Inner Reflections
Welcome back to what I think is going to be the final chapter of the Sea of Monsters arc.
I say 'think' because I only have a vague outline in mind as to how these chapters go before I start writing them. Most of the time, anyway.
Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or AC
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Inspired by historical events and an over-active imagination, this work of fiction was designed, developed, and produced by a single-cultural team of one religious faith and belief, sexual orientation, and gender identity.
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If you happened upon Percy, Hylla, and Reyna down on the gundeck without context, you'd think Percy was an underage, sleezy horndog of a boy, lying up against a support beam with a set of twin girls putting their heads up on his chest, his arms around them tightly, possessively if you didn't know better.
However, those arms were truly around the girls protectively.
There were no words to accurately describe the emotions currently surging through the three, the reincarnated father and daughters trio. Love, of course, happiness, relief, but these were used in the same way the words big, and large, and huge were used to describe the Observable Universe, which is 13.8 billion light-years in a radius with Earth at the center.
Very understated words.
What Percy and his daughters were doing was simple: they were catching up. Hylla and Reyna were giving their dad the bitter news of the post-Rome invasion, with their mother dying out of grief, both of them joining the Assassins, and their own eventual demises. They told Percy about their training, their mistakes and their triumphs, and likewise, he told them about him.
The only things the girls remembered were their past lives as Christina and Maria, right up until their deaths where they met a robed man who simply told them it wasn't their time yet, there was a tremendous surprise waiting for them, and then they woke up to Percy, just knowing he was their father.
That was it.
As Virgil had abhorred keeping secrets from his family, telling his children what it was he and their mother did for a living when they were at an age old enough to understand and comprehend the full ramifications of that, Percy also detested keeping secrets from his family, which now included his daughters…again.
He told them how he was once the legendary Faris Ibn-La'Ahad, younger brother to the even more legendary Altaїr—which technically made Hylla and Reyna Altaїr's nieces, which they thought was cool—and how he was also a person called Jake Swallow. Percy could only tell of his Third Life what he knew firsthand, so he was quite surprised when Hylla and Reyna both knew who that was, the Grandfather of America.
Percy wasn't terribly shocked that he was remembered in American history as a prolific figure, given his direct connections to so many important men, but to be remembered as the fucking Grandfather of America…that made him feel very, very old.
Which he was, given his almost-14 years in this life, his 23 as Faris, his 51 as Virgil, and his 81 as Jake, adding up to 169 years of total life.
Percy also told his daughter about the events of his present life, being born to Poseidon and Sally Jackson, the existence of the pagan Greek gods, his quest to recover Zeus' Master Bolt, the state of the Assassins and Templars today, and his current quest through the Sea of Monsters to recover the Golden Fleece. Likewise, the twins informed Percy about their own present lives, being born to the Roman war goddess Bellona and an Iraqi veteran native to San Juan, their rough childhood at the hands of their manic father, the accidental vaporization of said father via Imperial gold saber, their stowing away aboard a cargo vessel that got caught in a storm, capsized, and they ended up on Circe's island, becoming some of the witch's many handmaidens.
During Percy's recounting, the girls were both not too surprised about the Greeks, were both angered at the modern state of the secret war, and had stars in their eyes at his stories about the Lightning Thief quest. And when it was the girls' turn, the ship started to toss in sudden tumultuous waves as Percy's fury at this Julian and his treatment of his baby girls was reflected about the seas.
What calmed Percy was the fact that his babies were now back and safe with him, and he wasn't going to let anything else happen to them that was within his ability to prevent.
Percy left out his ordeal at Nero's hands. Yes, he didn't like keeping secrets from his family, but there were just some things that others didn't need to know, especially his precious daughters. He was their father: he was the strongest in their lives, their defender, the shoulder, their protector, he took on everything for them and alleviated all of their worries. He was impervious to pain and he had no weaknesses. He never cried and he never worried.
He especially was not orally and anally raped, feminized with demigoddess hormones, brainwashed and hypnotized to believe he was a girl betrothed to a man, or dressed up in jewelry and finery with makeup all expertly and neatly applied.
