Sorry for the long pause, I wasn't home for a while, but I'll get back on track as soon as possible
Mrs. O'leary could not. Luckily, I had aimed for a public parking spot near the house instead of the road right in front of it, so there was no risk of a car running her over. We walked the last few meters while Annabeth explained her plan "Okay, I'll turn invisible. When we're inside, you'll tell her that you have a surprise guest and I take the cap off" "Not a huge fan. We get a chance for one surprise and we shouldn't waste that on just you being here" "Fine, I'll stay visible then" We had reached my apartment and I rang the doorbell. "Hi mom, I-" That was all my mom needed to hear to buzz me in. When I opened our door, I was greeted with a hug only worried moms could pull off. Oh, hi Annabeth, you're here too. I haven't seen you in ages" She awkwardly added. "Yeah, hello Ms. Jackson, there's-" "You can call me Sally, dear" "Sorry Sally" "You don't need to apologize. Why don't you come in? I've just finished up some blue cookies" "I won't say no to that. Percy let me try them once and they are amazing" We followed Sally into the kitchen. Once there, I realized that we had a problem: there were only three chairs. Wanting to provide my new girlfriend with the best experience possible, I ran over to the living room and got her the most comfortable chair available. Sally and Paul looked at each other knowingly. Once we had all had some cookies, I gathered the courage to speak. "Mom, Paul, there's something you should know" "Let me guess, another world ending prophecy?" Paul said. "No, well, technically there is one, but it likely won't affect us. What I wanted to say is that, uh, we-" "Shut up seaweed brain" Annabeth said and took my hand. Then she pulled me in and gave me a kiss, resulting in at least a few minutes of awkward silence that my mom eventually broke. "So, you're a couple now, huh? I'll be honest, you didn't need to be an oracle to see that coming. The moment you two got in my car one and a half years ago, it was obvious" "You're not angry?" Annabeth asked. "Uh, why would I be angry?" "Oh, I don't know, maybe because he's your son and now I'm taking him for myself or something" I tried to explain the situation. "You see, Annabeth's family doesn't really like her and they were always mean to her. And so was just about everyone else" "I'm so sorry to hear that. I can assure you that we don't hate you, right?" "We don't hate you" Paul confirmed. "In this household" my mom continued "we deal with bad parents in a very special way; we turn them to stone and sell them" "Right, Percy told me about that. That's probably what I would have done as well if I hadn't, you know, been seven" "Wait, what happened when you were seven?" "I ran away from home because my family didn't do anything about… bad things happening to me" She made a vague hand motion which I totally understood. It had been one of the worst moments in her life, of course she wouldn't want to talk about it. Even just thinking about it, I could see she was getting emotional. I'm not sure if she hides it less nowadays or if I've just gotten better at noticing.
"So, were having problems with… something that was apparently really bad and your parents didn't help you?" "They told me to not disturb them" "I'm gonna ask you a question now, you don't have to answer it. When was the last time your mom gave you a hug?" Annabeth was silent for a while. "I don't think she ever did that, and I have excellent memory" "Okay, what does five minutes per day over sixteen years add up to?" "20 days, 6 hours and 50 minutes" "Well Annabeth, you have a lot of catching up to do. And since I'm now your future mother in law, why not start with me?" "With you? Like, right now?" "Only if you want to of course" Annabeth got up from her chair. My mom got up from hers and just gave Annabeth a hug. After at least ten minutes, Annabeth pulled away. "Whoa, I didn't know how much I needed that. I feel a bit better now" Annabeth sat back down and took my hand again. "I think that's a family in law I can work with" "Better than your real family" I joked. "I mean, they're trying their best and hey, my dad did save all of us once. I'll try to reestablish that connection as best as I can. It may be hard, but I'm a demigod. I'm used to hard stuff" "And I'll be supporting you as best as I can" I responded. "And so will we, though there's probably not that much we can do" Paul added.
"So yeah, that was the second time you met her" "Sounds like she left a lasting impression of safety and comfort, exactly what the system needed after a war, so I was created. But that's just a theory. It might just be a coincidence" "You have a lot of alters that are based on outside people it appears. There's you, then Thalce, who counts twice because he's based on me and Thalia, and Chris is also suspiciously similar to Clarisse's boyfriend" "Interesting. Maybe we're secretly more dependent on other people for validation than we thought. But I think Chris and I are mostly the result of imagination and only happen to share their names. Like, I don't have the feeling that I am your mom, I'm just some random girl that happens to have her name and the same applies to Chris. Honestly, it wouldn't even make sense for him to be an introject because introjects usually take the same role that their source had in the outside world, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense when your job is to hold memories. Taking someone else's memories just isn't something that happens outside of systems, though that would make for a great story.
