeare, huh? I can see why you thought that was funny."

Percy winced as her comb caught on a particularly tough knot, "On the subject of friends, you and Leo are good friends, yeah? I've been thinking of talking to him, but I could never find him."

She frowned, thinking of her best friend. He had a bad habit of hiding himself away and working for hours on end, not sleeping or eating until they literally dragged him out, "He's usually piloting the ship or working in the engine room, tweaking this or fixing that. I'm sure he wouldn't mind the company if you dropped by, or even just to offer an extra set of hands."

He nodded, or as much as he could with her wrestling his hair, "Yeah, I could definitely help out. Tyson and Beckandorf…" His voice grew thick with emotion as he mentioned the late Hephaestus cabin leader, "They taught me a little bit about machines."

Piper scrambled to change the subject, cursing herself for that blunder. She was trying to help him, not remind him of his dead friends, "Tysons the big cyclops, right? I remember meeting him briefly as we were sending out search parties, really sweet guy."

"That's him. He's a great guy and an even better blacksmith, and most importantly, my little bro. He's the closest thing to family I have, except for mom and Paul of course." From her spot to his left, she could see the grin on his face.

Giving his hair one last pass with the comb, she set it down, "Alright, now comes the easy part. How long do you want your hair?"

He shrugged noncommittally, "Doesn't really matter to me, probably a bit on the longer side?" Piper nodded, adjusting the dial of the trimmers before clicking it on. They buzzed softly as she brought it down to the back of his neck.

"Hey, I was talking to Poseidon the other day and he said there had been some problems between the gods and the crew. Do you know what he meant?"

She pursed her lips, thinking back to when the gods first arrived, just after Annabeth was taken, "Yes, I know what he meant. The gods first showed up a few hours after we lost our second crew member, so tensions were high as it was. Arguments broke out, several fights almost happened, it wasn't very fun. Eventually, we all told them to go away unless we called them."

Truth be told, she wasn't particularly worried about his response. While she had heard from some of the campers that Percy had talked to the gods more than any demigod for several hundred years, Annabeth had said he had a special relationship with them, with them constantly at each other's throats. Considering what he had said about Hera or Juno, it seemed that hadn't changed.

So she wasn't surprised when he merely chuckled and rolled his eyes, "Yeah, they are aggravating, to say the least, I don't blame you." Thunder rumbled in the distance, but Percy just mumbled about being dramatic.

"So, your not mad?" Percy snorted in amusement, "Why would I be? They definitely deserved it."

Theory confirmed, she began to work once again.

Hair drifted slowly to the ground as the trimmer did its job. One question weighed heavily on her mind, but she wasn't sure if she could ask it, or if he would even answer. It would take a lot of charmspeak, that's for sure.

"What was it like, you know, down there?"

For a long time, it was quiet, sans the buzzing of the hair trimmers, but eventually, the charmspeak kicked in, and he answered, voice low, "It was dark, not much light so it felt like it was perpetually twilight. The air was tinged red and hurt to breathe. If you were lucky, you could see a few miles without much trouble, and if you weren't? It was like walking through soup. There was this river of fire, literal fire, that I had to drink from a few times. It was awful, like drinking burning gasoline and ghost peppers at the same time and filling your sinuses with napalm. It kept me running, alive, but didn't do shit for hunger or thirst. But the worst part? The worst part was the monsters. Gods the monsters. They never stopped. They came in massive hordes, hundreds strong, and you just had to butcher em all. Kill it be killed, ya know? Besides, most of em were still weak from being resurrected, so they ran or didn't put up much of a fight, but still."

The longer he ranted, the shakier his voice grew until it sounded like he was on the verge of a mental breakdown, but he took a deep breath and his voice settled, "But I suppose that's to be expected from literal hell, huh?"

Despite his level voice, she was very aware of the heavy waves crashing into the side of the ship.

Piper forced her voice to stay stable as she spoke, but inside she was terrified, "I suppose it wouldn't exactly be a walk in the park, huh?"

Percy snorted at that, and the heavy atmosphere that had descended lifted ever so slightly.