His daughters thought the world of him; call it the sin of pride, but Percy was never going to be able to bring himself to tell them about Nero, and his absolute lowest and most humiliating moments.
In his mind, it would irreparably destroy the mighty image he held in Hylla and Reyna.
All of this talking and sharing took place over the course of hours, and it was well into the afternoon before it was decided by Percy that they were going topside to get some fresh, salty sea air, and to spar. That whole time, they had ignored their hunger from not eating since yesterday, and the need for the bathroom.
Hylla and Reyna were better off in the latter because they were both wearing pull-ups, with Hylla indeed being a bedwetter like Christina, and wearing a pull-up at night to keep her pants dry, Reyna doing the same in support of her big sister.
Percy went up to the head and took care business while his daughters cleaned themselves up.
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"This is weird," Hylla said, tearing the sides of her wet pull-up. "I mean, I absolutely love it, and I'm so happy I can't stand it, but still…Dad is just a few months older than us and we're kids again."
"Yeah," Reyna chirped, discarding her own wet underwear. "We get to go through puberty all over again."
Hylla shuddered at the memories that sprang up, and then her eyes got distant as she was in the middle of taking her shoes off so she could get take her pants off so she could put a pair of panties on.
"Reyna…what are we going to do with our lives now?"
Maria had always been a flippant girl, never taking things too seriously, always maintaining the faith that their father had instilled in them that the Lord had a plan and was going to pull them out of whatever jam they were in, but she had her moments of seriousness.
This moment was not one of them.
Reyna shrugged uncaringly. "I mean, the Assassins and Templars are still a thing, Dad's back and still the Mentor, so there's that. There's also this whole pagan god thing going on, and the Greeks have a camp on Long Island-"
"But we're daughters of the Roman war goddess."
"-and there's probably a Roman camp somewhere in the world. We can go find that place. We can also pick up our civilian lifestyles. There's a whole lot more history now for you to study, and there's sure of a lot more science for me to dive into and match it up against the Bible. You phrase that question like we're in dire straits, but we've actually got a lot of options before us."
Hylla remained silent and still as her brain worked.
"Will you put some pants on already?" Reyna asked. "We're twins, but that doesn't mean I like getting a free view of your junk."
Hylla's cheeks turned a bit red as she finished dressing herself.
The twins were polar opposites, of course. Maria was the outspoken and excitable one, ever cheery and ready to hang out with friends at the drop of a hat. Christina was the quiet and reserved one, sticking to plans, always thinking about what to say and what to do, never going into spontaneous action like her little sister.
It all stemmed from her bedwetting of course, the total lack of control of herself when she slept rattling her entire confidence and self-esteem. Her whole family had done everything they could to boost her mentality, with her little sister wearing and wetting a diaper too, her big brother Giovanni helping wash the sheets when needed, and her mother and father never giving her any kind of hell about it, always taking her accidents in stride, always making it out to not be a big deal.
Still, just human nature, even with all the familial support, Christina stilled holed up in herself out of embarrassment, shame, and humiliation. It led to a defensive and cautious nature, second guessing herself almost at every turn, and overthinking most situations.
Right now was a good example. Reyna was absolutely correct: they had a lot of options before them, the most obvious being to take up arms with their father—which they were going to do of course, but the question of "what next" more directly applied to what they were going to do after this impromptu mythological quest they found themselves on.
Reyna, seeing her big sister still wasn't sure, said, "Hey, focus on the here and now, 'kay? We're alive again, we've got Dad back, and we're on a quest with him—a mission—to the Sea of Monsters from myth to go get the Golden Fleece. Like, cheer up, Sis! This literally cannot get any more awesome!"
"Mother and Brother could be here," Hylla said.
"Well, yeah, that would make it more awesome, but they're at peace now. That's a whole lot more awesome than it's ever going to get in this world."
"Well, considering we're still alive, can you really say Mother and Brother aren't out there too, somewhere?"
"No, I can't, but it makes me feel better thinking they made it to Heaven and still aren't cursed to be in this world with all us sinners."
