Artemis Gets Denied Three Times
Sorry, didn't mean for this chapter to take so long.
College and Elden Ring, you know?
Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or Dishonored
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Artemis had a calm smile on her face as her adopted daughters set up the camp for the night, but she was internally bouncing and vibrating with all the excited energy you'd expect of a child her outward age of twelve would possess.
All three Voidwalkers were here before her!
Percy, Thalia, and the newly revealed Bianca! Two girls! And Artemis had been keeping up with Percy's life thanks to Hephaestus TV via the magic cameras that followed the boy around, and so Artemis knew that Percy could turn himself into a girl with his clownfish mimicry, meaning she didn't have to put forth any effort of her own in turning him into a girl so he could join the Hunt.
Yeah, once upon a time there had been Orion, then Hippolytus, and a handful of others that weren't recorded by the old poets, but it had always ended in some kind of disaster, so Artemis had adopted a zero-males policy for her Hunters. Girls only, no more exceptions.
Obviously, Artemis wanted the Voidwalkers to join her Hunt (and it certainly had nothing to do with the fact that Father had tasked her—and all the gods sans Poseidon—with gathering information on the powerful demigods, such as how their Void powers worked, what they could do, what were their limits, etc.) because having one of them around, she could make them into the greatest hunter that ever lived. And she could lord it over her expansive list of halfsiblings that she had a Voidwalker and none of them did.
And she'd make Father extra proud of her.
But mostly she just wanted to have a Voidwalker in her Hunt, because that would be the absolute bestest, most awesomest thing ever.
After camp was set up and the fire blazing warmly, Artemis attempted to make her move, but Percy beat her to it.
"Are you an exhibitionist?"
A record scratch went off inside of Artemis's head, and with her divine powers, everyone else actually heard a record scratch as well. Even the fire twitched in a funny way. Thalia palmed her face with a sigh, Bianca was wide-eyed, Nico was asking his sister what an exhibitionist was, and Grover had the same expression as the Hunters: sheer, open-jawed, gobsmacked shock.
Percy was staring at Artemis inquisitively, having asked his question with all the same energy as if he'd asked her if she was goddess of the moon. He asked it as a legitimate, worthwhile question, seeing nothing wrong with it at all. The sheer innocence in his voice and in his eyes was the only thing that stopped Artemis from obliterating him then and there.
That, and she was so shocked that anyone would ever ask her such a question, her goddess brain was struggling to reboot.
"I…what?"
"Are you an exhibitionist?" Percy asked again with the same wonderous innocence of a small child that had no sense of tact. "I mean, Actaeon randomly ran into you bathing while hunting, and Sipriotes was just out walking when he ran into you bathing, and you're a goddess who can do anything, so why not make a private pool or something where there's zero chance of anyone walking in on you taking a bath—and why are you taking a bath, anyway? Can't you just make yourself clean?—and why anywhere that had any kind of a chance of anyone ever accidentally finding you? I mean, it's like you wanted someone to find you. So, are you an exhibitionist? My mom's a witch."
It was like watching a child having caught Santa Clause delivering presents, and now the child was asking every question he could think of regarding the elves, the sleigh, how Santa got around the whole planet in a single night, what the North Pole factory was like, and then wrapping everything up with the declaration that their parent worked at a mental health center.
Artemis was finding it hard to be furious with Percy because of the sheer innocence and earnesty in his eyes.
The worst part was that Artemis could feel Zoë smirking at her from the other side of the log.
You are not helping right now, the goddess thought tersely at her lieutenant.
I am not aiming to be helpful, m'lady, Zoë thought back. I am aiming to see where this goes.
If this is about that thing with the wolverine and the skunk, I have already apologized!
This is not about the wolverine and the skunk. This is about me seeing where this goes.
Artemis mentally grumbled about unhelpful Hunters and redirected her attention to Percy. "No," was her simple response.
"Okay."
One of the Hunters, Celyn, daughter of Hecate, spoke up, "You said your mom's a witch?"
Percy nodded eagerly. He even undid his top to reveal his chest, making some girls cringe (especially Thalia who palmed her face even harder; and Bianca bopped Nico atop his head when she saw her little brother staring too long). In his chest, his magic heart glowed and was visible under his skin.
"Mom's also my Heart! And she's connected to the Void, which means she knows things about everyone and everywhere."
And then it got uncomfortable real quick.
"I know your name is Celyn, one of Hecate's daughters. You joined the Hunters 587 years ago in Wales, back when Olympus was centered in England."
