It was a full day after the...incident with Octavian. The mood of the Argo II hadn't seemed to lighten at all, despite Leo's numerous attempts to lift everyone's spirits. Nico stayed cooped up in his cabin, seemingly reading a book (but Will noticed him staring at the same page for an hour straight). Percy leaned against the side of the boat, looking blankly at the horizon while Annabeth buried herself under a pile of books and charts. Frank and Hazel distracted themselves by polishing the cannons (a futile attempt, really), while Leo gave up and made his way to the kitchen. The ship that was usually bustling with activity had quietened down to listen to the waves roll beneath her.
But the most noticeable change was found in Jason. He hardly responded to anything, and only after his name was called three times would he suddenly snap awake. Will even witnessed him continuously pouring liquid into his mug although it was clearly overflowing. He sat alone in the forecastle, absentmindedly flipping his coin over and over again. Sometimes, he would just curl up in a corner. Often, Piper would cast a worried glance at him from the helm.
Nothing was done and there was hardly any activity aboard the Argo II; the ship seemed to sail about aimlessly, without direction. Will didn't need to understand the full context of the situation to feel that the mood was suffocating.
With no one keeping an eye on him, Will decided that he might as well take the opportunity to explore the ship. Passing by the various rooms, memories of the previous day drifted into his mind.
Apart from the memory of...fatal bleeding, the sight of pearly white scales splaying and crawling up Octavian's arm stayed vivid and fresh in his mind. They looked like average fish scales, just much, much bigger. So it either belonged to a really huge fish, or...a siren.
And that was strange.
As far as Will knew from his childhood at sea, there was no such fish that had such humongous scales and was pearly white at the same time. Large, white fish did exist; but none of them had scales that glistened as brightly, or had such a pure shade of white.
On the other hand, Will also didn't know of any siren that had white scales. Those that he'd seen or heard of were blue, green, purple, or even blood red. But he'd never heard of white ones before.
Opening the door to the armory, he wondered what exactly Nico's sword was capable of. He had personally witnessed some monsters turning into dust, so he could deem that rumor true. But what if Octavian hadn't let go of the sword? What would've happened if Will hadn't helped him close the wound?
What would have happened to Will himself if he hadn't healed himself, during their first encounter?
Distractedly, he hovered around the room, picking up weapons up at random to inspect them. If Octavian would turn into a siren by touching the sword, then what would happen to Will? Would he grow an extra layer of white scales? Would his scales turn white instead?
Or maybe I'll just turn into dust, Will considered, glancing towards the right corner of the armory.
Where he saw a very familiar notebook.
Sliding over, he picked up the notebook and flipped open to the first page. Sure enough, small, clumsy handwriting greeted his eyes.
Before he could show his surprise and delight in an expressive dance, a loud voice blared from above:
"Wazzup, dudes! I bet all of you guys are awake and hoppin'!" A pause. "...well, more like moping. But anyway! I am certain that none of you have consumed breakfast, and this makes resident Chef McShizzle deeply saddened!" Some fake sobs. "Breakfast is an essential meal of the day, people! If you don't eat, you'll all be as skinny as Zombieman Nico's skeleton army!" A shout of protest from Nico's cabin. "So get your butts to the mess hall and we can stuff ourselves full!"
Click.
"Oh, right, we have fish food too. See you guys there!"
Click.
Will sniggered. Putting the notebook aside for now, he made his way to the mess hall.
It turned out that Will was the first to arrive. As Leo set plates of food on the table, the others started to shuffle in. Nico spotted Will head and snorted, presumably at the siren's default lack of intelligence.
Will slid onto a ramp that lead to a chair (no doubt Leo's idea). His eyes drifted from dish to dish, inhaling the fragrance of herbs.
He pointed to a brownish-white lump of soft wheat. "What's that?" he asked Nico.
Nico craned his neck to inspect said lump. "That's bread. I'm surprised we have any fresh ones left."
Will pointed to a yellowish paste. "Mango pickled with sauce and vinegar, with garlic. It's a sauce called mango chutney," Nico said. "Surprisingly tasty, despite what it sounds like."
Will pointed to the husky fruit. "Coconut."
The green leaves. "Cabbage."
"Olives." "Grapes." "Guava." "Soy sauce." "...Leo, what is that?" Nico squinted suspiciously.
Leo tilted his head briefly. "Eh, I dunno."
Will made a mental note not to touch that dish.