"It's not a curse to be in this world," Hylla said. "It's still God's world, and I think it's very beautiful."
"Yeah, but Man has made leaps and bounds in screwing it up since the 16th century, with fossil fuels, technology, and an even bigger emphasis on money. It was pretty bad back when we were women, but now it's gotten so much worse. Money is actively being worshipped like an idol again, and God's not going to let that keep happening, just like He didn't let that happen during the Old Testament."
"It's not that bad," Hylla lightly defended. "I mean, there was a time in which the world was so bad that God wiped out the whole population. Until he does the same thing, but with fire this time, I say the world's doing just fine."
"Nah," Reyna disagreed. "The world's screwed and the best we can do is keep it from getting more screwed. That's why we're Assassins, after all. Fighting in the dark to serve the light and all that…"
Hylla stared at her little sister. "How is that you, the cheerful, happy-go-lucky little sister ended up so pessimistic, when I, the reserved and insecure big sister, ended so optimistic?"
Reyna shrugged, not offering an answer. Instead, she changed subjects. "Think Dad still has his ears?"
Hylla snorted. "They're probably better now since he's a lot younger, a demigod of Poseidon, and we're at sea."
"Wanna find out?" Reyna asked with a devious smile
Hylla's mouth worked as she fought against the burning, human desire to indeed find out, and the discipline and respect instilled by her father to not ever take the Lord's name in vain. Finally, she settled on something of a compromise.
"You can do it, and you can be the one to get in trouble."
Reyna's impish grin only got bigger, and Hylla watched as her little sister had to overcome literal mental and physical barriers, as she had to fight against fundamentals and engraved teachings, to work her mouth and voice to form the syllables necessary to do something so simple as curse.
But, Reyna was something of a rebel, and she managed to perform this act that completely and totally went against everything she had been taught, even though the previous times she had done this she received a trip over their father's knee and a mouthful of soap.
"Shit."
There was fleeting moment of total silence, like the whole universe had been stunned by what Reyna had said. The moment ended and the silence was shattered by a furious bellow from at the complete opposite end of the ship.
"HYLLA AND REYNA CAVALIERE-JACKSON~!"
The girls jumped out of their skins, flinching as if hearing a loud sound suddenly go off in their room in the dead of night. They went scrambling up the stairs to the weather deck, and up the ladder to the quarterdeck, where they dove behind the imposing—at least to their petite, prepubescent sizes—figure of Blackbeard, who raised a brow.
"Was that Jake I just heard yowling at you two?"
The girls nodded, and Hylla shot Reyna a scathing look for the trouble they now found themselves. It was only after five seconds passed that the twins finally took note of what their father called them, and both of their hearts soared.
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"Uh, did I miss something between these two?" Annabeth asked Lou Ellen.
The two of them were leaning against the railing of the Queen Anne's Revenge, the other pirate at the opposite rail, with Percy, Hylla, and Reyna going at it with swords like a trio of maniacs, the son of Poseidon using that Medieval sword—the Sword of Baron von Wolff or something—while the girls were using the cutlasses of the pirates. The looks on the teens' faces were ones of exhilarance, joy, determination, and in Percy's case: absolute pride.
Annabeth was keeping the hurt she felt in her heart deep inside. That look on his face was the same kind of pride that her father felt towards the twins, Bobby and Matthew.
"Yeah, so, remember last year when I told you that Percy's a reincarnate soul?"
"Yeah. You alluded to a love in his past life that would make things super complicated today because that love's still alive."
"Yep. Well, he's actually got multiple past lives. That love one refers to his Fourth, and those girls? They're the reincarnations of his daughters from his Second Life."
Questions immediately exploded throughout Annabeth's head, and the expression that came about her face as she struggled with what to ask first made Lou Ellen laugh out loud.
"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were trying to force one out."
Annabeth flushed. "Well, to be fair, I haven't done my morning constitutional yet. I…don't think there's anywhere private or clean enough."
"Oh, I've got a spell for that."
"Huh?"
"Yeah, so you know the rabbit out of the hat trick?"
