Magnus made a very strange face and paused for so long before even trying to read the chapter title, the others were growing concerned he was going to pass out. Then he choked, and dropped the book as he burst out laughing.

"Well you've already lost your rights," Alex huffed, getting up to reach over and take it, but Magnus snatched it back and told cheerfully, "I Become Supreme Lord of the Bathroom."

Alex got a constipated look in place as if every word hurt her when she turned to Percy and asked, "we don't have to ask your permission to use the toilet or something do we?"

Will fell off his own seat laughing while Alex grinned and bowed.

Magnus was still laughing his but off, and Thalia wasn't looking much better as she at least tried to suppress her mirth. Even Nico had a funny little smile on his face as he guessed Percy somehow killed a monster in the toilet. Only Percy.

'Does he get a crown?' Hearthstone asked before taking over for Alex and trying to tug the book away to see this one for himself. Magnus held it even closer and was still snickering.

"It's the Supreme part that really settles it home," Jason agreed nonchalantly. "I just want to know if a court jester could even rank in this."

"You're all so insightful and helpful, really," Percy rolled his eyes good naturedly at their fun as Magnus finally got his breath back and began even more eagerly than moments ago.

"I imagine there's some things even therapy can't fix," Magnus sighed.

"I didn't think it was that bad," Alex said with a challenging look, as if she knew people who spontaneously turned out to be horses all the time.

"I think that's fair of anyone though," Will casually agreed. "I personally don't go around demanding to meet someones backside along with their face."

"They were," Will promised.

Percy swallowed uncomfortably and didn't take much comfort in the fact nobody else seemed entirely sure of what this could mean. Those in the know knew this is where the Oracle used to be, but she'd hardly get up and be cracking the shades for light, so what could this be about?

"Liar, liar," Alex called at once. She didn't need those kids' faces to show otherwise, she'd had plenty of practice by now spotting it for herself even in text.

Nobody tried to tell her otherwise.

'Eloquent,' Hearthstone signed. A truth and a lie, they were all sure of that.

'So long as it's not a corpse up there,' Magnus signed back. Did the Greeks have zombie stories? He really hoped not now.

"The Gods don't give you an allowance?" Alex chuckled.

"Not the kind you can cash in," Will sighed.

"Mmm, strawberry wine," Alex mocked.

"Don't tempt him," Will shook his head.

"Hopefully not literally," Jason muttered.

Jason still found the idea that a fawn- err, satyr had dreams at all, let alone aspirations a lot to take in. Yet he liked Grover, he'd meant it and really hoped nothing bad would happen to him.

"Technically, not," Alex uneasily corrected, but she had a natural ability to spot a loophole. "Your mom was this close to bringing you without him," she held her forefinger and thumb mere inches apart. "Plus, he was unconscious when you got there."

Percy wished he could protest, but guilt stopped his lips from forming the words. This was his fault, he hadn't meant to get his friend in trouble like that.

"But then you never would have gotten the chance to slam the door on Smelly Gabe," Nico noted as if this were a great point of concern. Percy grinned at him and he uneasily returned it.

"That would still put him at fourteen," Jason deduced. "And this is his second mission? How old was he when he messed up the first time?"

"Eleven and a half," Thalia answered grimly. "Though by satyr standards he was just past the age of maturity, leaving from kid to teenager."

Nobody asked how Thalia knew this. Percy simply wished more every moment Grover was here too, he didn't blame his friend for any of his past mistakes. He was the only reason he recalled any good times at Yancy.

"You know you're a special case when both of them put up with the education system for you," Will nodded.

Percy nodded firmly, his hand creeping towards his pocket, an entire inferno racing through him promising he'd do whatever was necessary to see this thought had come to pass.

"He is really keen on this tour," Magnus frowned.

"He deserves to be able to practice this speech on someone other than the mirror," Will shrugged.

"That fancy pen, obviously monsters will roll over if you show off some calligraphy," Alex smirked.

