I Thought about that. "You know, maybe you can. We've visited each other in dreams before, like the train thing before you went to Alaska, so why not this? I don't think we can do it now, when not even I know how to get there, but maybe in a few months. I'll ask the Hypnos kids if they know anything about that." "Would be great. If it works, I'll have been inside you in a perfectly child friendly way." I laughed at that. Percy had such a weird sense of humor, but I loved it. Or maybe it was just regular allo humor and only seemed weird to me as an ace person.
"Before I forget it, you better patch up this crack" I instructed the other campers. Having been here the longest out of every one gave me a lot of authority. And having rescued the Athena Parthenos, escaped Tartarus and so much more probably helped as well. "I'd tell you what to do exactly, but I can't really think about it for too long without risking a flashback." I turned to Percy. "So seaweed brain. Want to continue our birthday and anniversary?" "Sure. Back to my home it is." We ran over to long island sound. "Wait, it's already our anniversary? Yeah, we got together on my birthday. Feels more like 5 months ago" I did the math in my head. "Well, if we subtract the time you were in a Hera induced coma, the time you had no memories and the two weeks down there, it comes out to pretty much 5 months." We jumped into the water and Percy turned us into a living torpedo. "Why don't you do the thing you did for our dam date, isn't that much faster?" "It is, but it takes a while to get up to speed so it's not really worth it below around 500 kilometers." That made sense. We shot along in silence (Talking isn't very comfortable while being a torpedo) for another thirty minutes or so before arriving at the door of the Jackson apartment. This time, Percy had carried some water from the river with him all the way to his home.
Percy rang the doorbell and Paul opened. "Hi Paul. We're back. Had to stop her mom's worst enemy from returning to this world. At the end she was swept to death by a titan." "I am just going to not question that" he replied. "Come on in, Sally just made lunch." After noticing the look on my face he added "Yes, it's blue." "I don't think I'll ever understand why she and Percy do that. I mean, Gabe died 4 years ago" "I don't really get it either. Maybe it's some form of coping mechanism for all the trauma Gabe caused. Like an act of defiance." "Blue food as a coping mechanism. Well, my brain splitting into different identities is way weirder than that. And it's not harming anyone so why not" With that out of the way, we finally went inside. At least we hadn't had to wait outside completely soaked. Personally speaking, drying off anything he touches is one of Percy's best every life abilities. It's also useful when people ask about your relationship.
I had once heard someone say "I lent a girl an umbrella yesterday, which puts the number of girls I've met wet this year to negative 1" By that logic, Percy had done that about negative 50 times which was actually an answer I had once given Sally after she had asked about that aspect of our relationship. Well, enough embarrassing details for now, time for blue lunch.
Like the cheese yesterday, the mashed potatoes Sally had made were more green than blue. (I thought that maybe I should one day give her a lesson about mixing in the subtractive color system. Maybe purple dye would work.) It was only a little serving since the dessert, which was some more cake, was actually the main dish. That's probably not completely correct but I'm just as bad as naming food related stuff as I was at making it.
After the cake, Percy suddenly said "I just remembered something. Now I just gotta find a way to state it without triggering you." He was silent for a Moment. "When Leo tried to rescue us from Arachne's cave, he ripped a hole into the ground." I nodded, both to let him know I understood what he was talking about and that this was somewhat trigger free territory. "Well, the hole is still there and some mortals wanted to explore it. The scientists were about to go in when a bunch of steam came out and almost boiled them. I guess that bought us a few days before they try again. Maybe we should do something about that." "Maybe someone else should. Again I can't think about it too long before.." I saw a jagged black landscape flickering into my field of vision. "I have to be thinking about something else. Like, right now. Distract me!" Percy heard the slight panic in my voice. A flashback was never fun for anyone involved. Except maybe if a little fronted, that was sometimes fun for the others, but for me it still sucks. "Distract you, uh, when was the statue of liberty built?" If there was one thing that was burned into my brain deeper than my trauma, it was architectural facts. .
"Of course, the statue wasn't built in one day, but it was dedicated on October 28th 1886. It measures 46 meters high, about three and a half times the Parthenos, plus another 47 for the base. It depicts a goddess and the Roman goddess libertia is constantly arguing with my mom on which one of them it is. I'm not going to say my opinion on this because either way someone will want to punish me." I kept talking about different copper alloys and stages of oxidation and the statistics of the statue until I eventually noticed that no one was listening. One very good way to figure out if people are listening to you is to include a word or abbreviation that you just made up, for example AFTR. If they don't ask what it means they're not listening. Instead I told Sally and Paul about my newly discovered inner world.
"I realized, I didn't actually tell you about what happened when I was in the salt bath" "What the hell, or Hades, as you apparently like to say, would have happened in there. Isn't it just for relaxing?" Paul asked. "Paul, I have DID. There's not much that could not happen because something happens to my brain, like deep relaxation. There probably won't be any children coming out of my head though, at least not anytime soon. But something else happened. I apparently have an entire small world in my brain, and I went there. All I saw was weirdly green grass and a big tree. Seriously, that thing was massive. If the trunk started at the front door, we'd be around the middle. And it was super tall, like 150 meters." Both adults seemed impressed. "Do you know what kind of tree it was?" Paul asked "Because I don't think there are any real trees that are this big" "Here's the thing. It was a pine tree, but it was black. Not the kind of black where you can't even tell it's 3D, more like…" I looked around, trying to find something of equal darkness. "…this" I pointed at the Pegasus on my camp shirt. "150 meters tall, 15 wide and black? Sounds scary." Paul commented. "Why does everyone say that? To be fair, it does sound a bit scary but here's the thing: From the point I was seven, a few months from eight, maybe even earlier, I don't have the memories. Anyways since then pretty much everything was scary, like, I literally ran away from home and had to deal with monsters alone. Back then, the person who gave me the most comfort and safety was Thalia. And maybe Luke. Now, the tree's color scheme and the fact that it is a pine tree make it near impossible for me to even look at it without feeling safe and protected. I know how weird this probably sounds, but you have to remember that this was created by a seven to eight year old girl who was traumatized to the point where her very conscious was forced to split apart. At such a stage, you'd take any safety you can get, even if it's in the form of a human clothes colored tree in a fictional world in your head." I was afraid they'd laugh at me, but Sally and Paul were perfectly understanding of it.