"Yeah…"
"Well, there's two main ways you can do that," Lou explained, and Annabeth could tell that the girls was getting into her zone.
"First: you can link a certain depth of the hat to a pocket space—an extra dimensions keyed straight to you—and you can put however much you can fit inside. Whenever you want something, you just reach in and pull it out. The second way is that you link the hat to a certain space, like the rabbit's cage. Kind of like opening a door that's supposed to go to one place, but you open it, and it's somewhere else."
"Like in the Matrix?"
"Yes, exactly!"
"So…" Annabeth blinked. "You've got a pocket dimension on you that's full of diaper changing supplies or something?"
Lou Ellen giggled. "Nope. I did the space-link spell to my panties, so whenever I have to go, I can just go, and there's no worries about a mess…for twelve hours anyway. The spell's got a cooldown period."
Annabeth stared at the witch, trying to wrap her mind around what she had just been told. This is how she understood it: "You…turned your panties…into a time-space diaper?"
"Kind of, yeah."
"…where'd you link it to?"
"Bottom of the Marianas Trench."
"…what about cleaning yourself?"
"Layered in hygiene spells. Don't even have to worry about pooping. Or bathrooms or my period. As soon as I need to go, I can go. No lines, no toilet paper, no nasty bathroom smell, filthy toilet seats, backed up toilets, and no rashes or infections."
Annabeth then became embroiled in an inner war on principle, because what Lou was saying was the ultimate in bodily convenience, but at the same time, she was a big girl, trained in how to use the toilet and hold her waste in until she found a private setting to do her business.
Ah, screw it. She was a demigoddess; her life expectancy was just under thirty. At almost fourteen, she was effectively middle-aged, so if she wanted time-space panties, then she was going to get time-space panties.
"Can you do all that magic stuff to my panties? Please?"
"Absolutely."
Lou Ellen did her magic, and she did entertain the naughty idea of leaving out some bits and pieces as a prank, but she decided that was against her good Christian morals, and so did the spells properly.
"There. All done."
"How do I know you did it correctly?"
Lou Ellen winked. "You'll just have to go, won't you?"
Annabeth's mouth set into a thin line, and she went below decks. Lou Ellen turned her attention to her boyfriend sparing with his reincarnate daughters.
Make no mistake: the witch had her own qualms and problems with her situation. Her boyfriend had lived for over 150 years. He had seen the Third Crusade, crossed blades with Catholics and Saracens alike. He had seen the Renaissance, had a mother, father, little sister, all brutally murdered, and then he was trained by Lupa herself. From there, he renovated nearly all of Rome alongside Ezio, destroyed the Borgia and Templars, established the Assassin Brotherhood, carrying it to a height it hadn't seen in centuries, and became a father to three children and a husband. And after that, he was a time-traveling American hero who had inadvertently sired the very Brotherhood he now led with so much passion.
He was also a Christian, devout to God and the Bible. Even in the face of all this mythological stuff, in the face of dying and being resurrected over and over again with all his memories, he was still holding true to the faith.
Percy was so, so many things, and a child was not one of them. He had been through puberty three times already, slept with at least two women—Claudia and Kassandra, siring children with each—he had traveled far and wide, led an army, became old, died young, made many mistakes along the way, and was full of so much wisdom and experience, that Lou most often felt inadequate for him.
Yeah, she was privy to a lot of knowledge and information that other in her world weren't, and this had made her mature and mentally older beyond her years, but she was still just a kid. Yeah, she knew some things about Percy that he didn't know, and she knew some things about the world that he didn't know, but he knew so much beyond that it was staggering.
It made Lou Ellen scared about her future and their relationship. No, Claudia had moved on for good, but others from Percy's past lives? Not so much, and when those people came, they were going to screw him up big time.
Percy had gotten through Faris easily enough, because Faris had no higher relationships or commitments. All he had was his brother Altaїr, and he had died young at 23. Virgil had been 51, a father, husband, Mentor, leader, and more, and you could certainly see all of that in Percy right now as he dueled with his daughters for the first time ever, and then there was Jake.
