As you may notice below, there is no book dialogue. I learned my lesson the first time and have zero intention of this series getting ripped down for any reason, but rather than making you all wait until this is complete to send PDF's with book lingo, just ask for a google doc and you can follow along in there for now and then I'll gladly send everyone complete versions after each book is done!
Couple of quick character notes before we get into the deep dive of this, mostly just some pre-apologies so I don't offend anyone.
I am not deaf, though I had a deaf Uncle growing up so I know some very basic sign language but I was really young and most of my understanding is a refresher course from what we know of Hearthstone from the Magnus Chase books. Please inform me if my old memories are inaccurate, and very little actual signing will be described for our dear Elf.
Even less encouraging news for Alex; I'm not genderfluid nor do I even know anyone in person who is, he/ she will be periodically changing genders throughout the series, but in general I'll be writing them as true to their character as the book as I can with no real difference in whichever gender she/ he is at the time because it didn't seem to affect their personality. You can only google so much and I'm not going to pretend to be an expert on the subject from that.
If I do or say anything blatantly wrong please correct me as I'd hate to be encouraging any stereotypes.
PJOPJOPJOPJO
It took a couple go-arounds of 'huhs' and 'can you repeat thats' and 'yes that's really a thing' before everyone quieted and accepted to themselves what was happening.
Alex was already sorting through the bag after the first time, apparently unphased or just really good at adapting to the idea there were more than just her Norse gods as she came up with a book in hand. "They want us to read?" She broke into Hearthstone and Magnus' once more silent exchange over some reindeer for some reason. "About the Percy guy?" Without prompting she flashed the book around for the rest of them to see, it was bright orange like the camp shirt Percy was wearing with a blood-red 1 on the spine.
"I don't think the books will color coordinate us," Magnus corrected, finally managing something semi-non hysterical as he watched her. He and Hearth were both very worried about Blitz and what he'd do when they didn't come back to meet him under the bridge tonight, but there seemed no getting out of this any time soon. The uncomfortable notion of having to swim back to the surface was a pretty good deterrent.
Hearthstone felt a little guilty for still not explaining everything to his friend, but had decided one thing at a time as his charge was just coming to grips with the idea of living deities. Him and Blitz not even being children of gods but whole other species was even more than he wanted to explain right now, Blitzen was much better at that.
"Their loss," Alex huffed as she sorted through the rest. She froze though and quickly pulled her hand out of the bag without revealing the rest of her find as she flipped to the first page and said loudly, "I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher. Well whoever this is about certainly knows how to live."
Percy was starting to look a little green around the edges as he looked from Thalia, to Nico, to Will in rapid succession like he was hoping a guidebook would appear for what was happening. As non-disconcerting as it had been to have all this talk of gods explained by her, that had felt inherently natural and easy enough to take in but still not exactly something he wanted to figure out around a bunch of strangers.
If this was how he had to get back to Annabeth though, so be it.
The rest of them had just come to quietly accept this new reality, their life had led them all to the conclusion long ago it was keep up or be killed, and the existence of a whole other pantheon of Gods to know of was just one more factoid now.
"Too late for that," Alex huffed.
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure everyone in here is a done deal," Will agreed.
"Otherwise you might have been zapped down to see the judges a little early," Nico rolled his eyes. Hearthstone chose not to correct the assumption, he assumed nobody would understand him anyways, even Magnus was only just past the basics of Alf Sign Language. He missed Blitz, his friend would gladly shout at them there were others besides demigods out there.
Jason huffed he hadn't even been given that choice as he kept watching Thalia like it was her fault while his own useless mind tried to recall anything before this room.
"So, a lot to look forward to when I get back?" Percy asked without actually expecting an answer other than Thalia's strained smile, and that's exactly what he got.
"As if I've ever taken advice from a book," Alex muttered as she swung herself in her poof sideways, reading with one leg propped above her head now.
Nico kept his eyes on nobody, not even Percy or Will now as he recalled how their father had kept them safe by having a Fury look after them and Bianca had still not survived even before she abandoned him. He wished someone had given him this book before he'd lost the chance to save his sister's life.
"Ha!" Alex paused for dramatic effect as she smirked at Magnus, who managed a tentative smile back and reached for her kale chips. She dumped the rest into her mouth and sprayed him with the green shavings as she kept going.
