'It's been a month since Zoë took a break.' Thought the silver eyed, auburn haired, moon goddess named Artemis. She was driving her moon chariot as the thought went to her head. 'Ever since then, I haven't heard from her. Should I start looking for her?' Contemplated the goddess as she was getting worried.
Usually, when her hunters requests a break, they come back after a week. When Zoë haven't come back after a week she left, Artemis thought that she might need more time.
When her lieutenant didn't come back after two, she started worrying a bit. Now that a month has passed however, her worries have eaten through her so she decided to track down her lieutenant and friend.
After riding her chariot, she set off towards the beacon of Zoë. Every member of the Hunt has a beacon, which lets the goddess know where they are.
It can only be removed by dying.
The energy signature that the beacon have lead the auburn haired goddess to an art school.
'This is strange... Why would she be here?' Thought Artemis. She waited for an hour before she felt the beacon move, alerting her that her target is moving.
Soon enough, she saw her lieutenant walk. Deciding to keep a distance to tail her, Artemis pondered the reason why Zoë would go to an art school.
When the goddess of the Hunt came to be once more, she noticed that the one she was tracking was nowhere to be found. Her lieutenant's energy signature stopped at an abandoned warehouse.
'Strange, if she's here, then this place has powerful magic to prevent detection.' Concluded Artemis, who stopped in front of the warehouse door
"Lady Artemis?" This snapped the moon goddess' thoughts and then looked to the source of the voice. She was not expecting the young man in front of her at all.
It was Percy Jackson, looking tired and sickly.
Cough* "What are you doing here, Lady Artemis?" Inquired the sick demigod.
"I was looking for my lieutenant, Zoë Nightshade, it's been a month since I last heard from her." Explained the silver eyed goddess. "The search led me here, in front of this warehouse. Her trail vanished after she went here." She finished explaining. "Do you have any idea where my lieutenant is? Or why her trail stopped here?" Asked Artemis towards the demigod.
Cough* "I might have an idea." Said Percy between the coughing. He then opened the warehouse door, surprising the goddess of the moon. "Come in, Lady Artemis." Invited the son of Poseidon.
'So it was his place.' Thought the auburn haired goddess. Nonetheless, she entered.
"So, Where's my lieutenant?" Asked Artemis, impatience clearly audible in her voice. "I don't have all day Jackson. The quicker you tell me, the faster I'll be able to get going." She continued.
"Zoë? Well, she's *cough* probably taking a bath right this moment." Replied the demigod. "Have you ever tried to take a bath *cough* after doing strenuous things?" Percy asked the annoyed goddess, who just raised her eyebrows to entertain the question. "It's very relaxing, you should try it sometimes."
"Stop trying to waste my time, boy." Taking offense at the comment to his gender, the son of Poseidon's smile was immediately replaced with a frown.
"Lady Artemis, I was telling the truth." He replied. "I was trying to engage you in a conversation *cough* so you won't get bored by waiting for her to finish." The demigod then stood up. "But you clearly don't want to converse with me. So I'll leave you to yourself *cough* while I play a game here." He set up the Gamestation, while speaking to the goddess of the hunt.
Once the console booted up, Percy chose to play Minecraft, knowing that the goddess of archery would be intrigued when she sees him hunting down pigs and other mobs. Loading the world where he got every achievement already, Percy smiled as he went ahead and pulled out the bow from his inventory.
Artemis, who was silent the whole time, watched the demigod in front of her playing a game. When she saw Percy's character pull out a bow, she was glued to the game. Seeing the character draw the bow, she couldn't help herself and spoke her mind. "The way you're holding the bow is wrong." Said the goddess of Archery. "The only thing you'll accomplish with that stance is injury." She added.
The son of Poseidon's smile grew once she heard her comment. Letting go of the bowstring, he watched as the arrow went ahead and hit the poor pig who was not paying attention, causing it to panic and run away.
Needless to say the goddess of archery herself was shocked. "What just happened?" She asked, moving closer to where Percy was sitting. "I'm sure that with the way your character was aiming, you wouldn't even graze the pig."
"This is Minecraft." Replied the smiling demigod. "That's just how the game works, Lady Artemis. Do you expect this blocky, mostly square game to have complex physics and follow our logic?" After speaking, he smirked towards the goddess.
"No, not really." Replied Artemis, who was now curious about the game. "Can you tell me more about this game, Perseus?" She asked the demigod.
"It's Percy." He tried correcting the maiden goddess, knowing that what he did was just futile. "Sure. Come closer so I could explain the mechanics of the game." He motioned for the goddess to get closer, which she did. "The main goal of Minecraft is in the title itself." He started to explain. "To mine and craft. You mine blocks so you could craft them and get another type of block. Then you create majestic structures like this." Percy showed the goddess a beautifully made city, complete with houses, buildings, bridges and more.
"How do you create that?"
