In the last two days, he'd learned a number of things. For one, Artemis and Diana were more similar than he'd thought they'd be, and likely more similar than either realized. Of course, he wasn't entirely sure if the two could interact with each other for extended periods of time. Regardless though, he had noted a few key differences. Diana was far more playful than Artemis was. For that matter, Diana seemed like a more cunning and eloquent version of her Greek brother. She had a certain propensity for messing with people which was something that he found he quite enjoyed even if he was often on the receiving end of it.

Another thing was that Artemis was certainly more reserved but also gave far better advice. Diana, from what he could tell, was a bit of a wild child in that sense. She played fast and loose with the rules and while he enjoyed that, he found that Artemis's regality and commanding nature made her far more suited to delicate topics. That was not to say that Diana was incapable as that couldn't have been further from the truth. But, where Artemis was cool-headed and composed, Diana was fiery and passionate. It seemed that they balanced each other out quite well.

He'd noticed a few physical differences as well, though he imagined that could change with the wind. More accurately, he noticed differences in their preferred forms. While both appeared older around him, Artemis seemed to prefer being the same age while Diana was a few years his senior, typically by about four to five years. Their hair was about the same, though he noticed that Artemis had a silver streak in hers where Diana had none. He was certain that the goddess had not gotten that when she held the sky, but knew nothing more than that. Other than their eyes, everything else seemed to be about the same. They were the same height, same build, and even tended to dress similarly.

Going back to the eyes though, it seemed that they were the most strikingly different. Artemis, as he'd previously noted, had a certain wolfishness to her gaze, often coming across as intelligent but very reserved and analytical. He'd felt that it was almost piercing at times, though not necessarily in a harsh way. Her Roman aspect, on the other hand, had a very relaxed look, to the point of boredom at times. He'd quickly come to notice that she often had a rather mischievous look, almost bordering on foxy. Diana, as it seemed, tended to wear her emotions on her sleeve.

Still though, they were quite obviously similar and he imagined that they could switch places at times and easily be mistaken for each other. There were plenty of scenarios that he could imagine Diana taking the place of an angry Artemis, and equally as many where Artemis was the one planning out revenge on someone who'd wronged her counterpart. He rubbed his head a little thinking about it.

He shrugged it off though. Out of curiosity, he wondered if he'd get a Roman form if he chose to become a god. That was an interesting thought. He was already Greek and Roman, so he wasn't sure how that'd play out. As far as he knew, there had been no new major gods created since ancient times. He brushed that thought away though. He wasn't all too interested in becoming an Olympian. Better to be an ordinary immortal and be able to help those in need.

He yawned as he pushed himself out of his lounge chair. He really needed to get a move on if he didn't want to be unprepared when everyone got there. Thankfully he didn't need to change much given that he was relatively cleanly, but it would be a good idea to check over everything while he had the chance. Honestly, the only thing he could see being an issue was food but if he was being realistic, it wouldn't be that big of a deal. Calypso typically insisted on bringing far more than was needed since she could simply summon it. Titan magic truly was useful.

From what he could see, not much appeared to be out of order other than having a few dishes in the sink from his late breakfast that day. Those, thankfully, were easy enough to deal with. Unfortunately, it also left him with nothing to do while he waited for everyone. It happened quite often. He'd clean and prep for whatever the occasion was, but then he'd sit there until it was time. Typically, it started in the same way with him starting to pace around before attempting to sit down and do something. Typically though, he found that he'd get bored or distracted quite easily just minutes after setting out to do something.

Currently, he'd passed the pacing phase and had already attempted to read. No luck on that end so it was back to pacing until something caught his attention. He had to wonder if this was something other people did. At some point, his guitar caught his attention. Of course, he accepted that the same thing would happen as he sat down. He glanced around for a pick but couldn't find one. He was minorly annoyed by this since he knew he'd find one as soon as he didn't need it. It was funny to think that his habitual playing had started because of Apollo. He could recall that day quite easily since Apollo had said that he had good hands out of the blue.