'Well that obviously didn't last,' Hearthstone signed to his friend as he stared at the obvious teenager now. Except ASL wasn't so literal, so it was more like he pointed at Percy and used the sign for aging, keeping his palm down as he drew it from his hip up to his chin. He. Aged. Magnus filled in the blanks. 'Why do you think we're reading about something so long into his past?'
'Asking the wrong guy,' Magnus signed back, considering he was still getting used to the fact he was breathing underwater, let alone a Titan had put him down here.
"Are you a troubled kid?" Jason asked, he sounded almost amused. He wondered if he was one too, if anyone was looking for him like that Annabeth girl who was clearly looking for Percy, both Thalia and him had mentioned her.
"Going off of the few things I now know as facts, I'd say yeah," Percy sighed.
"Sounds like a blast," Magnus grinned, he wished he'd attended school more.
"Sounds like torture," Alex huffed as she flipped the first page.
"Isn't this how you met Chiron and Grover?" Thalia asked as she caught up. Annabeth had told her plenty of Percy's start, more than she'd ever asked, but that never seemed to stop her friend, especially in recent times when she'd come to check on her friend in her distressed state. The child of Athena often kept going over her past and as much of Percy's as she could know in hopes to piece together some way to find her boyfriend, whom Thalia had just stumbled across at the bottom of the ocean.
"Who?" Percy gave her a blank look for both names, but he looked sad and muttered something about enchiladas.
"Don't worry, we're getting there," she assured, grateful for the books now instead of her having to retell all of this.
"This is putting me to sleep," Nico told him, telling himself he wasn't drinking in every word and settling comfortably into the squashy green chair. He'd shadow travel back out of this place any moment now...
"I'm not the one who invited you," Percy said back.
"Come on Nico, you can't pretend you're not a little curious to hear how the great Percy Jackson's story went from himself," Will gave him a friendly nudge and a sunny smile Nico instantly resisted the urge to cringe away from. Staying at the bottom of the dark ocean maybe was his second favorite pick from the underworld so long as he could keep breathing down here, even including present company. He glared at the bookbag the strange green-haired girl still had close to her and knew same as her that if Percy's story was in here, so likely were the rest of theirs too...including some who were only here in memory.
Thalia raised her hand mock pleasantly as if Chiron were in here now. "I'm taking a wild guess now and saying neither of those things happened!"
"Five points for the girl with the magic bow," Jason mock applauded.
"On a scale of what?" She asked back, the two sure were frowning at each other an awful lot, as if swearing they should recognize somebody they'd never properly met. "A Hunter of Artemis always makes a perfect score mind you."
"Out of five then, obviously," he graciously amended. Her weapon had vanished after all and he had no wish to push his luck against her, not when he had questions for her he couldn't even remember but felt vitally important to ask.
"Now there's a story that needs detail!" Alex cackled.
Percy contemplated for a moment before shrugging, "ever felt a malevolent, glimmering light was following you around?"
"Can't say I have," she said cheerfully, waving her hand for him to continue.
"Well, I'd swear it was, though everyone else just called me crazy and it was only a bird. Point is I was worried about touching it, the thing was so hot just from hovering in front of me, so I swung the cannon and somehow it, well," he finished with a needless gesture back to the book.
"Went off instead," Magnus finished for him when Alex waited hopefully as if for more, but when he didn't elaborate she nodded this was an acceptable side story.
"Better than some boring trip to the museum at any rate," she said as she went back to it, doubting there would be any exploding cannons in there. Maybe she'd get lucky and a Michelangelo would at least be described by someone competent.
"Well at least nobody would have gotten seriously hurt during that one," Thalia told him bracingly.
Percy gave her a blank look just as a shark swam through the room, more massive than the largest breed just casually skimming over the low-sodium snacks before floating back out. He thought she meant about that and assumed everyone heard the fish's sultry dismay there was no fresh sushi bar today.
Thalia realized her mistake; she'd yet to inform Percy what he'd clearly forgotten, his own heritage, and didn't hold him in suspense of that one. "Son of the Sea God Percy, are you telling me you didn't know that after a trip to the aquarium?" Were the fish not chatting to him like the celebrity he was? He'd said in the past he could talk to aquatic life.
His sea green eyes flashed bizarrely in the room's light, his face turning the color of the kale chips. Having the book refresh his memories one bit at a time hadn't hurt a bit, but that sure had, his head was walloping in time with his heart.
"Percy?" She asked in concern.
"I knew that," he rasped. "Why did I know that?"
