ANNABETH WISHED SHE HAD…Romans knew how to eat.
"Don't worry. I ate enough for both of us." Percy winked at Annabeth.
Thalia snorted in amusement. "That I can definitely vouch for even if I wasn't there." She said.
"Anybody can vouch for that, Thals." Percy snickered.
Sets of couches and low…that it gave Annabeth vertigo
Athena winced as a round of vertigo hit her as well.
"It really is trippy for a while." Percy agreed. "It gets better after a while." He said.
"The camps are similar yet different." Hazel smiled.
"It is the people that are similar which automatically makes the camps similar but they are different in terms of atmosphere and architecture and somewhere, even the morals and ethics. That's what makes Greeks and Romans different in the first place but the inner emotions and the desire for peace is what unites them. The wars took place because people only saw the different morals but they might have never happened had they seen the similarities." Nico said. Everybody stared at him.
"I did ambassadorship for a while. You learn a lot when you observe." He clarified. Hades' face shone with pride and even Persephone looked like a mother proud of her child.
"That was very philosophical yet logical and true. People focus on negative aspects when they should be focusing on the aspects that are similar. Heck, sometimes two groups who may be strangers can come together if they're in the same situation." Percy nodded. "A lot of problems in the world could be solved that way. Such a world would be an ideal world but we all get a reality check once a while and the world we live in is far from ideal." He sighed. Everybody in the hall looked at Nico and Percy in mild surprise, awe and understanding.
"That may be true. The wars can be reduced if people understood but that's where Percy's right. That's an ideal world. Wars are inevitable because people want power, territory and sometimes in more moral circumstances, justice. But sometimes, wars are also necessary. Sometimes, they tell us about what not to do and sometimes they teach us that fighting for justice is important. Many wars occur because people feel like they have been wronged. Take the second titan war for example." Ares explained.
This time there were relatively more surprised looks from the Olympians but the younger gods nodded in understanding as did Apollo, Hermes, Dionysus and Artemis. Athena looked the most surprised because she had always understood Ares as somebody who was hungry for blood. In fact, out of all the Olympians, it was only those four gods who had actually known Ares before he had been kidnapped and had changed beyond belief. They'd never understood him after that. Now, it seemed like the old Ares was coming back whom nobody remembered anymore.
"This conversation started off with Annabeth getting vertigo-" Rachel said, trying to lighten the mood after there had been pin drop silence for 3 whole minutes. It partially worked and a few people chuckled.
"Conversation randomly goes from something to something totally different. I remember a conversation I was having with this idiot-" Percy started, gesturing to Jason who grinned "-It started off with his reunion with Thalia and it somehow reached to how babies were made." He said, shaking his head. This broke the tension and everybody burst out laughing. Jason and Percy high fived as they remembered that conversation.
"I don't think I want to know how that conversation progressed." Piper shook her head.
"You really don't." Jason told her amusedly.
All she wanted to do was be…building some goodwill
"Ah the drawbacks of diplomacy." Nico sighed theatrically.
"Indeed." Annabeth nodded sagely.
Reyna and a few of her officers…their camp, their home?
Percy frowned and Annabeth grimaced.
"I love CHB more than any other camp in any part of the world. But even I can admit that Camp Jupiter is pretty amazing, you know? It's kind of like admiring architecture, wise girl. I find it beautiful but CHB will always be where I feel most at home because my family is there. My childhood is there and anything productive I've done in my life is also there." He told her gently. Annabeth nodded.
"Yeah, I know. I'm sorry for being so jealous. Its just that I was seeing you after so long and I kind of thought that we'd talk about our past more than the future." She sighed.
"Nah, wise girl. We don't talk about the past nor the future. The past shaped us, the future is what we will accomplish with who we are in the present. We live in the present. That's the motto we all have because we don't know what the future will hold." He said with a smile. Annabeth nodded in agreement. The Olympians stared at the son of Poseidon, open mouthed while the campers nodded in agreement.
"Facts of life." Castor said.
She tried not to stare at the…You belong to us. Permanently.
"Exactly." Castor muttered. "I'm pretty sure that was the original intention?" he asked Reyna, with a slight accusatory tone which she recognized.