"Glad you're keeping up with this so well," Percy rolled his eyes.

'He'd know the answer to that,' Hearth rolled his eyes.

'Maybe he thinks you can get new stuff in your sleep,' Magnus chuckled.

"The best kind!" Will said with complete enthusiasm.

"You work in the medical area fixing that stupidity," Nico corrected.

"And if there was no armory a bunch of teenagers frequent, I'd have no one to practice on," Will smirked.

Magnus mouthed usually like that was just a common thing to bypass while Jason nodded this made complete sense.

"I didn't think he had a sense of humor," Alex nodded her appreciation of this.

Percy was watching Thalia, Will, and Nico as if still expecting a better answer, to which all of them declined.

Nico leaned back in his seat and did his best to hide a grimace. This mistake had been fixed at least, but even after his own cabin had been added, he'd still never quite managed to feel at home there.

"Sounds convenient," Alex grinned. "Can't forget which god or goddess they are when they have a whole building dedicated to them."

"Their kids sleep in temples? Sounds depressing," Jason looked even more strained at the idea.

"More like commemorative housing, they are called cabins," Will kindly reminded, while Thalia grimaced worse than Nico just had. She'd never advertised trying to change any features of her 'home' there when Annabeth had offered redecorations for all.

"The god of basketball? Or sleeping out on the court?" Magnus chuckled.

"Don't be ridiculous, the Greeks didn't invent basketball," Alex smirked.

Percy smiled at the mention of her. He knew better than to ask her name, but it was nice to have a good impression of someone here after all the staring.

Jason exhaled and traced his tattoo in frustration. The obvious answer was staring him in the face, but it didn't make the disappearance of his past any more clear.

Jason looked back around at the book for the mention of her, Juno, his mind whispered. Thalia's eyes were sparking with outrage, almost literally for a bizarre second he'd swear, but she didn't interrupt and Magnus hadn't stopped to notice.

'Or a patron,' a voice whispered in the back of Jason's mind, but he clenched his hands and told his mind to shut up if it wasn't going to be helpful.

"That doesn't make much sense," Jason agreed, "it can't be that functional to have kids cramped together some places when you have open space in others."

"We have our reasons," Will said airly, if a little defensively. Nobody had claimed their system was perfect, but what did this guy want from them?

Thalia was pressing her lips together to suppress a smirk while Nico and Will were doing a much worse job at hiding their amusement he'd been drawn to that particular cabin. Percy didn't get why until the rest of the description was shown.

"At least it wasn't designed like a fish tank," Magnus offered to Percy when he looked rather confused why it would feel so empty.

"I'm a bit disappointed there's not buried treasure in here, let alone in my own cabin," Alex teased.

Percy grinned back and played along, "can you imagine the glass bathroom?" but still wished this book would quit tormenting him with so many odds of his past hammering his brain.

Will pressed his lips together tight to stop the laughter for what he knew was coming while Percy rolled his eyes and muttered something about spotting the obvious bully of the camp.

"He asks the centaur," Nico chuckled.

Percy gave him a challenging look back as he asked, "and you didn't ask the same when you first met him?"

Nico looked quickly away and Percy looked surprised and a bit uncomfortable himself as his memories warned him he maybe should have known the answer to that.

'Is that better, or worse?' Hearthstone asked.

"I'll leave him to be the judge of that," Magnus shrugged.

"A needed ability when dealing with kids I'm sure," Thalia began, before she paused and looked at Hearthstone, but he was smiling and nodding along to what she'd said.

"Must have been quite memorable drool," Alex snickered.

Percy smiled as he softly treasured and tucked that memory away to never be taken again. This was how he knew his girlfriend best, this image made him want to fall in love with her all over again.

"The best entrance one can make!" Will said enthusiastically.

"It's too bad you weren't in there," Percy wasn't sure how sarcastic Will was being, but he meant that.

Thalia had known, from the moment Percy had picked him out of the crowd, but it wasn't until the confirming little scar that her heart broke all over again just like it had every time she heard the news.