She led him over to a beanbag and gave Will and Nico a very stern look, speaking mostly to them now as she calmed her friend, "whatever's going on in your head, I'm guessing we shouldn't be feeding you so much stuff at once. Let's just, let Alex keep going."
Will made the sign for warding off evil and Nico cussed lightly as they exchanged a look and stared uneasily at their surroundings once more. Nobody knew why Percy had lost his memories and they hadn't, but they were suddenly very grateful it didn't seem a group effect and sat down quickly on a couch for the long haul now while she took a seat beside him.
Jason wasn't looking much better and gripped the table nearly tipping all the food over but forced himself to remain calm and keep his own mouth shut, not wanting to end up the same color as Percy and most definitely deciding not to push his own luck for now.
Alex watched the group of Greek kids and considered telling Thalia she was getting a little to trigger happy with her orders for her liking, but she had no real protests against reading still and her eyes were already straying back to the story anyways.
'I'm guessing that works as well for him as it does for me,' Magnus signed.
'This isn't your fault Magnus, I'm sure this can only be of help to us,' Hearthstone signed back. He certainly hoped so at any rate, he didn't need the Capo considering this against orders, and he wouldn't mind asking the bossy girl where she'd gotten her bow, especially its clearly magical properties.
Even Tyson wouldn't eat that sandwich, Percy randomly thought, before his brain sizzled like static and he was already wondering who on Earth Tyson could be.
"First of all, eww," Will frowned, already wondering how much ambrosia he'd have to give someone from that poisonous concoction.
"Second of all, gross," Nico agreed, he wouldn't bring back a ghost stupid enough to die by choking on a sandwich like that.
"But mostly, how did you not knock her flat on her ass already?" Alex and Thalia said together.
Percy was frowning and looking very much as if he agreed with all sentiments. Grover, the name felt as important to him as Annabeth, equal to those surrounding him now in people he knew he could count on as a friend. Even if he didn't know why.
Getting up and shaking off the last of his nausea, he went over to the pile of food and snatched up some more, handing a bag to everyone he passed before slamming back into his seat and telling Thalia, "I hope I do any moment now."
Nico coughed to suppress a laugh as he knew better and Will did no such thing, laughing with his whole body and making the light at the bottom of the ocean shine brighter for just a moment for knowing the satyr was much older in goat years, but both well knew to heed a daughter of Zeus and Artemis's lieutenant and Thalia in general so did not share the joke when Percy frowned at them in confusion.
Magnus gave a wistful look to all the non-salty food in the air above even as he polished off the last of it down here. Hearthstone gave up his own to him after only a few bites and promised he'd eat more later, they weren't likely to let them starve down here but he should still eat his fill.
"And why was that?" Alex asked eagerly.
At least he could still recall the things that were being slowly and gradually reminded to him up until this point. He only had to think for a moment before the haze lifted and he was sure of right where this was being plopped into his life, and recalled, "there may or may not have been some jerk trapped on a roof all night that I may or may not have locked the door to."
"Ah, I see, what a mystery," Alex nodded.
"In other words, decapitate her anyways because you're going to get blamed for it," Alex concluded.
"Pretty sure the takeaway wasn't supposed to be that," Magnus frowned at her.
"Eh," she shrugged.
"And I like ketchup, but not together," Will still shuddered in disgust.
"Whoever thought we'd agree on anything," Nico nodded.
"This book sure likes to build up suspension!" Alex said, glaring over the spine at Percy as if this were all his fault too.
"I didn't write it," he rolled his eyes, "if I could tell you I doubt it would be necessary."
She eyed him for a few moments before deciding not to decapitate him out of annoyance.
"And that's just the stuff the mortals found," Thalia grinned as she lovingly grasped her bracelet.
Nico arched a very curious brow and wondered about that description while Thalia was trying to hide behind her silvery camo jacket she was making faces, having a pretty good guess who this was as well from more Annabeth stories.
"Way to go Grover," Thalia rolled her eyes.
"Wait," Percy looked from Nico's frown back to her and was clearly putting this together on his own. "She's not? He's not?"
"Don't strain yourself Percy," Will said gently.
He looked around once more at all the demigods and the skolopendra that floated into the room, using only its tentacle to clear away the last of the crumbs and sweep back out. It wasn't hard to follow there were more dangerous things than bottom feeders out there after his dealings with those pushy Bargin Mart creatures chasing him across the country.
Thalia felt the first hints of unease for mentioning him as Luke came to mind once more and she glanced around as if expecting the lord of Titans to appear, or even worse any of the twelve Olympians. Oceanus had said they'd be safe here while they did this, but it still felt like a bad omen the first name to be invoked and test that theory had been this Titan.