By now, most of the crew had arrived. Leo turned around, setting his final dish of a large plate of colorful, assorted vegetables. "Salmagundi!" Leo announced proudly. "I just call it 'salad', though. 'Salmagundi' is such a long name."
He clapped his hands together. "Well, this might be a bit much for breakfast, but good food will lift our moods! Not to mention that we have Mr. Goldfish now." (Will rolled his eyes.) "Since most of us are here already, let's tuck in!"
The meal was nothing short of scrumptious. New flavors that Will had never tasted before bloomed pleasantly on his tongue; it was difficult to resist stuffing everything into his mouth at once. Leo even sneaked a plate of meat (cooked!) beside his tub, with sauce drizzled such that it spelt "fish food". (Not funny.)
Just as Leo had said, the room quickly filled up with warmth as friendly conversation was sparked. Somewhere along the way, things had escalated to a food fight in the middle: Percy, Annabeth, Will and Nico versus Leo, Piper, Frank and Hazel. Food ended up in the weirdest of places, the highlights being on the underside of the table, in Piper's braid, and balancing atop one of Percy's disheveled locks. And of course, a lot of food ended up in Will's tub, giving him the advantage of wet, sloppy food. Suffice to say, the food was quickly depleted in more ways than one, with more than enough set aside for the missing captain.
As Will picked out carrot sticks from his tub, Percy stretched his arms across the table. "Why isn't Jason down yet? He missed out on the food fight."
Piper's brows creased in concern. "He's been by himself at the forecastle since yesterday, after the galleon left. I don't even think he went back to his cabin to sleep."
The room lapsed into silence. Naturally, Jason would've been the most heavily affected one, based on what Will knew from yesterday. The aftereffects of the incident would no doubt leave him in a horrible mental state; but the Argo II knew that they couldn't leave their captain to suffer alone.
"Why don't we bring the food to him, then?" Leo suggested. "Then we can talk to him, too."
Everyone nodded their heads in unanimous agreement. Bringing plates of food and some utensils, they headed out of the door.
The crew found Jason leaning against the railings of the forecastle. Even with the crowd of people approaching the forecastle, he didn't move an inch, staring forward at nothing in particular.
"Hey bro," Percy tried. "Jason. Jason!"
Jason's head suddenly snapped around. He processed the existence of eight people standing before him, then he lowered his head. "Hey, guys. Morning." Then he turned back around.
Piper stepped forward uncertainly. "We brought you food."
"I'm fine; I'm not hungry."
The soft splashes of waves could be heard in the silence.
Percy stepped forward decisively and firmly put his hands on Jason's shoulders, turning him around to face the others. "Look, bro, if there's anything on your mind - well, there's definitely something on your mind - you can tell us, you know. You can't just sit there all day and mold."
Murmurs of agreement arose.
Jason appeared to take strong interest in his shoes.
Piper hesitantly dragged a stool with her and sat down beside Jason. "Well, why don't you tell us how you feel, first?"
Jason barked out a laugh. "Horrible."
"Why?" she continued.
He looked distantly to his right. "Well, for starters, I killed my friend."
Piper's eyes widened. "Jason, that's not true! You can't just say that -"
"What's not true?" Jason shook himself away from Percy's grip, distancing himself from the others. "What's not true? Everything Octavian said was true. I'm a betrayer. I'm a horrible friend. I'm too stupid to recognize who's friend or foe, and I always jump to conclusions. I'm incapable of defending anyone."
Will heard Nico sigh. "Grace -"
"You guys shouldn't even bother with me. I'm a terrible person. You shouldn't trust me. All of you should have mutinied against me a long time ago. By being your captain, I'm just bringing you all towards a horrible end."
Nico's voice grew threatening. "Grace…"
"Choose another captain. Percy, you're first mate, you should take over. You're braver and more loyal than me. Or maybe Nico. You're so much more capable. Heck, I don't care who you choose! It can even be Festus, as long as it's not me! I should strand myself in the next island we find. You know what, as captain, I order myself to be stranded at the next island as punishment. There. That's final," Jason finished, slumping in the corner of the forecastle.
"What's final?"
The temperature abruptly plunged. Nico stepped forward.
The quartermaster towered over Jason. Gone was his tired, vaguely irritated facade, replaced by sheer, seething anger. His eyes were glinting in rage like sharp daggers, in stark contrast to his dark hair and eyebags. His furious expression was enough to make anyone feel cornered like a rat caught in a trap. A storm seemed to be brewing in his dark locks of hair. His figure radiated fury and authority as he marched towards Jason, face glowering darkly.