Have I ever mentioned what great parents these two are? Of course, they are not my parents, but still. Actually, Sally was sort of a mom for me. Let's see. Sally has: approved of our relationship, cared for and protected my boyfriend (he is her son, but that's not the point), helped me search for him by providing a sort of outpost, supplies and even mental support, made really good cookies, always welcomed me at her home and so much more. And of course she was accepting of my DID right now and would immediately help and support me if I just asked.
Athena, my actual mother, on the other hand has: Guided me to find Luke and Thalia. Nine years ago. Yeah, that was pretty much it.
And she can't even use the "I carried you for nine months" argument that moms seem to love so much, because she simply does not do that whole pregnancy thing. Most other goddesses do it, but even they aren't forced to do the whole nine months, which left me thinking. If Tristan- "Annabeth, is everything okay?" Paul asked concerned. "I'm fine, just thinking about stuff. Harmless stuff." Now, where was I? If Tristan never knew that Piper's mom was a goddess, then that meant she had actually, voluntarily, been pregnant with Piper for the whole nine months. Now, I don't know everything about pregnancies, but I'm guessing carrying a baby with you for so long while constantly being able to stop doing that without it harming the baby takes some serious willpower. So, respect to her.
"So, I was thinking about how you are a better mom than Athena and also about-" "Wait, Annabeth, did you just compare me to a goddess? Isn't that dangerous?" "Depends on what area you compare in. If, for example, I said you were cleverer than Athena or more skilled in crafts, you'd probably be turned into some monster that makes my siblings' lives harder. No, I don't know why you'd be the one punished and not me. God logic, don't question it. Anyways, I don't think a virgin goddess would be too proud of her parenting abilities. That would be more in the area of Leto. Someone once claimed to be a better mother than her after giving birth to fourteen children rather than Leto's two. Those two children, Artemis and Apollo, then took the fourteen children and turned them into zero children. So, uh, don't say you're a better mom than Leto. Athena is okay though, right mom?" Apparently, I had said Athena's name often enough to catch her attention since I could actually hear her voice coming from the counter. "So, usually I'd kill for such an insult, but you defended your point, at least in your head, so I'll let it slide." "Wow, you're actually here, how come?" I asked. "Well, first of all you said my name like ten times, and we gods are very good at hearing our names. Also, our consciousness tends to manifest around things dedicated to us, like Hera at the olive bed." "Oh, but where..." then it hit me. "Are you talking about the Lego Parthenon? With the mini Athena Parthenos?" "Correct, that one. Congrats on designing it well enough for whatever entity gets to decide what belongs to my domain of power and what does not to decide this Lego statue depicts me." "Thanks. As the almost sole designer, I really appreciate this compliment." Percy responded. Athena was silent for a moment before shouting "NOOoo" after realizing that she had just complimented a child of Poseidon. We didn't hear from her after that.
I continued my inner world explanation "I think I was just describing the Thalia colored tree in my inner world. It appears that Annie, one of my child alters, lives there. At least that's where I met her plus the tree had marks, as if someone her size had climbed up it many, many times. I didn't get to see much else, like I said, really bad fog, but I did, for a fraction of a second, see what I assume is the place where the fronting alter goes, at least that was the last I saw before fronting. It looked sort of like a cockpit, again, a 'reference' to my early childhood. My dad was, and still is, a plane enthusiast so I've seen many cockpits. Probably more than I have seen regular car steering wheels. Anyways, that was pretty much all I saw. Oh, and the grass was weird, it was like neon green, a really unnatural color. No idea why, but there probably is a reason for that."
"Well, when is DID ever not confusing?" Percy asked. "By the way, does your family know about it? Like, your mortal family." "Actually, no. I'll tell them the next time I visit them. But how will I explain it to the boys? Maybe I'll find a TV character that they know with a similar experience." "I don't think that's even necessary." Paul intervened. "If I recall correctly, they're at the perfect age for learning new concepts. Just explain it to them at an age appropriate level and they'll get it." "Could work. Though it would be hard to relate to the mental capabilities of someone only half my age, especially if they aren't children of Athena. That's an entire world of intellectual difference" "Well, you can explain stuff in a way that I understand, and how much stupider can your brothers really be." Percy said "Did you just insult yourself to make me feel better? I asked Percy. "Of course, you should be used to me overly sacrificing myself for your benefit. And since that apparently makes you feel bad sometimes, I thought why not sacrifice myself for you're the sake of making you feel better?" Sometimes Percy could be so weird. I wondered how in Hades he managed to make almost all of my friends (or at least the ones that liked boys) attracted to him. Just how?
And that was another birthday chapter. And it's not going to be the last. I actually have a buit of the story prewritten and I can say that I've posted about 70% of their birthday so far. See you in a few days