"You start with your fists." the son of Poseidon replied. He exited the world and created a new one, which dumped him into a random area filled with trees. "The first thing you do once you spawn is to punch a tree." He did it and started punching the tree.
The goddess, confident that nothing will happen, replied to the demigod. "As if punching a tree would do any-" Before she could even finish, the block Percy's character was punching vanished, shocking the moon goddess as the trees stayed upright as if nothing's wrong with it.
"I told you earlier Lady Artemis." Percy started to speak once more. "Games doesn't have to follow our world's logic." He then finished the whole tree, leaving floating leaf blocks to vanish. "Honestly, you shouldn't be shocked about this Milady. We deal with magic almost everyday."
The goddess' cheeks got golden as she realized that the son of Poseidon was right. "After punching a tree, what do you do then?" Asked the auburn haired goddess.
"Once you've collected enough wood blocks." Percy then opens his inventory, then places the wood blocks to the crafting section. "You craft a crafting bench." He then did just that. "After crafting a crafting bench, if you have enough resources, you go ahead and make wooden tools." Explained the demigod. "I have enough resources to create a wooden pickaxe and a wooden axe." He opens the crafting bench screen by right clicking it. Then he laid down the materials needed for the said tool. "You make a pickaxe by lining up two sticks like this." Percy pointed to the screen, which he didn't need to do as the moon goddess' attention was completely on the game. "You add three blocks of wood up top, then you pull the pickaxe icon to craft it."
"I want to ask how you crafted it, but I know you'll just make a statement about the game's logic or something like that." Artemis said. "Can I try it myself?" She asked the son of Poseidon.
"Sure." He handed the goddess the mouse and keyboard. The said goddess looked at him with look that aims to say: 'What do I do with this?' Percy then pointed to the keyboard. "Press the w key to move forwards. Pressing s moves you backwards. Pressing a moves you to the left while d moves you to the right." He paused, looking at the goddess to see if she understood his instruction.
The goddess pressed the said keys in succession, making her smile as the character moved forwards, backwards, leftward, and the rightward. "What's next?"
"Press the e key to open inventory." Artemis did as she was told. It showed her the user interface when she pressed e. "You can see the what you are carrying and you items. Press the escape key to exit."
"Where's that key? There's no key with a label of escape here." She questioned. Percy pointed to the key which is labeled "Esc" and then smiled at the goddess.
"This stands for escape."
"I inferred." Replied the embarrassed goddess.
"You press 1 to 9 to cycle on the hotbar located on the bottom center of the screen. Right now, slots 1 to 4 have items, so pressing 1 to 4 would cycle between the items." The listening goddess pressed the said keys and watched in amazement as the items in the character's hand change from a pickaxe to an axe, a shovel, and a wooden block.
"Lastly, you use the mouse to look around." The goddess of the hunt did what he told her, and moved the mouse slightly. The direction which the character was looking changed. You press and hold the left mouse button to mine or if you're unarmed, punch a block, like I did with a tree earlier." Artemis did what Percy said. She press and hold the left mouse button. The character, seeing no blocks at all did nothing. The son of Poseidon then spoke about it. "When you're looking at air, it certainly won't do anything. Try to look downwards." Once she did what the demigod told her, she watched the character she's controlling mine. Once the animation was over, the block she was looking at vanished, leaving a smaller version of it slightly spinning. "You press the right mouse button to place a block." Percy spoke. "Switch to the wood block by pressing 4, and then look at the ground or somewhere solid and then press the right mouse button."
The goddess looked at the ground in front of her, then pressed the said button. She saw a block of wood appear out of nowhere, which she just ignored how it happened and convinced herself that it was game logic.
"I guess you know the basics." The demigod stood up. "Play to your heart's content, Lady Artemis. You'll know once Zoe is done bathing."
"Where are you going?"
"I'm going to take a bath myself."
"Zoe's using your bathroom right?" The moon goddess asked.
"No, she's not." Percy answered. "Each room here has its own bathroom and toilet. My room has one so I'm going to take one myself."
"Right
"I'll see you later, Lady Artemis." Percy didn't bother to wait for a response, which he knew wouldn't come as the goddess resumed playing Minecraft.
"So let me repeat what you said." Percy heard the moon goddess say as he came out of his room, wearing a blue t-shirt and blue pajamas. "You feel like there's no place for you in the Hunt, and you feel like you don't deserve your second life."
He saw Zoë nod at her mistress.
"You bumped into Jackson the day you took a break and then he brought you here to his place and you took up his offer to live here?"
"Yes, Milady. Percy said to me that I should try finding myself. He offered me to live here and I accepted." Zoë said nervously. "One day, I was walking and I saw the art school. I was intrigued by the students so I decided to enroll and see if I can do what the students are doing. It's been three weeks since then, and I feel like the art school is great." Hearing her lieutenant's explanation, Artemis smiled as she felt the joy in Zoë's words as she explained her newfound passion.
