Chapter 2: The Owl Incidents
Summary: A comment from Athena about Percy being dumber than an owl led to this.
PPM*
Part 1: The Makeover
Athena as the goddess of wisdom was often invited by Chiron to camp half-blood to participate in strategic meetings. Athena, proud of her wisdom was happy to lend a brain cell or two when she had time.
Percy Jackson always hated strategic meetings when Athena was present. She always took over and it was guaranteed that Percy's input would not be accepted. Percy knew he was not the smartest person, but his battle instinct and experience, and his natural leadership had been proven time and time again. His fellow campers usually listened to him, but whenever Athena was around, they became yes men.
He had promised Chiron that he would behave, so he was just minding his business, when he heard his name being called. It was Athena and she looked mad, well, Athena always looked mad.
"Am I boring you, Perseus?" she asked him with an arched eyebrow, her snooty owl perched on her shoulder. Percy thought that owl was even more snobbish than her owner.
"It's Percy, and no, you're not boring me at all," he said it as unironically as he could manage.
"You know, comparing your intelligence to an owl is quite insulting to owls?" She asked him, although it was a rhetorical question because she had already moved on.
His fellow campers chuckled, they were used to Athena's attitude towards Percy, and in Athena's defense, Percy went out of his way to annoy her.
Unfortunately for Athena, she had just inadvertently given Percy an idea for the perfect prank. He was going to prank Athena using her precious owl. His first prank would involve giving Athena's owl a makeover. He just had to make sure not to harm the owl, because A, he just didn't roll like that, and B, Athena would kill him if he actually harmed her owl. Percy had an idea.
A couple of months ago, Percy had gone on a quest for Hecate, the goddess of magic, she had given him three potions as a reward for the quest. A sleeping draught, which was very useful, for those post-tartarus days, a glamour potion, which he used to hide from his girlfriend whenever he had done something to annoy her and she wanted to kill him, and finally, a clown potion, a portion which turns any drinker into a clowning version of themselves.
This prank would be tricky because Athena's owl was hard to get to, also it was not stupid. He overhead Athena telling Hermes at Olympus one day saying that her owl had developed a penchant for toast.
Percy went to work.
It was hard to engineer a way in which to make that the owl and only the owl took the toast with the clown potion in it without giving himself away, but he somehow managed it. He made a deal with the Stoll brothers that he'd steal something of Triton for them, whatever they wanted with Triton's possession is something he will eventually pay later when it all blows up in his face but now, there's a prank to pull.
Percy planned it that when Athena's owl ate the toast with the clown portion on Olympus, he was all the way at camp half blood. He knew Athena would suspect him immediately, he was the only one stupid enough to mess with a goddess, but his father would never allow Athena to kill him or seriously maim him, if she didn't have evidence for her accusations.
It was a stroke of luck that the day the owl ate the clown toast, there was a strategic meeting at camp half blood. As Chiron and the demigods were waiting for Athena in the big house, Athena came in guns blazing, absolutely livid, and screaming for Percy's blood. Percy immediately drunk the glamour portion and ran to hide in the ocean. Better safe than sorry, also the Stolls promised to take photos of Athena's owl for him.
When his father finally came and got him from his hiding place, he could see his father was almost bursting with pride. No one understood better how cathartic it was to mess with Athena than his dad. So they shared a private laugh together, and his dad produced the photos that he acquired from the Stolls.
Indeed, Percy had outdone himself, Athena's owl owl's feathers bright blue, green, and orange, and its head was bright yellow and its talon were bright red. But it was not the colours that made is funny, it was how the colours were arranged. It was unbelievably funny, and he knew Athena would not forget or forgive him soon for this.
His dad explained that only after Aphrodite was able to restore the owl to its proper regal appearance did Athena calm down a bit, she immediately lost her head again when they told her she could not kill him as she had no evidence for his crimes. But since everyone pretty much knew Percy was responsible, Percy would serve 20 minutes as her slave as punishment. Everyone believed longer than 20 minutes, and Athena might snap and finally kill him.