Celyn's eyes were wide. "Woah."
And then another Hunter spoke up. "What about me?"
Percy looked at her. She looked about twelve, and had purple eyes, black hair with white tips, and a little grin on her face. The fire was reflecting off her eyes in a strange way. Percy's face scrunched up because Sally wasn't able to get anything off this girl through the Void.
Not even her name.
"Um…that's weird. Mom says she can't see anything about you through the Void."
"Good," the Hunter nodded. "My name is Lucy."
"I'm Percy!"
"I know."
Artemis cleared her throat before Percy could launch himself down a rabbit hole of personal Hunter trivia.
"Percy, could you join me in my tent, please?"
"Hey, that's moving a little too fast. You haven't even bought me dinner yet."
Artemis blinked. "What are you—" The goddess's eye twitched at the sight of that mischievous smile. "You? Please. Not even a blind, deaf, and limbless whore would ever be desperate enough to so much as give you the time of day, much less show you any kind of romantic interest."
The Hunters snickered at Percy's expense.
The original Voidwalking demigod pursed his lips, not really caring for the Hunters, but Thalia's chortles kind of stung. And so did Bianca's.
"Says the 40,000-year-old virgin," Percy returned fire.
"I am nowhere near that old!" Artemis squawked.
"Whatever you say, great grandma. Do I see some gray hairs?"
"Not a chance, brat. By any chance, do you need to go potty? Do I need to check your pants for an accident?"
"And you have officially taken it too far," Percy said with a creeped-out expression.
Zoë coughed into her fist next to her goddess. "That one was a bit out there, m'lady."
"Whatever," Artemis dismissed. She gestured at Percy to follow her and disappeared inside her tent.
Percy zeroed in on Zoë. "No hard feelings if I take her head off if she tries anything, right?"
Zoë snorted. "You may be a powerful little boy, but you are still just a little boy. With a few thousand more years of training, you may be able to make Lady Artemis put forth some effort."
The Hunters laughed and jeered.
Percy tilted his head to the side, remembering this exchange.
He went inside Artemis's tent and took notice of the numerous animal skins, hides, and pelts that occupied the magically enlarged interior. The goddess was sitting in front of a brazier, the flames dancing behind her. Underneath her was a deer pelt, only the head of the pelt was live and moving, enjoying getting its head rubbed by the goddess that probably slew it in the first place, and then turned it into her chair.
Percy idly wondered if the deer would be as amicable as it currently was should Artemis fart on it.
"Please, have a seat," the goddess gestured. "I actually desire a serious conversation with you."
Percy sat before Artemis. "Yes?"
"I wish to offer you an invitation to my ranks," Artemis beamed. "I would welcome you into my Hunt, should you be willing. You would have immortality and eternal youth so long as you kept your oath to me and aren't slain in battle. It would be a life full of adventure, glory, friendship, and—are you even listening to me?"
Somewhere along the way, Percy had indeed stopped paying attention and had spaced out. At her sudden change in tone, Percy blinked, the fog clearing from his eyes.
"You were saying something about mammals," Percy said confidently.
"Well, technically, I suppose. Do you want to join my Hunters?"
"No."
"Why on earth—I mean, what prompts you to make such a decision so soon, Percy?" Artemis asked, her voice initially coming out as an indignant shriek, but she caught herself and tried again, this time with a forcibly calm tone of voice.
With the typical incensed edge that accompanies a denied deity.
That Percy was astutely aware of and totally disregarding on account of the fact that he already had the goddess dead to rights.
"Because I know all there is to know about the Hunters," Percy said, all traces of mirth gone from him. Mom had told him all there was to know, of course. "You encourage girls to leave their families and their responsibilities behind them forever, and pledge their lives to you. You encourage them to abandon their loved ones for all time, in favor of a carefree life of hunting and leisure. Only a handful of the total were saved from despicable circumstances, with the majority being irresponsible cowards who ran away from their duties and left their fathers, mothers, and siblings to rot while they stayed young forever. There's also the huge risk of getting raped and impregnated by some god, and then cast out of the Hunt for it. No thanks. You encourage cowardice, and then you act unreasonably and unfairly to those that love you and are devoted to you, but were victims of rapist gods."
After Percy's condemnation, in the typical fashion of a proud deity that just got slapped in the face with the reality of their behavior, Artemis was pissed off. She levitated to her feet, her auburn hair waving behind her as her eyes glowed in anger. The tent rattled and shook, and the fire twitched and spasmed.