"I wasn't the one who started it so there's no point in getting angry with me." Reyna said coolly.
"You still continued it. A person following something is just as guilty as the one who started it. People never said that the people following Hitler were better than him. They were equally charged. You were a praetor. You were the only one who had the power to change the custom. Leaders change what is questionable into something that is widely accepted. They don't follow it blindly and that's the reason people accept them as leaders." Pollux countered. Castor nodded in agreement.
"Did you just compare Romans to Hitler?" Reyna asked coldly.
"No. I compared the custom of burning marks into flesh while the person is in full consciousness to the concept of bondage, slavery and torture." Pollux responded with equal coldness in his voice. A few of the Olympians and Chiron tensed at the debate. They never took even the smallest debates between Romans and Greeks lightly.
Reyna looked like she was about to say something but Castor cut in between.
"And not to mention that this takes place every time each year passes. And you can't say that it doesn't hurt that much because I think we all saw how much it hurts when the curse acted up on Lord Poseidon." Castor said hotly. Reyna took a deep breath to calm herself. The rest of the Romans looked like they were deep into their musings and were actually thinking about what Castor and Pollux were saying.
The Olympians still looked on edge because they did not want to know what would happen if this conversation escalated but at the same time they knew that they could not stop this discussion.
"The Romans are prepared for it. It's a custom we've followed. I don't understand why you're having a problem with it. We're not criticizing any custom you have." Reyna said, with finality in her voice but Castor and Pollux were not Roman. And their leader was not Reyna.
"I believe it became a matter of concern for us when you burned those marks into the skin of our leader." Castor said coolly. Percy raised his eyebrows and gave a small smile. He didn't intervene in this conversation because it was something Castor and Pollux were advocating and it was not his place to enter into it.
"And anyways, we're not saying that you cannot criticize any custom of ours. We're a family and we're the ones who have to have the guts to criticize each other because nobody else is going to." Castor continued.
"He's right about that, Rey." Dakota said finally. Reyna looked at the son of Bacchus and nodded.
"So, which tradition of ours would you like to criticize so that we can improve? Honestly, anything works except how young we die because that's not really in our hands." Castor said with a small smile. The Olympians and Chiron felt themselves loosen up now that some of the tension dissolved. "The thing is we don't have any age-old customs yet but still." He added.
"The fact that you have cabins according to your parentage." Reyna said.
"Hmm. We have that so that people are able to harness their powers properly and that their half siblings are there to help them do that because they have similar powers. We don't really have cohorts because we want to be able to master our powers as well as our fighting at the same time." Percy said with a smile. The campers were all glad that they were having this discussion with a rather open mind rather than yelling and fighting about it. The Greek campers were especially glad that Percy had finally stepped into this.
"And having the big three kids in one cabin is generally dangerous for them but in the case of these guys-" Katie started, gesturing to Percy, Nico, Thalia and Jason "-I'd say its dangerous for the camp." She said with a snicker. The said younger gods grinned sheepishly. Even Reyna laughed.
"Well, brothers, you've given us something to think about. You're absolutely right when you say that sometimes certain customs become undesirable. We don't live in the same age as those customs then why must we follow them now. I'll definitely give the current praetors this change in practice that we will no longer be burning marks into the flesh of those who don't want it. But we're going to find out a way that we can still recognize the campers like you have the necklaces." Dakota said to Castor and Pollux with a smile.
"What about you go all modern and give different colored shoes?" Nico suggested. There were a couple of laughs at that but the Romans nodded as if they were actually considering it.
"That's actually not a bad idea. We all use training shoes anyways and that too for the whole day." Frank mused.
"I think Dakota and I will drop by Camp and let them know." Hazel laughed.
"Great. I'm glad we all resolved this." Reyna smiled at Nico, Percy, Castor and Pollux and the three of them smiled at her.
"You guys had us on the edge." Apollo said, shaking his head. The campers laughed.
"Don't worry, we weren't planning on hurting each other." Percy chuckled.
"Your tension was freaking me out." Grover shook his head at Apollo and the god of music grinned sheepishly at the satyr.
"My apologies, dear Grover." He said theatrically.