That'd gotten him some strange looks, but he'd elaborated, explaining that Percy's dexterity and rather slender fingers would be great for a stringed instrument. He'd tried to get Percy to start on the lyre, but Percy had been quick to shoot that down. From there, it'd been a guessing game as to what he would try to play. Honestly, the young man hadn't been all that interested in it, but he found that he picked it up pretty quickly and had just sort of messed around whenever he was bored. After a while of that, he'd undertaken a small project to make his own as a way to make himself feel better. With the help of a sun god who was surprisingly knowledgeable about the creation of instruments, he set out to make a personalized guitar.

Of course, the first iteration of this almost burned his house down when he'd plugged it in. While Apollo had a wealth of knowledge about instruments, he was awful at soldering to the point that the solder they'd done for the electronics had reduced the instrument to ashes. His house had almost followed, but Percy had acted quickly and doused it. As it would happen though, this was a poor choice given the fact that it's generally considered a bad idea to pour water on electrical fires. It solved the issue, short-circuiting the amp, but it had nearly fried the sun god since he'd been standing next to said amp.

Their second attempt went far better as they enlisted the help of Hermes. The messenger god hadn't been able to do much, but he was marginally better than Apollo when it came to connecting hot metal and wire. Of course, the real breakthrough came when Hermes had brought Leo along. A son of the forge god was far better suited to crafting the instrument and they'd finished in record time. The only caveat was that Percy had to continually remind the shorter man that he didn't want it to shoot flames. Children of Hephaestus had a certain propensity for fire as it would seem.

He mindlessly played for a little bit, zoning out as he played a seemingly random song from memory. After a time, he swapped to another song, dropping some of the tunings down. It took all of three seconds before he got bored though. It would have been back to pacing around at random had someone not knocked on his door. He let out a quiet breath and strolled over to it, opening it to find Nico and Will standing there. He probably should have expected them to be the first two to show up since the son of Hades could shadow travel.

"First ones here?" Nico had always had a way of knowing what he was thinking.

Percy grinned, taking a few of the items they had in their hands, "Always are."

"Who all is coming?" It was the son of Apollo's turn to speak.

Percy just shrugged, letting Nico answer instead. He'd always been more on top of things than Percy had anyway, "I'll probably just leave the door open so people can come in whenever they get here."

"Bets on who gets here next?" Will asked over his shoulder as he went to set down a small platter.

Percy thought about it for a second. His bet was on Jason and Piper while Nico's was on Calypso and Leo. Sure enough, the latter two came strolling through the door about five minutes later. Percy groaned, passing both Will and his boyfriend a couple drachmas. Since enough people had arrived, they began setting food around in various areas. While his home wasn't massive by godly standards, it was still large enough for a party five or so times the size of the current one. He let Calypso and Will handle the smaller details while the other three just went about lifting and moving anything that they were told to. It was better to let those two in particular handle it, and Piper too when she showed up.

The way Percy saw it, he was better off being utilized as dumb muscle. He had no eye for the small details as evidenced by the way he almost placed a table halfway in the middle of one of the main walkways. One would think that it couldn't be that hard, and typically, they would be correct. As soon as everything was in order, they'd taken to the living room where Calypso had magicked up a few decks of cards and assorted other things to kill time. Needless to say, Percy and Leo had come in dead last and second to last in the first game they'd played. Nico had come in first on account of his ability to count cards with Calypso coming up just slightly after.

This continued on for a few games before the group collectively decided to move on to an easier game. At some point through their fourth game, two more guests arrived. This time, it was Piper and Jason. They set their things down and quickly joined in on the festivities. As far as they (aside from Percy) knew, all the guests were there. Frank and Hazel had called out for one reason or another and the other demigods were busy with their own things. And, while he'd made an effort to include a certain daughter of Athena, it seemed that she was busy with work on Olympus. Some of the others had expressed their annoyance at her being unavailable every time, but everyone forgot about it quickly.

Jason groaned as the son of Apollo blocked his turn, "I haven't even done anything to you!"

Leo laughed, responding in place of the senior camper, "He's paying you back for what you did last game."

"But that was the last game."

Nico shot back, "That didn't seem to stop you earlier."