"You dare—urk!"
The whole display was instantly cut short when Artemis suddenly had a couple of Celestial bronze tonfa swords crossed in an "X" about her throat. Just like the power of the great god Zeus had been restricted thousands of years ago by Celestial bronze chains when Hera instigated a riot against him for his infidelity and other grievances about his style of rule, and just like how Celestial bronze chains kept Hera restricted as she was held suspended above Chaos in the depths of Tartarus as punishment for her actions, and just like how Hephaestus used Celestial bronze to entrap Ares and Aphrodite when they attempted to go behind his back and then publicly humiliate them with his TV show, the Celestial bronze blades levied at Artemis's throat restricted her powers as well.
"You've got balls, boy," growled the goddess.
"Not right now, I don't," Percy said simply. "Haven't had any balls since you showed up, actually."
Artemis blinked as the boy currently in position to slice her head off admitted that he had switched his gender over an hour ago.
"I'm going to let you go now, but don't even think of trying anything. I've got two Doppelgangers out there, one of them linked with Domino to some of your Hunters. I give the command, and the other Doppelganger kills the linked one. Then we'll see how that battle stipulation in your oath applies to Void magic. Will they die despite not technically being in a state of battle, or will they be immune because they're not directly engaged in battle? Test me to find out."
Percy removed his swords and stepped away from Artemis.
She turned around and stared at him with her piercing silver eyes. The fire was framed around him, making him look downright menacing.
"I will remember this insult," Artemis promised.
Percy shrugged. "No need to be crabby about it. Just the truth, is all."
"Get. Out."
Percy simply vanished from the tent, having set up Displacement markers a while back. Gave the group quite the shock when he suddenly just popped into existence where he had been sitting.
"He's not a jackelope!" one of the Hunters gasped.
"And he's not a girl!" another said.
Percy just smiled.
Artemis popped her head out of her tent, her expression belaying nothing about her exchange with Percy. "Thalia, I would like to speak with you next, please."
Thalia cast a questioning look at Percy, asking with her eyes what the goddess wanted. Percy just smiled a little bit, and his eyes darted all over the place at the Hunters. Thalia got the message.
Or at least, she thought she did.
The former empress sat down in front of Artemis.
"Hello, sister," the goddess greeted, referring to the fact that they were both daughters of Zeus.
"Good evening," Thalia returned, sitting with her back straight.
"I understand that, during your time, ah…"
"As a tree?" Thalia supplied.
"Yes, that. Ahem, I understand that you lived the life of an empress in another world?"
"Yes, I did. Empress Emily Lela Drexel Kaldwin the First."
Artemis's silver eyes gleamed with interest. "I would absolutely love for you tell me all about it. And if you accept my offer, we'd certainly have plenty of time to speak. Thalia Grace, I extend an invitation to you to join my Hunt. You would have immortality, a life free of any responsibility yet life full of freedom and adventure, and the greatest family you've ever known."
The hope in Artemis's eyes and smile honestly made Thalia feel bad.
"I appreciate the offer, but I respectfully decline."
Artemis's entire countenance fell as she recoiled, stunned and seemingly heartbroken. "Wha-What? Wh-Why?"
Thalia concluded that Percy denied her as well and now her self-esteem was wounded. That, or she was putting on a good show.
"Immortality does not appeal to me, sister, and I already have a family. I also need to keep an eye on Percy. The way his mind works is…strange. He is like a child in some respects, and follows whatever whim enters his mind. Today, it's usually what clothes he chooses to wear, whether that's a button-down shirt or a dress. Tomorrow, it could be whether he wants to blow up a school bus full of children."
Artemis stared at Thalia. "You…really think Percy would do something like that?"
The way Thalia stared back at the goddess made her feel like she was sitting before the empress, not a demigoddess.
"Yes. I really do think that Percy would do something like that, especially if his mother ever urged him to. Percy is friendly, sweet, and kind most of the time, but he is truly a vicious and dangerous predator. In our world, in a series of training exercises ordered by his mother, he killed no less than six hundred people, including a duke of one of my islands, his wife, their three daughters, and their youngest son, and also the general of the island's military, and the leader of the religious organization. He plunged the whole island into economic, political, and social turmoil, which resulted in another recorded five hundred deaths. He killed over a thousand people in a couple of days."