"Percy?" Piper interrupted. Sally stopped the recording. "Yes" "Didn't you want to take some parts of it to camp to make weapons and armor?" "Right, the scales" I drew riptide and went over to the other side of the drakon. Being close to a line of trees, this side had no homeless people scavenging for food. Using riptide, I removed a large portion of the drakon's leather – at least four square meters- and called for my friends. "My suggestion is to get this to the Hephaistos cabin so they can do something with it. Mrs. O'Leary should be able to get the job done" I called her and a few seconds later, we were all standing outside the forge, even lil dam had somehow managed to join us.
I knocked on the door and Nyssa opened it. "Hey Percy, what do you need this time?" "Right now I need nothing. Instead, I got you something" I stepped aside, revealing "four square meters of Maeonian drakon leather with the nearly indestructible scales still intact. I figured you could use them as material for a project" "I don't think anyone here has ever worked with that material, but sure, we can try to make something out of it. Actually, I don't think the no one ever part is limited to us, we might just be the first beings in history apart from Damasen using them. It's kind of a big honor. Thank you for giving us that opportunity" She closed the door, undoubtedly to tell her siblings about it.
Piper
"Okay, drakon scales delivered, time to- wait, where's Annabeth? I mean Sally. It's not like her to just wander off alone. Wait, no, this is not like Annabeth, I have no idea what Sally would do" "Percy, stop panicking" "I'm not panicking, panic is unreasonable. I am worried a perfectly reasonable amount about what a person with barely any real life experience might do to herself at a camp with a literal lava wall" "Calm down. She can't be that far. Why don't you check your cabin?" "I mean, most alters consider that to be a safe space, so it's worth a try. We made our way to my cabin and indeed the door was ajar. Considering I hadn't been here for five days, this could only be Annabeth's doing (or anyone who was stupid enough to enter my cabin without my permission). I pushed the door open and took a step inside. "You made this?" I asked, pointing at Annie's box fort. "Yeah, didn't Annabeth tell you about that?" "Annie did, but she didn't go into detail on it, so I assumed you just glued some cardboard to a bedframe and called it a day, but this is like a complete building. I'm impressed and to be honest I kind of want that thing now" "You can come in if you want" a voice- Luisa, if I was not mistaken, answered from inside the box. "Found her" I told Percy. "See, there was no need to be worried" I opened the small cardboard door and entered the box.
It looked nice on the inside. There were fairy lights glowing in the color of celestial bronze, a light that felt surprisingly comforting. But then again, in the eternal fight of monsters and demigods, a lot of bronze light usually meant a lot of people that were on your side, which was obviously comforting to know, though it did surprise me a bit that this association was present in someone who, to my knowledge, had never been in a monsters vs demigods situation apart from maybe the moment Luke and Thalia arrived (I'm not counting the time she fought monster on the streets because she hadn't been using celestial bronze back then)
There were also a few blankets on the floor which looked very comfortable. "If I didn't know better, I'd think that Percy enchanted this place to feel safe and comfortable" "I didn't" He said from the outside. "It's all my design. Well, at least the stuff you just mentioned, the actual structure is designed by Annabeth because she is the best architect I know" "So, Annabeth helped design something that ended up being a present for her?" "To say it with the words of a saying, 'we were so preoccupied with whether we could that we never stopped to ask why Percy said we should'" "So you just followed Percy's instructions?" "We followed our love for architecture, Percy just provided the opportunity. Also, Annabeth wasn't making a present for herself, she was making a present for Annie and me. There's a difference. Well, at least I think it was also meant for me" "I'm sure he did. He wouldn't exclude you like your family did, right Percy?" "Piper's right" Percy said as he joined us inside. "I made this for everyone, but mostly the littles of course because I figured the older system members wouldn't be such big fans of box forts" "Yeah, probably not. But Annie and I love it" "Well, that was the idea. But you are so safety starved that making you feel safe is the best trait anything could have" "That's true. But do you know where I feel the safest?" "No, where is it" "In your arms" She said before gently slamming into me, essentially forcing me to hug her. "How do you manage to be this cute?" Piper asked. "Can you talk about anything other than me and Annabeth being cute?" "Uh, no" "And why would she?" Luisa asked. "We are cute. Cute people survive" It appeared that she had really internalized that thing her stepmom had said. On the other hand, things were often more significant to children than they were to their parents.
I'm not sure how long they sat there hugging, but the fact that I had no problem sitting through it despite having ADHD probably meant that it wasn't that long before Luisa pulled away. "I liked that. Felt safe" "As I just said, that's the point of this whole thing" "It is. But I think I'll leave now. It's a bit full in here" When Percy climbed out, he almost knocked a wall over but saved himself in the last second. At least that's what it looked like to me, his take on the situation was "Annabeth built this, it's indestructible" "So, Luisa, have you ever actually seen camp half-blood?" "Not much of it. I wasn't out much since Thalia and Luke found me" That made sense. From what I had heard, she existed mostly for the purpose of dealing with a feeling of being unwanted and ignored, which hadn't been extremely present during her time here. "Then I guess we'll have to show you everything" Percy said. "That sounds fun"