I heard Annabeth needed a relationship expert. Or maybe she was just overthinking. Anyways, I wonder who could possibly help her.
Piper
I've been on plenty of dates. Even before I got together with Jason. (Or rather: Even before the point in time at which Hera chose to put fake memories of me getting together with Jason). Of course, no serious relationships had taken place, but there had been some Boys who managed to convince me. Sometimes, I had also convinced them. Anyways, I had been on a bunch of dates at a bunch of different places. But one of my favorites was floating in the air. In my opinion, a child of Zeus is the best boyfriend choice, even though Annabeth would probably disagree with me on this one. But seriously, what could Percy do, romance wise. Sure, he could get you an underwater kiss, but Jason could get you a flying date. Who's the better boyfriend now?
"Have you ever tried how high you can actually fly?" I asked Jason "I've never been higher than like 150 meters, but that was far from any sort of limit. I could probably go until the air gets to thin, but I wouldn't try it out with you on board." He told me "Hey bro" He shouted at Percy, who was on the beach with Annabeth. "Yes bro" "Can you take care-" I gave him a death stare. "Can you let my girlfriend take care of herself while I go check something out?" "Sure bro." "Thanks bro!" I really liked both Percy and Jason, but them constantly ending everything sentence with bro was just so annoying. I didn't have time to complain though, since the air collapsed below me and I fell into the lake.
Percy watched me fall and gracefully dive into the water. Unfortunately, my clothes were instantly soaked with water, dragging me down. I looked over to Percy. "Want me to pull you out?" He asked. I thought about it. On one hand, he'd save me the effort of swimming a good twenty meters with clothes on, on the other hand, hadn't I declared I didn't need Percy's help less than a minute ago? I came up with a plan. I called to Percy "If you really want to help me, go ahead". However, I said the "You really want to help me" with charm speak, making Percy think that he wanted to help me. I felt the water pulling me to shore and within seconds, I was on dry ground again. I sat down next to Percy and Annabeth and he made the water disappear from my hair, skin and clothes. Still not as cool as sparky. "So, why did Jason drop you in the lake?" Percy asked after a short silence. "Well, he wanted to test how high he could fly and decided it wasn't safe for me." "Well, it doesn't sound very safe. Percy took me under water the other day and went so deep the pressure was almost painful. Percy didn't notice since he has effectively unlimited pressure tolerance. By the same logic, Jason could have taken you higher and higher until your eardrums explode or something similarly uncomfortable happens, while being completely fine himself. Also, I'd bet, uh, three desserts that he'll pass out on his way up." "I would bet, but that'd be pointless, because I also think he'll pass out." "You two still do that thing where you steal each other's desserts?" Percy asked. Annabeth and I nodded in sync.
"Anyways, I think I interrupted your conversation, where were you?" "Annabeth was overthinking something. I don't know what it was, but she was definitely overthinking." "I was thinking about eventually having children with Percy. The thought of doing the thing that is necessary for that is still a bit strange to me and probably him as well." Annabeth paused. Percy nodded, confirming her assumption. "I thought you didn't like doing that sort of stuff anyways. Didn't you say that?" "I didn't at the time, but turns out all I needed was an extremely strong emotional bond to feel that kind of attraction. A bond I did not develop until just a few weeks ago. It was down there. Her voice stopped and I quickly assured her that she was safe now, on the surface. Gods, charm speak is so useful when dealing with trauma. It appeared that I avoided any flashbacks from happening, Annabeth was just a bit zoned out, or dissociated to use to proper term, for a moment before continuing.
"I don't remember much, but at some point, I suddenly felt a bit differently about him. You know like…" She gave Percy a certain look. I knew what she meant. "Remember when I said I could feel your love and that's how I found you in the lake? Because I think I could actually tell a difference in your attraction to Percy in comparison to what Percy felt for you, he had something that you didn't. But after you came out of the elevator in the house of Hades, you had that too. It took me quite a while to notice my ability, the thing Percy and the others had that Annabeth didn't, and the fact that Annabeth gained that thing. After then I only had to figure out this was sexual attraction as opposed to the romantic kind. I only figured out that I had this ability towards the end of our quest since most of the time your romantic attraction was just too strong to notice anything else." I tried to think of a good analogy. "Imagine all stars are invisible to the naked eye, but we still know they're there. Now imagine you're born with the very rare ability to see the stars, but someone is constantly pointing a flashlight at you. You would not notice that you can see stars unless the flashlight disappears. That is what it's like to be able to sense attraction while being around you two."