Nothing happened, the air didn't grow any more cold than the murder-inducing pressure it already should have been to them and nobody spontaneously dropped dead, so she forced herself to try and enjoy this ironic mild vacation she'd been forced into.
"I don't know why, that was pretty accurate," Will shrugged.
Nico couldn't help but correct, "if he'd ever even read the back of a single Mythomagic box that's the basics and not even touching on-" he froze, looking horrified with himself for how much he'd relaxed back into his seat without even realizing it. That was the first time he'd even thought about his old game, let alone mentioned it since Bianca's death.
Will was giving him a curious look as if hoping he'd keep going, but Thalia was already shaking her head and mouthing at him to shut up.
Alex wasn't helping, as she was scowling at the light details and grumbling, "great, because it wasn't hard enough keeping track of the Norse gods and all the shit they get up to, now we've got to remember the difference of all your gods as well!"
Hearthstone didn't follow all of that, since she didn't drop the book from her face for him to read her lips properly, but Magnus was signing as well as he could the big things that were happening and so the elf signed back, 'I don't think she's going to be the pleasant company while we're here.' He had not missed the fact that the girl with the silver circlet had been following along their silent conversation while the others hadn't yet demanded of them why they weren't speaking. His mission to help keep Magnus safe was feeling more doomed by the moment with all of these dangerous teenagers around.
'Maybe not, but I'm not betting against her just yet,' he smiled for her abruptness while already trying to figure out a short-hand sign for Kronos and Zeus so he didn't have to finger spell out all of this, his hand was already starting to cramp and he was missing Blitzen more every moment.
"Better than a mindless drone asking if I want fries with that," Nico scoffed.
"That's not, you know, literal is it?" Percy asked his friends wearily.
"Like an antenna? Nah," Thalia smirked without elaborating further.
Will looked at Nico curiously, as if hoping he'd engage and share something of that place, but the son of Hades was too busy looking longingly at the shadows again and obviously contemplating trying to leave again, back to his task of coming and going from camp like a lifeless shadow in search of something he clearly wasn't finding. He restrained himself now as he did every time from pulling him closer and offering a tutorial on healing magic nobody but his own siblings could follow and just kept his mouth shut.
Thalia and Alex scoffed in unison for that.
The boys did not bother to defend any such claim.
"Oh," Percy murmured for himself, not needing to look at the others this time to know deep down that was true as he locked eyes with the book as if suddenly hoping it would stare back, that this wise old man would be gazing at him now rather than the orange covered spine and tell him what he needed to know now.
"Don't worry Percy, you're getting there," Thalia squeezed his shoulder and wished Annabeth were here for the millionth time already. She missed her friend, she wanted to let her know she could stop going even more prematurely gray with worry, and more than anything Percy looked like he needed that connection right now as his gaze intensified on the stranger reading his life as he accepted Chiron's statement as fact right now in this strange place.
"And you never will," Nico mock promised him as he gave an obvious look at his seatmate as if waiting for him to push him off and roll his eyes.
Will did no such thing, he even snickered a bit and told him playfully, "I was just missing Kayla doing that."
Nico looked too stumped to say anything back while Thalia ignored the two idiots and properly explained, "we all have that problem Percy, it's a half-blood thing. We live these problems and we still have to keep up like crazy to have all those names and facts straight."
"Helps when they start introducing themselves before they kill you, they're far more memorable that way at least," Alex told him in what she clearly thought was a helpful tone of voice.
Percy swallowed even more uncomfortably because he believed her.
Percy now realized that's probably because he was, and it made him feel strangely young. He couldn't be anymore than sixteen, he felt exhausted already and they couldn't have been at this for more than an hour. There wasn't a scratch or blemish on his body for some unknown reason despite the fact a spot dead center in his spine tingled for some reason as he comfortably laid back, and yet all evidence to the contrary promised that been in battles, and his favorite teacher had still seen more.
"What did you want him to say, that you are a genius?" Alex asked dubiously.
"Grover's a good friend, he wouldn't lie to you like that," Thalia told him with a teasing grin.
"I wish I had more apples for you guys," Percy told them with the air of one who promised they would not be handed the food this time.
Percy gasped as if finally feeling the crushing weight of the ocean condense all around him. His mom! How could he have ever forgotten her!
"Thalia," he turned pleading to her, "her name, tell me you know my mom's name, please!"
