"Barbeque?" Alex asked eagerly the moment Magnus read the next chapter title.
"I'm thinking less literally, but after those last few, maybe," he agreed.
"Well unless he throws his plate into that central fire for some reason, we're never going to get close to guessing," Jason shrugged.
"A little of both," Will nodded.
"Where do I sign up for this place?" Alex demanded with excitement, even knowing the answer she might not be strictly invited, or even allowed in.
"I'll get back to you on that," Thalia chuckled, wondering if Alex would settle for being a Hunter when they got out of this if she really wanted a reprieve from whatever she'd been pulled away from.
"We were planning a parade and everything before Chiron stopped us," Will managed after the resumed snickering.
"I'll live with just my subjects bowing," Percy graciously allowed with an eye roll, very much hoping Will was just kidding.
"A wish that apparently never came true," Percy huffed.
"You learn better when you work it out for yourself," Thalia half-heartedly defended.
"That's what finally did you in?" Jason asked. "I was done back with the satyr. Good to know your limits."
Percy just shrugged, but even still had the same feeling now. He wanted to go home, but he wasn't even quite sure what that meant anymore now than he had then. Camp? Down to the Underworld where his mom was? Did he even have a home to go back to?
"That was your big take-away from that conversation?" Magnus peeked over the edge to check on him. "Not, the centaur part?"
'Or the Minotaur, or the half-goat,' Hearthstone agreed.
"Acceptance comes in phases," Will defended. "I seem to recall you found out you were at the bottom of the ocean with a bunch of us and still not quite believing your friend's an elf."
Magnus shut his mouth and went back to the book while Hearth dropped his hands in agreement.
"Think the poor kid was just going off his own experience," Jason lightly defended. "The male gods are the most popular of this trope, Zeus being the biggest. She just said to consider the myths as real and he's only met children of the male gods so far, Hermes and Ares being the big stand out."
"He gets a pass the first time, but it's still something he should keep in mind," Alex agreed with an edge to her own voice.
"I would personally assume gods would behave worse," Alex disagreed with a sneer. "They're immortal, they can have a dozen kids and infinity time to make a dozen more, not having to care about some individual brat's personality, just what they can do for them."
There was a very heavy silence when she finished and she focused on each of them for a moment, just daring them to ask. Magnus opened his mouth, eyes still on her rather than the book to do just this, but Thalia cleared her throat and said gently, "our expectations of what a parent should be doesn't always match, but all we can do for now is hope for the better."
For the Camp at least, she knew things had improved there for a while, more kids than ever being brought in and claimed very soon. Whether things would stay that way and the gods would learn from the Titan war was the true test of time. The bitterness in Alex's voice was clear as day and Thalia resolved to have a talk with her before this was over about another option.
"Oh yeah, don't get me started on the time Travis and Connor summoned this Ethiopian bull into camp, and it opened its mouth wide as a snake and swallowed a whole chariot before we-"
"Thank you Will," Thalia cut in patiently while Nico was trying hard to fight back a laugh.
"I don't care if she's the goddess of brainiacs," Alex arched a dyed green brow. "There's no way she's already in college."
"That's for her to tell," Thalia shook her head.
'That's fair,' Hearthstone grimaced as he signed his agreement, though Percy looked disappointed, if accepting she didn't trust him quite yet.
"There's not exactly a wall stopping you," Nico muttered, though he knew for a fact Percy had never tried to run away like he had, and ended up falling under the camp.
Jason was swiftly losing hope that anybody out there had any answers for him. Will seemed to have been at this camp for quite some time as well and hadn't known him, he doubted his own missing memories had anything to do with Annabeth's current problem. He watched Percy and knew there had to be some connection there he knew he was missing...and yet he grew less convinced by the word anybody in here or out there could help him with his predicament.
"She makes traveling there seem way to normal, just putting that out there," Magnus muttered of the little cousin who had apparently ran away from home to a whole other world.
"Oh, yeah, sure, just casually throw that out there, why not," Magnus was nodding like a bobblehead by the end.
"Probably best at this point," Alex grumbled.
Percy's hand twitched. He longed to take her hand and promise he'd help in whatever way he could, they weren't little kids anymore and they'd figured all this out, but Annabeth wasn't here. It felt like an empty promise considering he was now mixed up in an entirely other different mess, without even a clue how he'd ever resolved this one!
"Depends on what's in the bag," Will didn't help the answer much, his smile as strained as Thalia's. Everyone had known Luke.
"That didn't make this better," Magnus huffed.
"Is there anything that would at this point?" Percy shrugged.
'Bit of hero-worshiping?' Hearthstone noticed. Percy had known this guy mere hours and already thought this of him.
'Makes sense to me,' Magnus admitted. He couldn't imagine being thrown into this kind of place alone, not knowing anyone and everyone refusing you a straight answer. Luke was a model of what regular at this camp should be, just talking to him, no expectations, no forbidding statements.
Or he meant exactly that, Nico bristled at the notion of anyone talking that way about Percy. He'd never spent time with Luke personally, probably one of the few who'd fought in the Titan War with no personal stakes to Krono's chosen one, but he was picturing for the first time getting a crack at him.
Thalia had only been told that story second-hand by Chiron himself, nobody else at Camp even talked about Luke if they could avoid it, certainly not Annabeth. She clenched her fist at the thought of him going through that alone and still said nothing of a story that wouldn't have even been that hard to tell, no matter how much she scolded herself for still holding on too tight.
"Sounds like a greeting card," Alex dismissed.
"Sounds like something to remember," Magnus said at the same time. They stared each other down for a moment before both looked away.
He would, Thalia well knew. He'd never been the same since his dad had refused to tell him such foreknowledge.
"I'm so glad that's not a gift dad passes down," Will muttered his agreement.
Thalia smiled and relaxed at the mention of this cabin at least. Perhaps she should stop one certain tradition and trade in to sleeping there along with her hunters on her visits. After all, she'd renounced being Zeus's child when she'd joined Artemis. Perhaps in her case, a patron should outrank parentage.
"If he's bound to watch over the camp, how does he have kids in the mortal world?" Magnus asked in surprise.
"He's still a god," Thalia reminded, "his consciousness can exist in multiple places at once. I'm sure he still frequents a few vineyards and falls in love, if less frequently than he did before his punishment."
Magnus looked like he may have even more questions to this bizarre answer, but decided to process one bit at a time.
"Do all children resemble their godly parents over their mortal ones?" Jason asked with interest.
"Or Athena just has a thing for blondes," Will chuckled.
"Why is that not a thing now!" Alex demanded.
"I'll put it in the suggestion box," Percy agreed.
"We actually guessed the title right for once," Magnus grinned.
'Wait for it,' Hearth cautioned, he didn't think it would be that easy.
"I think it's more for the attention," Will noted.
Jason swallowed and shook his head, wishing it could be that easy. To ask and get an answer of something as monumental as what godly parent you were connected to. He'd sacrifice meals the rest of his life if someone would share that.
"Sometimes all it takes is a little food and company," Will said with a cheerful enough smile, but managed a herculean effort of not looking at Nico as he said so. It seemed the more he'd invited him to camp activities the more he pulled away.
"Well that was ominous," Magnus decreed.
"No smoke monsters, no one stole your dinner, not even more plumbing mishaps," Alex agreed as she reached out for the book. "Means someone's probably going to die in the next one."
"Thanks for the cheerful thoughts," Percy groaned.