'Luke's joined Kronos,' Annabeth had whispered to her the second day she'd been out of that tree before telling her the whole story.

'Luke's dead,' Annabeth had sobbed not hours after she'd witnessed his sacrifice.

Now here it was again, as fresh and pure as sea salt in a very old wound. Luke, just being a normal friendly teenager.

'This was worse,' Thalia kept thinking, she wasn't as sure she could do this anymore without shouting. Percy was giving her a hesitant smile and then looking on with confusion at the book, clearly he remembered having some like and respect for Luke right away, how could he not? He'd been a naturally charming guy, along with spending quite a bit of time with him. She could already feel her throat tightening, her hands itching to draw her bo and to tell Percy to snap out of it, for him to know the truth. She didn't think she could just sit here and watch him make friends with, fall prey to such a travesty of events all over again.

Her distress had already drawn Percy's attention though, he was watching her and rubbing his temple with an ever increasing frown, beginning to mutter to himself and wince as his green eyes flickered to her and the book and there was a hint of pain already pushing to the surface. She didn't know what would happen if she told her friend something like this too early, maybe his head would pop right off like a geyser or maybe he'd be okay, but what she did know was they were trapped until this was done, and she didn't really think Posideon would have done this to his son without revealing everything.

Patience, she cautioned herself. The patience of a hunter, and being an immortal in general, was still relatively new to her, but something she strived for in his moment and managed to achieve as she concentrated on mellowing herself back out. 'You're doing this for your friends now, not protecting Luke or yourself from the inevitable. Patience.'

"Going in knowing the important details at least," Will chuckled.

Will sighed and hid a wince. Some Gods were better than others about claiming their kids, and some days there was no rhyme or reason to when a kid got claimed. Will had the firey arrow above his head a few hours after he'd shown up. Lee Fletcher had been there for almost two weeks before Dad had claimed him in the middle of the canoe lake for no clear reason.

"She's being kind of harsh," Magnus defended as he glanced up. "He has no idea what's going on!" He was speaking from experience, seeing as he had no clue why Percy was being laughed at.

"She can be a little brash when you first meet her," Thalia spoke with a fond smile of that little anguished little girl trying to wail on her and Luke with a hammer. "She grows on you."

Percy immediately smiled at hearing her speak of Annabeth with such fond exasperation and familiarity and told, "better get to her explaining than complaining man," he wanted to remember Annabeth like that too.

"Don't tell me there's a zombie math teacher out there," Alex frowned in concern.

"Um, slightly no, mostly no," Will tried his hardest to answer with a straight face as he now tried not to picture all the monsters coming back somehow looking even more terrifying than they already did.

"Not your mortal parent," Jason and the others had deduced. "That seems really uneven, there must be a more strategic way to do that," he still didn't sound happy about it.

"Got a better option," Thalia shot back, not quite as defensive of the camp as Will suddenly was frowning at him. She'd stayed there, she'd defend it, but it had never felt like home to her, she had only metaphorical roots to the place now.

Jason didn't answer, but from the look on his face, it was clear he was trying to think up one.

"Do you overtake her ruling in the bathroom?" Alex tried to cut in some of the tension as Percy sighed heavily again.

"I can't imagine a guy ever overtaking a woman in that place," Magnus smirked back, but Alex merely scowled at him and he didn't understand why she wouldn't want to joke about it anymore but moved on.

Magnus paused with a very troubled look on his face. He couldn't count the amount of kids he'd met in shelters who'd all run away for various reasons. The idea that even just a handful of those were running from monsters and nobody had believed them while he'd unknowingly been hanging out with a dwarf and an elf and never realized otherwise just continued to have him looking back on everything he'd thought he'd known and continue to realize nothing would ever be the same, not even the strangers around him.

"Do you think we could eat some," Alex asked eagerly, looking back at the food table as if hoping some would appear now.