She only hesitated a moment but couldn't deny him this joyous and small bit of information. "Sally. Sally Jackson."
He sighed in relief and thanked her with such heart he seemed to fully relax for the first time as he stopped fighting the constant push of memories and just turned eagerly back to the book to hear more, even the depressing news that followed.
Jason was watching the exchange with increasing frustration and thinking more every moment he wanted to start talking to Thalia too. It wasn't the clear friendship between the two of them, it was just the idea he couldn't let go of he wanted to get to know her too for some inexplicable reason, as if she could answer all of his questions too, but though she still watched him carefully from time to time she made no more move to interact with him yet either. Cautious, a Hunter she'd called herself, this girl clearly did not know him at all and he was looking for something that wasn't there. He'd been dumped in here alone, unlike everyone else.
These Greek names meant nothing to him, weren't connecting to his mind in any way that mattered, if anything while the four of them were relaxing a bit he was getting more wound up at the wrongness of it all. This was not his story, his history, he could feel it in his bones. Even Alex and Magnus felt alien to him right now and were still taking this in stride better, Hearthstone hadn't spoken to anyone. If there was something for him to be doing down here, he wasn't seeing it.
Percy nodded solemnly as if none of this was news to him even as he absorbed it all like fresh air. Even just this small glimpse of his missing parent felt vitally important to him, as if he could look back on his past now and chastise himself to make up for already knowing he was going to disappoint her again and she'd still love him anyways.
"Don't let Alex meet her, she might eat the girl, wait, that's not a bad thing is it?" Thalia said cheerfully.
Alex let the long empty bag of chips crumple up in her hand one more time before wadding it up and throwing it at Thalia. It floated lazily through the water before a blast of icy ocean zipped it into a nearby recycling bin. Alex shrugged and pushed her green hair all to one side as she kept going, nobody missing the fact she hadn't denied the statement.
"Literally?" Will chuckled.
Son of the Sea God, Thalia had called him. Percy wasn't so sure he was joking like Thalia just was.
"Did I really?" He gasped as he looked again at the literal tons of water around them all. The idea he could manipulate and control something that covered half the planet should have boggled his mind a lot more, but having already spent time casually being where no man had ever dreamt of before and their surroundings doing clean up duty for them sort of pushed most of his surprise into the recycling bin too.
"You know the answer to that Percy," Thalia told him wisely.
Percy was shaking his head from side to side as if the memory were still floating right on the edge of his mind, too elusive to grasp even now. The whispers from the ocean he'd heard all his life, the odd fact of how he'd always been able to hold his breath for so long underwater and it never bothered him, now this. Like a mist, slippery and thinning more every moment trying to lift the fog away from his childhood and show him what he must have always known to be true.
Nico nodded to himself as if he'd been waiting for that very thing to be confirmed. Will gave him an odd look he was agreeing with the book but didn't ask.
"A look I would not recommend being on the receiving end of," Thalia sighed, mock ringing out her jacket as if it were suddenly wet. Percy gave her a sort of chagrined stare, he had no idea why he'd have ever glared at her that way.
Hearthstone made an exaggerated sign, more so then he'd yet done and drawing everyone's attention even before Magnus laughed for whatever that meant.
The pale guy with the candy cane scarf suddenly gave Percy a chagrined look and did something else, forming his hand into a fist and rubbing it against his chest.
Magnus said quickly, "he's sorry, he wasn't laughing at you, neither of us were. We were, um, commiserating."
"No problem," Percy assured. He'd spent enough time around bullies to know the difference.
Thalia suppressed her lips and fought back the urge to ask if either of them would like her to give signing a try, but both seemed to be getting along okay and she was still far more distracted taking in Jason and that odd scar on his lip to get involved with those two yet.
Everyone found that quite odd, it was obvious for even those who didn't know who Mr. Brunner really was this guy knew of their world and was looking after Percy as much as Grover. Why wouldn't he step in then, was he setting up his own sort of test? The kind a bit of chalk wasn't going to get him out of.
Jason opened his mouth, the comment on the tip of his tongue no teacher could just make that happen, let alone Alex's little lip sneer promising nobody could make her do anything as she said it, but it fell flat as they all knew that wasn't what was really going on.
"I get the feeling it wasn't a depiction of Hades," Nico muttered for himself, though beside him it only confirmed for Will this was not going to be pleasant, as if any monster attack ever was.