"Are we actually this bad? Percy asked. "I don't think so, but if we try to figure out, we're going to need some luck." She kissed him (apparently kisses for luck is a tradition they have) and I don't know how I sense attraction, but apparently it's not transmitted via light rays, because otherwise I would have become blind. "Yes, you are that bad. Well, at least I'm not around two people who don't realize that they are in love themselves while I can literally feel it." "That sounds a lot like Grover" Annabeth commented. "He and Percy have an empathy link, remember? And the whole time from when it was established to shortly after the battle of Manhattan, Grover could feel all of Percy's strong emotions and apparently, whenever Percy looked at me or even thought about me, Grover would get butterflies and all the other symptoms of being in love. And Percy just would not notice. I don't know who found it more frustrating, Grover or me.
"Well, I guess I have no right to complain then" I admitted. Anyways, what's up with the people in your head? We haven't talked about it since your diagnosis and that was like ten days ago." Annabeth caught me up on her headmates. "I didn't really have any interaction with them until our dam date. There I heard someone sing along to piña coladas, apparently he has some form of connection with the song, because it played in the elevator that led out of tar- tarta-" I nodded, letting her know that I knew what she was talking about and that she wouldn't have to say it. Annabeth breathed in and out before finally saying "Tartarus. There, I said it. Are you proud now?" "Yes Annabeth, we're all very proud of you." I actually was a bit proud. Saying Tartarus was obviously not an easy thing to do for her. But she had done it. I didn't know a whole lot about trauma, but being able to name it was probably a step in the right direction.
I heard a noise behind me, getting louder with every passing moment. "Uh, Percy, I think something is falling behind me and my feelings tells me it's Jason. Could you save him?" "Sure, but how exactly?" "Do it like the Kokytos" Annabeth suggested. Jason must have been really close to landing, if Annabeth resorted to grammatical incorrectness. Percy made a gesture with his hand and the lake water shot up around 10 meters high, slowing Jason down enough to reach the surface safely. Percy then pulled his body to shore. Like I had suspected, he was unconscious. "I guess you owe me three desserts now" Annabeth and I said almost simultaneously. We looked at each other and laughed. "Ok, who gets whose food now?" Percy stepped in as an impartial judge. "You decided not to bet because you both thought Jason was going to faint. So no one is getting food from anyone. Sorry girls, but flying demigods aren't a reason for stealing. But sometimes, it's the other way around and stealing causes flying demigods. Well, technically a flying satyr, but only because I don't like flying." Percy told me about Luke giving him flying shoes for his first quests and him giving them to Grover.
"By the way, what will you do when summer ends? Are you going back to your dad?" Annabeth asked me. "I definitely think I'll visit him, but I might actually stay here. Ignoring the two quests I had to go on to save the world, I don't remember any place where I was happier than here. And outside of camp, it's probably not very safe for me. As a child of the actual eldest goddess, I have no idea how I even survived this long without constant monster attacks. I mean, you're a child of Athena, one of the least-" Annabeth drew her drakon bone sword. "…boring goddesses out there, and the monsters found even you at just seven. Maybe being part of a great prophecy in the future gives you plot armor." "This isn't a made up story Piper, we're real people and real people can't have plot armor. Or can you think of any real people with plot armor? Knowing Annabeth, she probably can." Annabeth actually could. "I think Hitler survived like twenty assassination attempts, and he was definitely plot relevant, so I guess real people can have plot armor.