Thalia appraised the two Norse kids critically as she thought about it, they were children of gods for certain but not Greeks so the possibility was there, but Will cut in quickly, "let's not find out! It is for emergencies for a reason, if we eat too much that still happens to us!"

Alex looked disappointed and began eyeing her garrot, hopefully not wondering how badly she'd have to injure someone for it to be classified as an emergency to find out, while Magnus looked slightly relieved to move on now.

'That somehow made even less sense in English,' Hearth protested.

"Crows are scavenger birds," Nico explained with an odd little smile on his face. "It means go get consumed, or more literally, go to hell."

"Ah," Alex nodded appreciation. "Might have to borrow that."

"I don't like the odds of either of them if they've never taken down a Minotaur," Magnus scoffed at this rivalry.

"Did she recently crawl out of a toilet?" Alex smirked.

Will couldn't hold that one in and laughed far harder than the sarcasm really deserved, but the others ignored him.

"I think she knew that," Jason stage whispered.

"Always the last place on the tour," Percy said tragically while all attention was now riveted on the book to see what was about to happen. Even Will had only ever heard outlandish stories of how it had gone down, and Thalia had been given the short version by Annabeth. Here was as close to live action carnage via plumbing they'd get to hear.

"You should be thanking your lucky stars it's not a latrine," Thalia corrected.

Alex scoffed in dismay at such a showing. There was letting someone fight their own battle, and there was being a frightened shlep. Whatever these Greek kids saw in this girl, she wasn't seeing it right now.

Nico perked up like a kid at Christmas, the others were listening with wide eyed amusement, even Will and Thalia who had seen Percy in action were smiling fondly at this first real showing of his abilities and skills even around something nobody would consider his natural element.

"How your title never caught on in camp after this I have no clue," Will told him with such remorse, he really seemed to be taking that burden on his shoulders. Percy suddenly feared he'd go about correcting that, or worse try to build him an actual thrown in there, and hastily waved Magnus on.

"You're using these waters for its opposite intended purpose," Alex applauded, "I'm so dang proud right now!"

"Your majesty!" Thalia punched him on the shoulder, ruining the grand title. "You can be the supreme lord in my court any day!"

"He needs a porcelain crown," Will agreed judiciously.

"I'm sure we can fashion something out of a toilet seat lid," Jason agreed.

"I hate you all," but Percy was chuckling appreciatively right along with them as he felt for the first time with absolute confidence he'd fit right into this camp.

"Every good show needs an audience," Magnus was still trying to read through his laughter, making it very hard for Hearthstone to keep up.

'I will be upset with him if he's ruined all the toilet paper, that stuff is hard to come by,' he rolled his eyes and fought his own twitching lips regardless.

Thalia caught Will's eyes, longing to know how it had still taken them until after the game to realize who Percy's dad was after that.

He mouthed Hephestus and she rolled her eyes, that was an extremely out there assumption after this display, surely Annabeth had already guessed better and had just wanted confirmation from her little ploy.

"Which obviously means she's going to become one of your bestest friends," Jason sighed.

"Not good to have an enemy sleeping right next door," Alex said, her feet twitching at just the thought.

"I'd rather say impressed," Magnus disagreed with absolute confidence. "Anything that holds her attention has to be impressive to her on some level."

"Thanks," Percy grinned.

"That's done," Magnus sighed with disappointment. "Did someone else want to go?" He was watching Nico mostly, who so far had been the only one who hadn't a chance to read. He however just shrugged and gave Magnus a careless wave, so he grinned and happily flipped to the next chapter.

PJOPJOPJOPJO

Fun question time, which Godly parent do you think you'd have, and which would you want?

I, personally, would want Echidna, because maybe being related to all the monsters would make me able to talk to them. Wishful thinking, I know.

Which would I have though, I honestly don't think our personality matters much to do with our Godly parent, Frank being a key example. I'd hazard a guess to be Apollo's child, semi-decent aim with archery and guns, plus poetry is a form of creative writing, but I wouldn't bank on it.