Well, Thalia was more or less lying through her ass with those numbers, as she'd been dead decades before Percy's rampage through Karnaca and only knew about it because the Outsider had shown her the future through the Void. Thalia was extrapolating what she'd seen.
Truth be told, her numbers were not that far off.
"Oh," Artemis managed. "I see why you need to be close by."
"Yes."
Something that Thalia didn't tell the goddess was that as the empress, she didn't shy away from responsibility.
The demigoddess daughter of Zeus left the tent and motioned with her head at Bianca. The brunette squeezed her little brother's hand and entered the tent, Thalia taking her seat next to Percy. He smiled at her, and she smiled back at him.
Bianca took her seat in front of Artemis. "Are you going to ask me to join your Hunt?"
"Why, yes. Yes, I am. Please say yes."
Bianca honestly felt a little bad for Artemis. Her twelve-year-old visage looked totally desperate, and then her visage morphed into one of crestfallenness when Bianca shook her head.
"Sorry, but I'm not going to leave my little brother. I made that mistake once; never again."
"B-But you wouldn't be permanently leaving Nester-"
"Nico."
"Nico! You wouldn't be leaving him forever. I've never denied any of my Hunter's requests to see their mortal families while they were still alive! You can see Nico any time you want, I promise!"
Bianca grimaced at the goddess's display. She couldn't tell if Artemis was really this upset, or if she was just acting. In either case, Bianca was unimpressed. She expected more professionalism and couth from an ancient deity.
"That's nice. I still don't feel like being apart from Nico like that, though."
Artemis was grasping at straws with this one. "I can…turn Nico into a girl and he can join the Hunt alongside you?"
"And we have now officially reached the end of this conversation," Bianca stood up. "Thank you, Lady Artemis, but no thank you. I have no desire to be one of your Hunters."
The Voidwalker turned around and left before she had to get violent.
Artemis sat there in her tent, her face slack. She was in a state of disbelief, numb with shock. Three times her invitation had been denied. She'd been denied by all three Voidwalkers. Her lower lip actually trembled as her self-esteem was rocked. She was having to rack her brain for the last time any girl had denied her, and she was struggling to think of such an instance. Was it her? Had she done something wrong?
What was Father going to say? Was he going to be mad at her?
That's when Lucy walked in. "Relax," she rolled her purple eyes. "They were never going to join the Hunt anyway. They're too vastly different."
Artemis's brow furrowed. "Too different from what?"
"From us," the witch answered in a way that had the goddess thinking that's not what Lucy really meant. "Anyway, it's almost morning. Apollo will soon arrive, and you have a hunt to go. The Ophiotaurus has reemerged, and it will be a very dangerous hunt. You need to go alone."
Artemis's silver eyes had a glaze over them. "The Ophiotaurus has reemerged, and I need to hunt it alone due to how dangerous it is."
"Good girl," Lucy said in the excited tone of a mother praising her toddler daughter for using the potty.
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Apollo arrived and soon everyone was aboard the sun bus and heading for CHB, Thalia driving, using her composure as the empress to counteract her fear of heights.
Everything was different now, though. Not that everything wasn't already different beforehand, but still.
Thalia would not shy away from the notion of responsibility; her time as the empress was too strong in her mind, and she never shied away from issues or controversy. As Emily, she took her duties seriously and professionally.
Bianca carried with her the guilt she had as Beatrici for leaving her little brother Corvo behind. She would not do the same to Nico. As such, since she wasn't a Hunter, she was sitting with her little brother in one of the seats, listening to his animated exposé on Mythomagic with a small smile on his face.
And Percy, well…Percy was Percy.
The sun bus drove west towards the uncertain future.
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So sorry it took a month to give a 3.4k chapter, but college takes a lot of time.
Yeah, with Thalia and Bianca being so different than what they are in canon, there was no way they were going to join the Hunt, and so things are getting fun.
I have no idea what chapter of what will come next, so stay tuned.
Now, because the mods of the subreddit keep deleting my posts about the subject, I will post this here:
The actress for Annabeth Chase has been announced, and it's Leah Jeffries. If you don't know who that is, don't worry, neither do I. What I do know is that Leah is a black girl.
Black.
Playing Annabeth Chase…who is white.
Rick, who is directly involved with the show, cast a black girl to play a character that has been white since her introduction in 2005. If you don't believe me, go check out Twitter and the subreddit real quick. Social media is blowing up with posts about it.