An absolute juggernaut in age and experience, Percy hadn't even sat down to process all those 81 years yet. You couldn't convince Lou Ellen otherwise that Hylla and Reyna being Christina and Maria, at this exact time and at this exact place, was not a direct of God, because them being here grounded Percy.
It brought focus, clarity, and motivation. He was a father again, and a Biblical father on top of that. He was the head of his house, to be respected and obeyed and honored. He was the strongest, able to protect and defend against anything to keep his beloved family safe. He provided for the house, honored his wife and children, and loved them beyond words.
It was this establishment that going to bring forth monstrous conflict in the future, most notably the Fourth and Fifth Lives.
Zoё was going to do everything she could to bring Cheyenne back out of Percy, and Zoё, during the time in which she was courting Cheyenne, had been weird in the bedroom. However, perhaps even weirder—no, definitely weirder—was Peter Frye, younger brother of Jacob and Evie.
Lou Ellen visibly shuddered as the forbidden memories of Peter and Ned ran through her head.
The sheer contrast between the mighty and strong Virgil and Jake, and the not as mighty and strong Cheyenne and Peter—at least, not as mighty and strong when in terms of position in the relationships—was probably going to incinerate Percy's psyche.
And it was with that thought that Lou Ellen realized her place with Percy.
Yes, she was up against a lot in her relationship with the son of Poseidon. All the different kinds of love in his life, all the different ways that he loved all those people—and how those people were going to fit in with her in Percy's life as his girlfriend—all the contrast in images and personas, it was going to be hard to sort through all of that and find himself.
That's what Lou Ellen was going to help him do.
Nodding to herself, the witch departed from the weather deck, leaving Percy to enjoy the time with his girls. She went down the stairs and met Annabeth as she was just about to up.
"So? How was it?"
"Trippy," Annabeth said. "But it worked, and it's something that's going to take a lot of getting used to."
"Just a reminder: the spell lasts for twelve hours, and then needs a twelve-hour cooldown, so make note of the time or you risk embarrassing yourself."
"Got it."
"It's also only those panties I've enchanted, so if you want the rest of them done, you'll either need to bring me your other panties, or bring me to them."
In any other circumstance, Annabeth would've blushed a storm and probably would've gotten angry at someone telling her to bring them her most intimate articles of clothing, but as it was, she just nodded.
"I'll remember that. Did you…were you coming down here just to talk to me about magical panties?"
"Nope," Lou Ellen chirped. "You're a part of Percy's life, and that means you need to know things about him in order to keep up. This is going to be a long talk, so let's get comfortable."
After doing so in the gundeck, the witch began her story:
"A long time ago, in a land far, far away…"
And that's how Annabeth learned of Faris Ibn-La'Ahad, Virgil Cavaliere, Captain Jake Swallow, and the secret war over the fate of mankind between the Assassin Brotherhood and the Templar Order.
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Well, I'm going to call it here on account of it being a week since the last update.
I'm very much aware of how little action there is right now, and that is finally about the change. Right now, I've been trying to capture the emotions, thoughts, and perspectives of the important people regarding the present situation.
Now, the reincarnation thing I've set on the table: I've seen suggestions for Nico being Giovanni, people agreeing that Piper can be Connor, and Hazel can be Aveline—which will undoubtedly lead to some sexual tension. I've also thought of Frank being the reincarnation of Shao Jun, Ezio's last student before his death.
Desmond takes Altaїr, Ezio, and Edward, no exceptions.
Claudia is at peace, permanently. No exceptions.
So, OOC Hylla and Reyna are Christina and Maria, Percy/Virgil's daughters, Desmond is already OOC, and Piper, Hazel, and Nico will also be OOC, as would Frank. Any suggestions for other AC characters being reincarnated either as demigods or modern AC characters, like Shaun, Rebecca, Lucy, etc.?
Most prominent candidates for reincarnation are Arno, Jacob Frye, Evie Frye, Bayek, and just because why not, Haytham and Shay.
Suggestions on who they should be in modern times?
Sorry for how slow things seem to be moving, but between work, school, and homework, time is short between sleeping and eating.
Fav, Follow, and Review please!