Percy just laughed at his friend's antics. He'd gotten lucky early on in the round, securing an easy win for himself. Piper had finished out a little after but the rest of them were still going about with no clear winners in sight. As such, the two had excused themselves, instead opting to get a quick drink. Percy had also snagged a small plate of snacks to hold him over for a bit. It'd been a while since the two had talked in earnest and this seemed to be just as good an opportunity as any other. They'd jumped around from topic to topic, they seemed to be sticking to habits for now.

"You know," the daughter of Aphrodite started, "You've got a timer over your head."

"What?"

"People don't talk about it enough, but the people who pick up really random hobbies after getting out of relationships are definitely not okay."

Percy grimaced, "What random hobby did I pick up?"

Piper gestured to the table, "You definitely didn't know how to cook before. Plus, gardening. Gardening's a pretty big one. That's not really something you just start doing."

"Why not?"

"Okay if I just randomly picked up carpentry, wouldn't you think that's weird?"

"Not really?"

Piper rolled her eyes, "Okay well anyone who's normal would be pretty confused."

"People start doing new things all the time," Percy shrugged, taking a handful of chips.

"Sure, but not after a relationship ends."

"Pretty sure that's normal."

Piper shook her head, "Daughter of the love goddess ya know. I've got a pretty good handle on what's normal and picking up something like that is definitely not something everyone does. Normal would be crying or going out a lot or shit like that. People don't just decide to pick up gardening after they get their hearts broken."

"We're not exactly a normal group."

Piper considered this for a moment before responding, "That's fair, but it doesn't make us that different."

Percy tilted his head, "Say I believe you. What does this timer mean?"

Piper shrugged, causing Percy to groan. Their conversation was a little more animated after that. Eventually though, they were drawn back to the game as the others finished. Nico came in third followed by Calypso and they hadn't bothered continuing after that. After a quick break, they threw themselves back into the next round. This time, it would seem that Percy wasn't as lucky. He was dealt a rather poor hand each time, and his luck on the draw was awful. Thankfully though, he had good cards on his bench so he could secure the late game easily enough.

That didn't stop Will from powering through with an early lead though. Once again, Jason tried stopping him but Piper and Leo kept messing with him in protest. The others simply observed with Nico taking advantage of the situation to put himself ahead. That left him and Calypso in the middle, biding their time. Even despite Jason's attempts to stop the sun god's child, he nearly won. It was only by a stroke of luck that Percy managed to pull the rug out from under him and steal the victory yet again, much to the chagrin of the rest of the party. He quickly excused himself, taking a moment to fill his plate before stepping out into the cool night.

He took a quick breath before dropping down into a lounge chair on the deck. He was honestly having a great time, but he'd had a bit of a headache since the previous night and the noise certainly wasn't helping. His nightmare had been particularly vivid then and quite different from his normal ones. He couldn't quite recall all of it, but he'd woken up sweating and shaky. Even now, he could feel a little strain in the back of his mind. The waves served to alleviate that though. Even if it was only a little, any little bit counted. He took a bit of the dip that Piper had made and made a small noise of contentment. He'd have to ask what she did because it was pretty good.

Speaking of them though, he was sure that their game was still going on given the shouting from Leo and Jason. He laughed softly to himself at hearing their antics. It certainly was something that he had missed. Now, all they were missing was Annabeth and Thalia. The former had declined to join as per usual, and Thalia had simply been busy. He noted that his thoughts lacked the normal tinge of sadness that typically accompanied them. Maybe he was doing better after all. He glanced back at his home before he moved to stand up.

They wouldn't miss him for a few more minutes, and that meant he had enough time to sit in the tide for a moment. And, he did just that, marching his way over before falling onto his back straight into the surf. The water acted like a small cushion and caught him as he fell in, gently slowing him down and keeping him just above the sand. A small smile lit up his face as he sat for a moment. He felt a little bit of energy coursing into him, as was typical. Strangely though, he felt a little bit more energized than normal, but he brushed that off as a result of his good mood. As much as his emotions positively affected his powers, they also worked against him when he wasn't doing as hot.