Neither spoke for several minutes as Piper continued to work, the silent buzzing of the clippers the only sound.

Giving his head one last look over, she shut off the trimmers and set them down. Breaking the awkward silence she handed him a small mirror, "Well, what do you think?"

He ran his hand through his now short hair, eyes glued to the mirror in his hand, "Well, it's a little bit short for me but it looks great. Thank you so much." The chair groaned as he stood up, dusting loose hair off his shoulders, "I need to go take a quick shower, but I'll see you later, ok?"

She opened her mouth to respond, but he had already rushed out of her room and down the hall. She got some info out of him at least. The others would like to hear it at least. But first, she glanced down at the floor, she had to vacuum.

Percy POV:

Yes, he knew rushing out of the room like that was probably rude but he couldn't help it. When she handed him that mirror, all he could see was Luke. Granted, he didn't look exactly the same as the former demigod, but with the haircut and the scar? All he needed was some blonde hair dye and even worse daddy issues and he would ace a Luke look-alike contest. The question about Tartarus didn't help the matter, either.

Fight or flight kicked in, and like the coward he was, he ran.

Slamming the door behind him, he scanned his room for monsters out of habit. His racing heart slowly calmed as he locked the door, turning towards the bathroom. Stripping off his clothes, he hopped into the shower, water washing away the itchy hairs that had been trapped under his shirt.

Sighing in relief as the cool water cascaded down his shoulders, he sat down, letting the water stream over him, cooling and calming him. Showers had always calmed him down, even before he was claimed.

He spent only a few minutes in the shower. He knew that the others would probably worry if he just suddenly disappeared in the middle of the day. With barely a thought the shower shut off, and he instantly became dry.

Throwing on a new pair of clothes, as his old pair were still covered in hair, he glanced into the bathroom mirror, and the grinning face of Luke Castellan stared back.

His body was frozen, staring straight at the mirror. He blinked several times, but the image stayed.

"What, cat got your tongue?" The voice of his old enemy echoed around in his head.

"No," Percy whispered, "No, you're not real, you're dead." He stumbled back, but the reflection didn't.

Luke chuckled at that, "The bounds of death are looser than ever these days, you should know. After all, you do keep company with two dead people, do you not?"

Percy tripped but continued to crawl backward until his back pressed against the smooth tile.

"Aww, look at Olympus little hero," Luke sneered, "You should have joined my side, none of this would have happened. Annabeth would be fine, and the world wouldn't rising to kill you all."

Percy's unblinking eyes locked with Luke's. Gold, not blue.

"Gaia's going to rise, you know that, right? She already has Annabeth, all she needs is one more drop of your blood and it's all over. No amount of silly gimmicks and godly intervention can save you this time, Jackson."

"Shut up." It was barely loud enough to be considered whispering, he couldn't even hear it over the sound of his heartbeat, but Luke sure did.

His mouth stretched into a wide grin, "Shut up? Or what? You'll call the rest of the crew in, who will think you've gone mad finally? Go ahead Perseus, call for help." Luke's grin was sickeningly sweet, smugness oozing from his voice.

"Shut up." Percy's voice shook, but he managed to speak at a normal volume at least.

Luke ignored him, continuing to monologue, "Even if by some miracle of Chaos herself you beat Gaea, do you really think the gods will let you live after this? You took in Kronos essence and got blessed by a primordial. You saw what they did to Calypso and Leto, do you really think you'll be any different?"

"SHUT UP!" Percy screamed, lunging forward. His fist flew forward, connecting with the mirror with a solid thump! It didn't shatter, however, and the reflection of Luke began to laugh.

The dead demigods' hysterical laughter bounced around his head as he punched the mirror, again and again, shattering it, sending pieces of glass all over the room and into his fist. Wrenching the mirror off the wall, he chucked it at the opposite wall, breaking the frame into several pieces.

Percy stumbled back, sliding down the bathroom wall, blood dripping from his bleeding knuckles, shards of glass still embedded into the flesh. The laughter slowly faded away, leaving him alone once again.