"I shall forgive you, my lord." Grover replied with equal drama.
Zeus was deep in thinking about what Castor and Pollux had said about promoting customs that needed change and how promoting them even now made him somebody who was forcing his policies onto the others. He was the king of gods and he'd realized long ago that he needed to lead by example but that example couldn't be the policies he was enforcing now and it couldn't be shutting themselves off from everybody because quite frankly, that wasn't going to work. He'd lost a part of his humanity after the first Titanomachy where he saw things that he wouldn't wish on anybody. Now it seemed like he had to fix himself up for everybody else because isn't that what a leader did?
She swallowed back some…annoying in Greek or Roman)
The campers almost laughed but muffled it at a slight shake of his head by Percy who himself looked like he was stifling a small laugh but he hid it well enough. Jason shot him a grateful look and even Thalia looked relieved that this wasn't about to blow up. Zeus shared her sense of relief as well as Jason's gratitude.
From imprisonment at the Wolf…really loved Piper's charmspeak
"Oh so do we." The campers and Apollo chorused.
"I don't how I ever helped him." Apollo shook his head in anger and disgust.
She noticed Reyna looking…with Queen Dirt Face."
"Loving the name." Leo fist bumped Percy.
"I wonder how Antaeus would feel about that." Grover smirked at Percy who groaned and buried his face in his hands.
"Don't remind me." He whined to his best friend who just chuckled and rubbed his hands mischievously.
Percy recounted his side of the…try hard not to cry
"Aw, Wise Girl. Your name is carved into my heart." Percy said with as much as drama he could muster which was a lot. Everybody burst out laughing and Annabeth shook her head fondly at Percy.
"Lover boy." Thalia, Nico and Grover groaned.
Percy told them how he'd traveled…both tell you to shut up."
There was silence before everybody was roaring with laughter.
"That was godsdamed brilliant!" Beckendorf said, barking out a laugh
"PERSASSY HIT TWO!" Travis and Connor yelled.
"Ohh no, even ice couldn't help with that burn! That's easily three hit points." Rachel pointed out with a grin.
"Ah our bad." Travis said. "PERSASSY HIT FOUR!" The Stolls announced like the video game narrators.
"That was hilarious to watch." Jason snickered and Percy nodded in agreement as he laughed and the two of them fist bumped.
"I would have laughed had the situation not been so serious." Reyna chuckled.
"Laughing in serious situations helps to lighten you up." Connor advised.
"It gives me hysteria." Chris said amusedly and everybody snorted in agreement.
"Fair." Connor chuckled.
Octavian turned as purple as…of Rome is no biggie?"
"Oh shut up." Everybody including Hera chorused.
Percy ignored him and turned…interrupt a budding bromance
Percy and Jason pouted at Annabeth.
"Bro." Percy said to Jason, keeping a hand on his shoulder.
"Bro." Jason replied, keeping his hand on Percy's shoulder. They looked into each other's eyes dramatically which left no doubt about their parentage. Nico hummed some theatric and emotional music in the background.
"I love you." Jason and Percy said in unison and hugged each other. They pulled apart and wiped fake tears. Everybody looked at them and face palmed.
"You guys are ridiculous." Amphitrite chuckled.
"Lets be ridiculous together." Jason said to Percy, adding as much sentiment as he could into his voice.
"You're already ridiculous together." Thalia snorted. Percy and Jason grinned and high fived. Each and every one of the people present in the hall were looking highly amused and were laughing their heads off.
"I love these flashbacks that we get of you when we look at them." Hestia said with a small smile to her younger brothers who looked guiltily at each other once they looked at the sadness in Hestia's eyes. They'd all drifted apart after Hades had been banished to the Underworld. Hades and Poseidon had been the best of friends before Zeus and even after they'd won the first war but then Hades had been banished and Poseidon didn't do anything about it. That was something he was going to have to live with.
Zeus had never visited the Underworld and Poseidon had rarely done so and even when he did, Hades never talked to him, feeling the pang of betrayal every time he looked at the god who used to be his younger brother and his best friend. This was the second chance that the three of them had got to get closer to each other and to their sisters as well and they really didn't want to waste it but they didn't know how to get about it either.