It's extremely ironic to me. The movies were heavily criticized for how unfaithful they were to the books. The plot had to be adjusted to fit the runtime, and so many scenes were omitted and the movie plot itself loosely followed the book. The actors were also criticized for being not true to the book characters, being adults playing who are supposed to be twelve-year-olds.
Most specifically, Alexandra Daddario's portrayal of Annabeth. From the character standpoint, we go from "You drool in your sleep," to "I definitely have feelings for you, but I haven't decided if they're positive or negative yet."
Um, okay.
But beyond even that, the heaviest criticism for Daddario came in the form of her appearance. Annabeth is supposed to be tan with grey eyes and curly blonde hair. Daddario was pale with blue eyes and straight brown hair. There was a major outcry over this.
And don't forget Viria. Remember how she was cancelled and bullied out of the fandom when she started drawing Annabeth as "too dark?" She started drawing Annabeth with tanner skin than how she colored Reyna and Piper, and this apparently counted as racism.
Fast forward twelve years later, and now we have a black actress playing this same tan-skinned, grey-eyed, curly blonde-haired character…and there's a celebration over it?
Where is the disconnect?
The two biggest arguments for Annabeth being cast by Leah is that A) Annabeth's skin color has no bearing on her character, therefore it doesn't matter what color actress portrays her, and B) it doesn't matter what actress portrays her, so long as the actress is the best fit for the role.
Okay, that's understandable.
Beckendorf being black has no bearing on his character, or any impact on the plot. Carter being black doesn't affect his character or the plot; Rick could've wrote the Kane family as one race and nothing about the story would've changed, because the story doesn't revolve around their skin. The same is true for Hazel. Her being a black girl from the 40s is a minor subplot and has no bearing affect on the story. She could've been white or Hispanic like Sammy, and nothing would be different. This also goes for TJ in Magnus Chase, and Austin Lake, Apollo's son.
Not to mention Leo, Frank, Reyna, Hylla, and Drew, who is Asian.
None of their ethnicities have any impact on their character, and to the sentiment of the best actor for the role, does this not mean you can go get whatever colored actor you want and cast them as any of these characters? Hazel played by a white girl, Frank by a black boy, Leo by a pale, redheaded Irish boy, Reyna and Hylla as Japanese girls?
Not even close.
Imagine the outcry there would be—particularly in the cases of Beckendorf and Hazel—if non-POC actors were cast as these POC characters?
So why is it okay to cast a black actress in the role of a white character?
It's not. This is the blackwashing phenomenon we're seeing more and more in the media. Will Smith playing Floyd Lawton, Michael B. Jordan playing Johnny Storm. If whitewashing, the action of casting white actors as colored characters, isn't okay, then neither should blackwashing.
But for some reason, it is.
It's okay to cast Leah Jeffries as Annabeth Chase, a historically white character, but buckle down and prepare for a shitstorm should Hazel, a historically black character, be cast by a white girl, even if that white girl demonstrated the greatest aptitude for the portrayal, like Leah apparently did for Annabeth.
Now, what does this mean for the future?
Since 2005, all artwork of Annabeth has been of her being white, as per canon. For almost two decades now, all the fanart has been of white Annabeth. As of the morning of May 5, the day of the casting announcement, already has there been an influx of fanart with Annabeth featured in the likeness of Leah, with black skin and blonde, braided dreadlocks.
Given the nature of the cancel culture we live in today, can we expect all these artists who drew a white Annabeth to be viciously attacked and cyberbullied? Can we expect demands of them to go back and recolor Annabeth as black, and redraw her hair to fit Leah's style? Going forward, is all artwork of Annabeth depicting her as black now mandatory, and any artwork of her as white to be considered whitewashing, and to be taken down immediately?
Is Rick going to go back and rewrite the whole canon with Annabeth as a black girl? Can we expect a retconned rerelease of the entire Riordanverse saga, all 20+ books, with Annabeth rewritten as black, and her and Percy as a mixed-race couple?
Here in the realm of fanfiction, will authors now be expected to write Annabeth as black?
If you think I'm writing a black Annabeth, you can go fuck yourself. I wouldn't write about a black Annabeth anymore than I would a white Carter Kane or a German Reyna.
Ultimately, this decision by Rick to cast Leah as Annabeth is highly disappointing. With him in a leading role in this whole project, we expect a true, by the literal book, faithful adaptation of the material we all love, especially after all the criticism surrounding the movies due to how unfaithful they were to the books.
With this undeniably unfaithful casting decision by the main man himself, we can only sit back and wait to see what else will be changed.