"The first and last time you've ever done that I'm sure," Thalia tried and failed at a grin, wondering just how badly his first fight as a called-out demigod had gone. How badly was he going to get hurt, and she couldn't even mock him for it.
"A new torture never to be presented to your dad," Will whispered back, "this chick teaching math class for all eternity."
Nico laughed without humor, Will had no idea how close to right he was.
"Less pain, why isn't it ever no pain?" Magnus muttered, one too many street thugs jacking whatever meager belongings he had always said the same thing.
Several of the assembled tried their best to laugh at these little moments of levity, but the joyful noise just wasn't echoing in the bottom of the abyss as Percy's expression grew more stormy by the second. The water began boiling around him as his anger and fear mounted, as if the very ocean itself was churning the pain from his head outwards for them all to see something was happening.
"A fury," Thalia hissed in fury, her hands twitching on autopilot to draw her bow which still materialized in her hands even lounging back in a cushion made of seaweed which she managed to make look intimidating somehow.
"How on Earth did you get out of this?" Nico asked in such an awed tone of voice, so unlike the sullen and low tone he'd been using so far Percy gave him an awkward smile for the first time and Nico flushed and looked away without expecting an answer.
Alex didn't know what a fury was, but for the first time she sat in her seat proper, her mismatched eyes more focused on this threat while acknowledging for the first time there was more out there to he known than just what she'd come across so far. Perhaps the company of these strange, other children of the gods should be given some credence.
'Stranger than your teacher turning into a monster you say?' Hearthstone signed with an odd laugh.
'Better than the garbage guy again, that was a weird day,' Magnus signed back.
Thalia sighed in relief. Despite the fact Percy was sitting right next to her and obviously not twelve anymore, she'd still been trying her hardest not to dwell on the eulogy she'd been creating in her head to Annabeth already about finding Percy and then delivering his fate of being dragged to the Underworld in one sitting and Chiron showing back up helped ease that thought away.
"The first of many you received I'm sure," Will tried to tell him with a joking laugh. Boy this was one hell of a first interaction with a proper monster, one that had felled mightier demigods than an untrained child, even one of the big three.
"You have no idea," Percy agreed grimly, but it was no continued monster fight floating around his mind. Something of the idea of his mom lingered in him even now as he remembered the hateful look his teacher had given him, why he remembered recognizing such a demonic look in any human face at that age directed at him.
Jason let out a low whistle of appreciation. "Those reflexes must be amazing."
"And he wasn't even near the ocean," Will agreed. "I'm frankly ecstatic to hear more of his adventures."
"At least somebody is," Alex grumbled, but with mildly less grief in her voice than before.
"Only if we're all on the same stuff," Magnus shook his head.
"Even a child of Hypnos couldn't dream up such a thing," Nico said, "or want to."
Alex paused like a fish had just swam into her mouth and was trying to come out backwards. She tried to unpeal pages together when there was nothing wrong with them.
"The Mist," Thalia helpfully explained. "That rain, the mortals are having their memory wiped of anything magical that just happened, like their teacher being a fury."
"Huh," she said in something as close to appreciation as she was going to show.
"Not cool man," Will shook his head. "Why aren't he and, ah, Brunner telling him everything now that they know for sure?"
He was speaking to Thalia and Nico equally, even Percy as if hoping the water would help jog his memories but clearly still playing along as he'd obviously called him Brunner reluctantly. Neither of them had an answer for him, they'd never been saved from their contaminating knowledge that drew monsters to their presence just by the innocence of ignorance. Both had known all their life their hard fates.
…
"What a way to get jackslapped from one reality into another," Alex told him while lobbing the book at him. It floated gently through the water and hovered in front of him. Percy still had a grim look on his face as he took it. There was worse in store for him in this thing, of this he knew. Half of him still wanted to demand the crabby seafoam come back and send him back to the wolf-den with Lupa and a race away from those snake-ladies. Fighting and running towards some instinctive goal was at least a task he could do, rather than this inactive reading. Annabeth, he reminded himself, and flipped to the second chapter.
PJOPJOPJOPJO
For those that have read my Reading HP series, you may already know I'm a bit of a nitpicky buthole about plot holes. That being said, I've thought long and hard about how to address them in these books, and my solution is that I'm going to just change the dialogue in the book to make it match as much as possible so the 'characters' won't question it and leave notes at the bottom of what the book text actually says. Some inconsistencies with age mostly. Because if I don't it will drive me insane, and we can't have someone cursed trying to finish this series now can we?