But Reyna was right…it into passing wind spirits.
Beckendorf and Hephaestus chuckled.
"They hate that." Leo grumbled.
"Actually a few of them like it." Jason informed him.
Annabeth wasn't sure why she had…child of the wisdom goddess—"
Athena gritted her teeth and Annabeth clenched her jaw. Percy scoffed at the book.
"Because she is a child of the wisdom goddess, she has wisdom unlike you of course. We all know you lack that in your department in your brain but then again he lacks a brain." He said and gave a shake of his head. Athena looked at Percy in surprise, not expecting him to defend that statement.
"Ohh, I wish Octavian heard that. He'd want to genuinely kill you on spot." Dakota chuckled.
"And he'd be lying on the ground, begging for mercy in less than a minute." Nico snorted.
"I'd love to throw a hairbrush at him." Rachel deadpanned.
"Oh my gods, bestowing such a great honor on him would be a crime." Travis told her. Connor nodded sagely.
"We all bow before the altar of the mighty hairbrush." Connor said dramatically, looking up at the sky as he fell to his knees. To accompany the drama, Thalia added a clap of thunder and Percy added the sound of water crashing against the rocks. Nico on the other hand increased the shadow where Connor was sitting. After that scene, nobody said anything because everybody was busy, laughing.
"I'd love to see any of those scenarios play out." Dakota nodded.
"Enough," Reyna snapped…commanded herself to stay cool
Percy swore and clicked his tongue. Annabeth winked at him.
"Uh, thanks," she told Reyna…already spinning like Leo's pinwheel
"It really works like that when you find out that she's Hades or Pluto's kid. You know, he's quite literally the one god who's actually loyal to his wife most of the times." Will said nonchalantly. Nico nodded at him.
"Good going." He told his boyfriend and Will turned beet red.
"I actually meant it-" he said. Nico chuckled.
"I know. I know." He said. Hades gave a small smile to the son of Apollo which he returned.
"I mean he ain't wrong. I was equally surprised." Percy admitted and gave his father a sheepish look as the sea god raised his eyebrows at his son. Percy shrugged. "Can't really deny that." He told him. Poseidon's eyebrows just rose higher.
"You tell him!" Amphitrite cheered for Percy, making the god of time freeze and then burst out laughing.
"Yes. We are now on one time. Persassy and Amphitrite." Percy fist bumped his step mother. Poseidon groaned and swore.
"You're gone now, my dear brother in law." Persephone laughed. Poseidon looked at her miserably.
"This is going to be entertaining now." Hades said as he relaxed and leaned against the wall and grinned at his younger brother.
"Come on now, Nico. Don't spare him either." Poseidon told his nephew who grinned at him.
"Consider it done, uncle." Nico winked. Poseidon now grinned at Hades who's eyes widened.
"Fuck." Is all he said. Persephone and Nico high fived and then they high fived Hazel.
"They're so done." Hermes and Apollo laughed.
"Bets on who cries first?" Hermes asked. The younger Olympians and campers immediately hurried over to him and started making their bets. Percy and Nico grinned at each other. Poseidon and Hades exchanged miserable looks. Persephone and Amphitrite winked at each other. Revenge at last and gave out a few villainous laughs to freak out Hades and Poseidon even more.
Once all bets were placed, Rachel continued reading.
She decided to let the matter go…itself really creeped her out.
"Nothing to be creeped out about. He's a pretty chill guy." Nico assured Annabeth. "I'll introduce you?" he asked. Annabeth's eyes widened but she nodded.
"Sounds interesting?" she said. Nico grinned.
"As long as it doesn't worry you too much." He said.
Percy took a bite of his burger…"We've got a dam hole."
Thalia and Grover grinned at Percy who grinned right back.
"It's a dam problem." Grover nodded.
"It's the dam earth." Thalia nodded.
"It's a dam leak." Percy said. The three of them high fived.
"What?" Piper asked…there it would be ten times worse."
"The sea of monsters was bad. You also said Alaska would be bad but they survived that." Nico pointed out. Rachel snickered as she read the next line.
"Don't tell me Percy said the same time." Nico said dryly, noticing Rachel's reaction.