Part 2: The Misplaced Owl
Percy's second prank was a masterstroke that required careful planning and an uncanny ability to stay one step ahead of Athena. He knew he couldn't just "borrow" her owl without raising suspicion, especially after last time, so he devised an elaborate scheme to make the prank both amusing and puzzling.
To do this Percy knew he would need a partner in crime that Athena would never suspect, the owl itself. Rachael had jokingly said, one time that Percy would be able to talk himself out of hell. So Percy hoped he could talk Athena's owl, which didn't particularly like him very much, especially after the last prank, into working with him.
To try and talk to the owl Percy would need access to the owl, and that was near impossible, with Athena guarding the owl like a mama bear. But an opportunity presented itself during his 20 minutes slave sentence. He begged Athena to let him apologize to the owl. She took him to the owl but would leave him alone with the owl, somehow Percy had to convince the owl to be his co-conspirator in Athena's presence.
Percy apologized to the owl. He said he was sorry and shouldn't have done what he did, it must be so hard to be so wise but yet unable to protect oneself, from demigods like him. But the owl shouldn't worry Athena would always be there to protect the owl. It's not like the owl was a horse or a Pegasus which was big and could defend itself.
Athena got tired of his lame apology and sent him back to work. The problem with always being the smartest in the room, it is hard to know when you've been played. Athena thought Percy's apology was lame, she never for one second thought that Percy would try to outsmart her because that was impossible.
A week later, Athena's owl visited Percy, ready to defend its honour. It could defend itself from him despite its size. Percy accepted his wrong doing and asked the owl if it would like to go in his room to receive a proper apology. Percy rumbled on for 45 minutes before the owl got bored and fell asleep, he made sure it was comfortable and left it to sleep.
He then Iris called Athena, asking her about the note he just received. The note read:
"Dear Percy,
I'm onto your pranks, young demigod. But do your worst – I'll match wits with you any day.
Sincerely,
Athena"
When she noticed her owl missing, Athena deep down suspected Percy, but her pride would never allow her to accept that he had outsmarted her. She also didn't want the other gods to know about her missing owl. But she was worried, so she asked Annabeth to help her look for the missing owl.
Annabeth immediately went into Percy's cabin and found her mom's owl peacefully sleeping. Athena wanted to punish Percy, but she was embarrassed to admit he got the better of her. Oh, and her owl apparently was now a fun of Percy. It kept thinking 'what a nice human child, not very bright, but nice.' Apparently Percy's stunt had earned him a new friend.
Part 3: The Owl Messenger Mix-Up
Percy was surprised that there was no repercussions from his borrowing of Athena's owl. This made him feel antsy, and Athena's owl had suddenly taken a liking to him, and it visited him whenever it could, to be honest he enjoyed the attention, more so knowing that it probably bothered Athena. But still, the owl's sudden approval of him made him antsier, so he thought he should calm himself with a prank.
Athena's owl was taking a note of Athena's to her dressmakers describing what she desired for Aphrodite's ball next month, when it dropped by to visit him, and Percy thought, hmm, fate? He convinced the owl to stay a while and pampered it and chatted about nothing until it fell asleep. He had just recently learnt, if you talked long enough, the owl would fall asleep, it's either it found him too boring or it found his voice just soothing enough to fall asleep to. After it fell asleep, he got Athena's note and made a few adjustments.
Unfortunately, Athena knew that Percy would not resist the temptation to mess with her if she sent him such a golden opportunity. She now had evidence of Percy's hand in the pranks but she didn't. She didn't know what to do with him, so she did nothing.
PPM*
Author's note: I'm very disappointed with this chapter even before I post it, I feel like I didn't have enough time to properly write the story I wanted, but I'm trying to train myself to update weekly. Please forgive me for this, I'm learning.