Jason gulped.
Grabbing Jason's collar, he hissed venomously into Jason's face. "What's final, Jason Grace? As far as I know, all punishments go through me for my approval."
He roughly let go of Jason, snapping his head around. The crew of the Argo II immediately froze.
"How many of you want to let this idiot drown?" His tone seemed to press a cold blade against everyone's throat, daring them to challenge his statement.
Dead silence ensued.
Nico snorted. "Honestly, I think we should let him drown for his sheer stupidity," he snapped. "But no. Jason Grace, the punishment is not approved. Take it as an act of mercy, because I'm feeling nice today."
Yeah, right, Will managed to think while his teeth chattered involuntarily.
"You think that by shouldering all the blame by yourself, you're doing what's right. Well, you're wrong. What you're doing is that you're shouldering the blame of whoever's responsible of Octavian's predicament, and that's Gaea. No, shut up. I don't want to hear your whines," Nico snarled. "You did whatever you could. The bastard Octavian is lucky to have someone like you to have been his friend. Without you, he would've been rotting off in the dumps a long time ago. You gave him the opportunity to explore the world when you could've just left him. You defended him whenever you could, and still blamed yourself when you couldn't possibly have. You chose to treat him as a friend, not as an enemy, when he arrived on the Roman Legacy.
"Don't get me wrong; I don't mean to say that you didn't engage the ship the first time you saw it. What I mean is that you let him off easily. You wouldn't kill any of his sailors. You wouldn't let us damage the ship too severely. You wouldn't let me loot the ship. Every time, you let him go; yet every time, he came back. Still, you did nothing. You never snapped. You never lost your patience. You never, ever changed your mind, letting Octavian attack you over and over again.
"Stand up for yourself, Jason. Don't take whatever blame that isn't yours to take. Octavian is gone, that's for sure; but that's not the end of the world. We still have more bad times ahead. We have more good times ahead. Without you, Jason, the Argo II isn't complete. We'll be missing a leader. We'll be missing a friend. We'll be missing a part of us. So don't you dare say that about yourself ever again."
Nico grabbed Jason's hand, tugging him up. Silence enveloped the Argo II.
Until the sound of applause trickled in.
Will shot Nico the widest, silliest grin he could manage while Nico turned around to stare at him. He continued clapping loudly. Soon, the rest of the Argo II joined in.
A red flush crept onto Nico's face as he sharply turned away. "What the hell, Solace!?" he sputtered. Will thought was endlessly endearing to see him embarrassed.
"Aww," Will crooned. "No more first names? No Sunshine?"
Nico buried his face in his hands as the rest of the crew guffawed. "I'll kill you after I kill Grace, I swear!"
Jason sighed good-naturedly. "Thanks, Nico. I really needed that wake-up call," he smiled. "I wouldn't have made it through without you."
Nico glared at him. "And?"
"...and what?" Jason asked, confused. "...oh. Right. Uh…" he scratched his head. "Well, I'm sorry, I guess."
"You are very sorry. For being very stupid," Nico hissed. "Apology accepted."
Will snickered. "Looks like someone is actually quite a softie~" he sing-songed.
Nico's face turned red again. "Give me a break and shut up, will you?"
Behind him, Leo and Percy lifted their eyebrows conspiratorially. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking, Aquaman?" Leo 'whispered'. (Everyone could hear him.)
Percy hummed 'thoughtfully'. "Oh, I'm on the same page as you alright, Leo. But they're on the same boat."
They burst into a large peal of laughter as Nico grunted, irritated. "What is it now, Jackson, Valdez?"
Leo grinned. "Well, you see, you don't have nicknames for anyone, apart for him." (Jason, Annabeth and Piper seemed to realize something at this point.)
Nico frowned. "That was because I didn't know his name before."
Percy pretended to think very hard. "Oh, but you see, whenever someone teases you, you just ignore us." (Hazel and Frank's face lit up in understanding.)
Nico narrowed his eyes at the duo. "Get to the point."
They exchanged a knowing look.
Percy wiggled his eyebrows. "I guess you could say that... he's your typ-"
His sentence was interrupted by a wild combination of the crew's maniacal laughter, Nico lifting up a large barrel to murder him, and Will looking confused.
Percy and Leo weren't going to live a very long life.