"What about Perseus?" He pouted when he heard the goddess of the Hunt say his name. "Has he been treating you right? Did he ever force his way to you? Tell me the truth so I can turn him into a jackalope." Artemis said, which he could hear the promise of unnecessary violence in her voice.
"None of the sort Milady." Zoë waved her hands in front of her. "Percy's been a good person. We don't really see each other that much milady. We eat dinner together, but other than that, I only see him once he gets home from work, which is usually nighttime." Finished the daughter of Atlas.
Hearing the main door opening, Percy could already feel an imminent headache coming his way. 'This is going to be a pain in the backside to explain.' He thought. The son of Poseidon saw Hestia and Hera enter his place and then they shouted to the daughter of Atlas.
"Zoë, you ready to play some games?" Hestia exclaimed. This grabbed the attention of both the moon goddess and her lieutenant. "Oh, Artemis, nice to see you again." The goddess of the hearth smiled at the auburn haired goddess
"Aunt Hestia, Queen Hera." Artemis was shocked to see other female Olympians in this place. "What are you doing here?" the shocked goddess asked.
"We hang out here!" Exclaimed Hestia as she sat down beside the other maiden goddess. Hera sat beside the daughter of Atlas. "We play games or do something entertaining to remove the stress we have in our bodies.
"But why here?"
"Because Percy lets us." This time, it was the queen of the gods who answered her question. "Hestia was the one who recommended me to go here, after I found out that your father cheated on me once again." Artemis became angry once more as she was reminded of her half sister. "Percy kept me entertained, so I decided to hang out here ever since then. It's been two months since we started hanging out here." She finished explaining.
"Hey, Hestia, Hera." Percy managed to say in between coughs. "Good to see you guys today." Smiled weakly towards the goddesses.
"Are you okay, Percy?" The goddess of the hearth was worried about his health.
"I'm fine, I was just a little bit sick from overworking." Replied the son of Poseidon, coughing again.
The Olympian queen crossed her arms and started to berate the demigod. "I told you not to overexert yourself, Percy."
"Sorry for not listening, Hera." He smiled sheepishly to the goddess, making the glare he received gone and replaced with a smile.
"Why are you even working, Perseus?" Artemis asked. "From what I can see, you don't need to. Your food would never run out here. You don't pay bills and you can entertain yourself with video games all day. Why do you work then?"
"I just want to experience the mortal life." Percy tried his best not to cough. "Besides, even if I have all the games to play, it'll become boring after a week." The son of Poseidon explained. "I just want to be a normal mortal for once."
"I don't think normal is the best word to describe you, Percy." Hestia replied to him.
"You're the greatest demigod of Olympus, why would you want a normal life?" Asked the moon goddess.
"Because I'm tired, Lady Artemis." The demigod answered. "I'm tired of people dying around me, with me unable to do anything about it."
"Then why reject our offer of godhood?" It was Hera who asked the question.
"Tartarus." His one word reply was enough. "Enough about me, why don't we go and play some games?" Percy diverted the topic so he won't have to answer more questions.
"Then let's play Mario 35!" Hestia exclaimed.
"No sister. last time, you were so focused that I wasn't even able to play." The queen of the gods argued. "Let's play Smitten, Percy. I can't wait to beat you up." Challenged Hera to the smiling demigod.
"Fine by me." Percy then walked to where the moon goddess was sitting. "May I please get the keyboard, Lady Artemis?"
The maiden goddess reluctantly gave it to the son of Poseidon.
Percy selected the said game, then the keyboard transformed into a controller once more.
"Let's play, Hera." The demigod challenged.
"With pleasure."
"I got to admit, seeing Hera rage out because she's getting bodied was a funny sight." The moon goddess said to the son of Poseidon, who was outside his place, looking at the waters.
Hera was once again beaten to the ground by Percy, who used the godslayer Kratos to teach the queen of the gods a lesson.
The said queen, losing for the tenth time that day, just flashed away, making Hestia laugh at her antics.
"Yeah. But it will bite me in the backside because she'll be going to challenge me once again in the future." The son of Poseidon replied to the maiden goddess beside him. "Leaving already, Milady?" He turned towards auburn haired goddess.
"I got to check up on my hunters." Answered Artemis.
"What about Zoë then?"
"I'm going to let her be." Replied the goddess of the Hunt. "I know that she'll come to the Hunt when we need her the most, so I'll let her find her happiness."
"See you soon, Lady Artemis." He smiled to the goddess. "Next time, bring the Hunt with you."
"Oh I will, Percy." The moon goddess smiled at him as she vanished in a flash of silver.
A/N: Who would visit next? goddess? titan? demigoddess? I dunno, really. Let's see who will come out to hang out in his place.
Him teaching the moon goddess about Minecraft maybe because I read Edinamabasi's work where Percy blows up Artemis' work. I laughed when I read that.
Maybe the next one who would visit is the mysterious entity that spied on his place? Maybe.
Follow and Fave if you liked it! Leave a review if you have something to say, and as always, Thank you for reading!
-Jasserru, going dark.