"Having fun there?" He recognized that voice quite well.

"Always. When'd you get here?"

He couldn't see her smile, but he could hear the amusement in her voice, "Not long ago. Why are you not inside?"

"Headache, and I won."

"Won what?"

He tilted his head back so that he could see the Huntress, "Just a card game. Got pretty lucky in the back half while everyone else was fighting."

"What were you playing?"

Percy let the water push him up till he was standing, "I'll tell you and explain all the rules when we start the next round."

Diana nodded, watching as he brushed a few strands of hair out of his face. She noted that the Roman praetor had done a good job with it. The look suited him quite well, and she told him that as he came to stand next to her. He just smiled sheepishly and steered her towards the house. As it turned out, the Roman goddess had been about to knock on his door, apparently not having seen Percy lounging in the water. To be fair, he wouldn't have expected anyone to just be sitting in the surf either. That would have been an interesting conversation for the rest of his friends. As far as he knew, none of them knew that the goddess was coming. This was, in part, because of the fact that he had elected not to tell them.

For one, he knew that they'd act strangely if he did tell them and that wasn't even mentioning the stuff they'd say. They'd shown that they often handled odd news better after the fact and he imagined that this would be no exception. And so while he did get a few odd looks, he imagined it was worth it.

"Who's she?" Leo was as blunt as ever, causing his significant other to swat him in annoyance.

"This would be Lady Diana," Percy explained it casually as if though he wasn't accompanied by a supposed man-hating goddess. Diana seemed to appreciate this, even if her eye twitched at the use of a title before her name. She also seemed to appreciate the way the other members of the party reacted. The four smarter members of the group had recognized the goddess quickly, though only Nico seemed to be comfortable given their already amicable feelings toward one another. He'd scored quite a few brownie points with Artemis (and by extension Diana) when he'd insisted on informing her about Percy and through their various interactions. Calypso was also someone she was somewhat well acquainted with through several visits to her home during her imprisonment.

The moon goddess had sympathized with Calypso's plight as they both happened to be third-generation goddesses, though Calypso was recognized as a Titaness due to having two titan parents rather than only having one like Artemis and Apollo did. Regardless of that though, the others seemed to be having a bit of an issue talking, unsure of what to say in fear of offending the goddess. She nudged the son of the sea and attempted to kickstart their conversation once more, "So what do I need to know to play?"

He glanced at the group before turning back to the goddess, leading her towards the couch, "It's pretty simple."

Percy launched into the explanation as the two sat down with Nico adding in comments when the son of Poseidon missed things. This seemed to calm down a few of his friends, making Will and Piper more talkative. Calypso was already comfortable enough around the goddess to speak, while Leo and Jason were taking a bit longer. Of course, this all came to a quick end during their first game when Percy cracked a joke at Diana's expense. They'd ignored the way that Jason sucked in a quick breath before Diana retorted with one of her own. It seemed like that was enough to finally snap the final two out of their apprehensive states and the night began in earnest.

Who wants a bonus update wooo. A bit of a filler chapter to set up the next two but I wanted to make it at least a little interesting. Hopefully that came through. Anyway I've sort of been writing faster than I can update which is good and bad so I figured I'd give you guys all a little bonus chapter since the next two chapters are some of my favorites.
Moving on to something else, I figured I'd just respond to reviews at the bottom here since some are on mobile and don't have notifs set up. So to Sawgrass, PhantomFuryJP, Capital9810, and Hippie Painter: massive thanks and I'm glad to see you guys are enjoying. To BoyFromAngels: Figured I'd take your advice and I hope it does too. It's a bit of a transitional chapter but I did want to explore some of the other characters. To Icefire99: Super happy to hear that you're enjoying character interactions. Honestly wasn't too sure about some of them so it's great to hear people like them. To Mark Andrew: No idea about the mobile stuff so I figured we'd do it here. As for the other stuff, he might but I've got something planned that I still need to flesh out. Also, to the last part, absolutely agreed. Glad someone was on the same wavelength about the fawn thing.

Well, hope you guys enjoyed. Until Wednesday!