"Well, if I ever had plot armor, it's probably gone since the prophecy is over so I probably shouldn't be tempting fate by running around at just 16 with what little training I have." "You've been here almost uninterrupted since December, I was here for four summers, not counting the two weeks this year. I think you've spent just as much time on training as I have." "Could be. But I guess I'm also expected to stay here, considering I'm head counselor now" "I'm head counselor too and I don't stay here all year either." "The difference between you and Piper is" Annabeth commented "That she is head counselor of a cabin that actually has people in it. How did you even manage to get that job so quickly? It took me four years, and you did it in like four days. And you weren't even at camp for 3 out of them. How did you do that" "I'd say it was because of my amazhang charm speak skills, but it was actually mostly vacuum of power after Silena died." I tried to remember that story. "Dissolved in drakon acid. Not a very nice death. But weren't her last words about her boyfriend? At least she died happy." "I think it was something like 'see Charlie again' so yes, it was about her boyfriend, waiting for her at the gates of Elysium." "I wonder what Leo is doing right now" I said. "According to Nico, he definitely died, but we have no idea whether he came back or how far he got into the underworld before the cure brought him back out." "I just hope he's alive. Percy already said that maybe he and Beckendorf, the Hephaestus kid that died during the last war, Silena's boyfriend, are already building a new grabber arm to get Bob and Damasen out of Tarta- ah, screw it, I said it once, that's enough for today. So, the two are building a grabber arm to get them out of the pit. I think that was what they originally were for, grabbing us out of there. If they somehow get their hands on my laptop, they should be able to do it"
At that moment, Jason finally woke up. "Hey, I'm not dead. Pretty impressive considering I just fell like 10 kilometers." "I saved you" Percy corrected him. Without me you'd probably be a cloud of demigod goo floating through the lake's water. I've saved people from higher falls before. Last time I almost died from liquid depression, but I survived and now I'm here saving you from falling." "Oh, thanks bro" "you're welcome bro" "bro" "bro" Sometimes I look at these two and think 'I am the straightest person in this room.' And I definitely am not straight. How could a girl meet Annabeth, Thalia, Reyna and so many more strong girls and remain straight? (I know that's not really how it works, but who cares.) Also, having love, which is my mother's and thereby my realm of power, limited to just one gender would be boring. I'd describe myself as at least bi, probably more. But having a sexuality crisis wasn't my job right now, since Annabeth was already taking care of that. On top of her I've-had-so-much-trauma-it-created-extra-people-in-my-head-that-sometimes-take-over-my-life-crisis that was. I had been doing some research into the subject and it was incredibly complex and interesting. For example, many people with DID had entire worlds inside their heads, ranging in size from a single room to entire galaxies.
I realized that we hadn't really finished that topic, we'd been interrupted by my boyfriend falling out of the sky. Maybe the Hephaestus cabin could invent a bracelet that shocks Jason when he passes out. That would probably save a lot of time and prevent injury while maintaining shipping potential, which a force field protecting him from projectiles would for example not do. And yes, there are people shipping Jason with that brick that hit him in the head in new Rome. Don't ask me why, all I can say is that the Aphrodite cabin is weird. Btw, they also ship him with that stapler he tried to eat when he was two. I was just questioning what the Hades went wrong with my siblings when someone called for Percy. He got up and left. I decided to use that interruption to direct the conversation back to the people in my friends head.
Bu first, I needed to make sure Annabeth was okay with Jason knowing about it. I didn't see any reason why she wouldn't, but assumption is not consent. I looked at her, then pointed at my head and looked at Jason. She nodded. "I think before Jason fell out of the sky, we were talking about the piña coladas guy from the elevator, right?" As I expected, Jason had no idea what I was talking about. Annabeth explained: "I don't know if you've notice, but I've had quite a bit of trauma. And basically that led to me having a bunch of people in my head and sometimes they take control of me." "Oh, is that like the eidolons?" "I guess it can look like that from the outside, but my alters, that what the people in my head are called, aren't spirits from the outside, they were formed within me as a consequence of trauma." "Oh, okay. Can I, like, see it?" Jason asked "When one of the alters takes over." "I wouldn't say I wouldn't want it, but I can't do it on command. But when Percy comes back maybe I can-" in that moment Percy came back and sat down. "Sorry for the interruption. Someone noticed a smaller hill that Hazel missed, and when she fixed it up, a pipe broke and I had to redirect the water while the others fixed it.
Look, another weirdly open-ended chapter that doesn't even create suspense. I was already a few hours behind my upload schedule and wanted to get this out quickly. See you in the next Chapter.