"Oh you know I can't." she cackled.
"You said Alaska would be bad…own share of nightmares lately
"Nightmares during the wars suck. You can't tell the difference between dream and reality. Its terrifying." Pollux shook his head.
"Agreed. They're really annoying." Poseidon said, without thinking. Percy's gaze snapped to face Poseidon so fast that it was a surprise his neck was intact.
"Gods get nightmares?" he asked sharply.
"Only if somebody specifically intends it." Dionysus answered as his uncle kept quiet.
"We all got them. Especially during the time when we were divided among the Greek and Roman forms. It makes it worse." Hades said quickly, jumping in before his brother had to answer and reveal a part of him that made him lose a part of himself in front of everybody.
"Right." Percy said. His tone still sounded suspicious because the younger god was awfully good at noticing such things but he didn't ask any further questions.
"Seven half-bloods must answer… Without a proper debate? Without—"
"Now I understand why duct tape is a must to carry." Piper said.
"Percy!" Tyson the Cyclops…made him almost like family.
"We'll change that soon enough and actually make him family." Percy winked at Annabeth who turned bright red.
"Shut up, Seaweed Brain." She said fondly. Percy chuckled teasingly.
Tyson stopped by their couch…my ship to the Titanic?"
"It still hurts me." Leo grumbled.
"Me too and I wasn't even there." Beckendorf agreed.
"She's not a chicken…pain from a woven jail."
Athena and Annabeth flinched. Annabeth subconsciously edged away from Athena and shuddered.
The effect was like someone… Avenge me.
"Athena!" A few of the Olympians exclaimed.
"Daughter, did you give her the same quest?" Zeus asked, his voice controlled. Athena didn't answer so he took that as a 'yes'.
"We're going to have a talk about this soon. Probably after this book." He told her.
"But father-" Athena started.
"We're going to talk about it, Athena." Zeus said, finality in his tone. He gave a small nod to Annabeth which surprised the daughter of wisdom.
Around them, the sounds of… you consult them for your auguries?"
"That'll work." Hermes said with a small smile towards Annabeth. Tyson sighed in relief. He was beginning to understand just how much danger Ella could have been in and then how much trouble they all would have been because he would not have spared Octavian if anything had happened to Ella.
"But like he burns teddy bears." Leo said.
"And yet he fell for it." Dakota snorted.
Her words had the intended effect... look happy about it.
Tyson gagged.
"He didn't deserve that hug, big guy." Percy said. Tyson nodded.
"I agree." He said
Then he climbed on Mrs. O'Leary's back…captain's hat to wear."
"Can I also come for a tour, Captain Leo?" Travis asked in the voice of a kid.
"Now now, Mr. Stoll, of course you can but you must be good." Leo said, in the voice of a teacher. More specifically in the voice of Chiron. The centaur stared at Leo and the younger god swallowed and looked at his teacher sheepishly. Chiron finally gave way to the smile on his face and shook his head fondly.
Octavian's nostrils flared…not be good for his health
"Aw man. He shouldn't have realized that." Michael muttered.
"It really was a pain for us as well." Frank nodded.
"Fine…with his usual impish grin.
Hades and Zeus swore as they understood exactly what it was.
"This is not going to be pleasant at all." Hades sighed.
"Back soon," he promised…seeing things and feeling cold?
"We'd understand that actually. Most of us depend on our intuition and gut feelings anyways." Reyna smiled at Annabeth.
"Yeah but I mean can you imagine believing somebody who phrased it exactly like that?" Annabeth said. "That'd probably give a black mark in the alliance. I didn't want that." She said. Reyna thought about it
"Yeah, you could have phrased it better." She chuckled finally and Annabeth couldn't help but smile.
The wind spirits began…rubbing salt in a wound.
Jason shuffled uncomfortably.
"And then you call me oblivious." Percy snorted.
"Of course," Reyna said…"Walk with me."
"Ominous much?" Nico raised an eyebrow at Reyna who grinned sheepishly at somebody she'd started considering a brother.
"Chapter's done." Rachel announced.
"These are pretty big chapters, huh?" Hephaestus said. Everybody nodded.
"I'll read." Zeus said
