FORGET THE CHICKEN…to invent an anti-dream hat.
All the demigods groaned in agreement and nodded.
"I honestly don't know if that's something that I can build with only my powers. That seems like something that falls more in Hypnos, Morpheus, Apollo or Mr.D's domains." Leo sighed as he thought about it. "Sorry, y'all." He said.
"Nah its okay. We'll survive." Nico chuckled.
That night he had horrible nightmares.
'You have got to be kidding me', thought Poseidon.
Thalia read the next few lines and raised an eyebrow at Percy who furrowed his eyebrows but Thalia continued.
First he dreamed he was back…what it was like to drown.
Poseidon felt suffocation close up on him and he really really wasn't fond of it. Everybody looked at Percy, understanding the demigod's turmoil.
"Were you scared of drowning, Perce?" Triton asked gently.
"For a small while after the whole muskeg incident. But it wasn't actually related to water…kinda." Percy said awkwardly.
It's just a dream…He couldn't drown.
Poseidon was grimacing as the suffocation only got worse and wow, did it get hard to breathe.
"Percy, its not irrational. You almost died. That's possibly the only time that you were so close to dying and you couldn't do anything about it. Its not silly at all to be afraid that that happens again." Thalia said, her face serious. Percy nodded and swallowed.
"Its just that it felt like the air left my lungs. There was just no water that could save me anymore. Nothing I could do to save myself. Nothing I could do to save Hazel when she jumped in after me. It felt like the muskeg just swallowed me up whole. I don't even know why I correlated it to drowning." Percy shook his head.
"I think that it's the loss of control over your own self that really freaked you out and honestly, I really can't blame you for that. The muskeg probably felt like a black hole and it probably worked as one as well. No power of yours would work especially since you were in Gaia's domain even if it could work under normal circumstances. The thought that you couldn't save yourself or anybody else is what really scared you. You cannot blame yourself for that, Perce and its definitely not silly." Hermes agreed with Thalia as he looked at his cousin, understanding how he felt at that moment.
"Yeah...yeah I guess so. What good is this power if I can't help people right?" Percy chuckled dryly. Despite the suffocation that Poseidon was feeling at the moment, he squeezed his son's shoulder reassuringly, understanding the amount of pressure that Percy carried on his shoulders…how much he shouldn't have to.
But he also suspected…it might start controlling him.
"The fact that you know that won't let your fear consume you." Dionysus told Percy with an approving nod towards the demigod because not many would even think about it in the first place.
"Yeah. It might feel like it will but eventually it doesn't." Ares told Percy with a small smile.
"If its any help, Percy, you won't ever be afraid of water. What belongs to the sea always returns to it. It won't let you be scared of it." Amphitrite smiled at Percy who grinned at that.
"That really does help. Thanks, guys." He said gratefully to all the three gods who gave him small smiles in return as well.
He thought about his…she was too afraid to try
"How are you right about that again?" Thalia groaned playfully at Percy who smirked.
"I'm always right." He said with a dramatic hair flip.
"Is what he said still right though?" Zeus asked Thalia curiously. Thalia couldn't help but smile as she shook her head.
"Nah. Not anymore." She said and this time Zeus couldn't help but grin at his daughter.
If Percy started to believe he could drown…
"Then we'd help you through that." Poseidon told Percy firmly and the demigod smiled and Poseidon gave his son a side hug, hating the fact that somebody ever made Percy feel like that.
The muskeg pressed against…His lungs wanted to burst.
Poseidon felt panic swell up in his chest as he tried to take in more air but wasn't able to. He was suddenly feeling claustrophobic and was not helpful at all due to lack of air that he felt and because the memories of his dream was still fresh in his mind but he didn't want to worry anybody so he tried to hide it as well as he could.
Stop panicking…bronze jar about the size of Percy.
Ares paled drastically and ran a hand through his hair, really hoping that the whole book did not go into details about the whole jar thing but he had a feeling that he wasn't going to be so lucky.
Nico grimaced, not fond of the memory of the jar and the claustrophobia that came with it. Luckily, he'd been in a trance so he didn't feel the effects too acutely, making it easier for him to recover from that incident but still he did not want the whole thing explained either. He also had a feeling that while everybody knew that he'd been kidnapped, they didn't essentially know that he'd been trapped in the jar.
"No, no, no," the giant…green rather than purple.
Aphrodite looked like she wanted to run as fast as she could and find some method to bleach their eyes and brain after a mental image of Otis and Ephialtes formed in her head.
"I kind of wonder what Disney's Hercules would imagine them as. They're already bad enough and seeing as the show has a reputation for interesting looks, I would pay to see Disney's version of Otis and Ephialtes." Lee mused. A couple of people snorted in amusement at the thought.
"I think they'd be like, 'oh the descriptions are too crazy for kids so we're gonna make it PG' and like reduce them in size and pretend as if Hercules crushed them in one second." Rachel said
"They'd probably look like the characters from Shrek except more animated to make them look less solid or something." Hermes said, rubbing his chin, making all the demigods look at him in amazement as to the fact that he had seen the movies.
The first giant cursed…faces were identically ugly.
Dionysus snickered.
"Glad you get that." He said to Percy who grinned.
"And don't call me Ephie…The BIG F!"
Everybody in the room excluding Hera, Athena, Hestia, Aphrodite and Chiron burst out laughing. Even Hephaestus was chuckling.
"All he's got to do is add 'uck' to the last bit and the name's perfect for him." Pollux wheezed.
"We really need to wash your mouths with soap." Hermes snickered.
"You're laughing!" Travis told him with a pout and the god laughed.
"You got me." He chuckled.
Otis grimaced…It's perfect.
"It definitely is." Percy wheezed. "Please announce yourself like that." He said.
"I'm kind of glad that he didn't because I definitely would have run out of air with all the laughing that I would have done." Nico said with a smirk. Even Hades and Persephone couldn't help but chuckle despite the fact that they were worried for Nico.
"Ah wouldn't want that, now, would we?" Will flashed a grin at Nico making the son of Hades raise his eyebrows and chuckle.
Now, how are the preparations…few ballerinas would be nice."
"Seeing the ballerinas right after the violent shit would feel like seeing Oppenheimer and then immediately going for the Barbie show." Clarisse snorted in amusement.
"Ahh, I still remember when we did the back to back movies. You wanted to see Oppenheimer and me, Barbie." Chris chuckled lightly, making Clarisse raise an eyebrow at Chris and she nodded.
"I have to admit it was fun." Clarisse admitted, trying to make her voice begrudging but a look at Chris made her realize that she was not getting away with it as the son of Hermes had the biggest shit-eating grin on his face and hugged her, placing a kiss on her hair.
"No ballerinas!"…It's not exciting."
"Thanks." Nico said dryly.
"It is a person." Hades said, shaking his head.
"But that's the whole point…dissolve it in a pool of acid or something?"
"You could but then I'd kill you without a demigod." Hades shrugged, his voice nonchalant. Nico looked at Hades in amazement and couldn't help but chuckle, making Hades chuckle in return as he clapped Nico on the shoulder. The other demigods looked at the god of dead in awe at his total nonchalance while throwing around threats.
"We need him alive for…a little more screaming.
"Oh you'll get that but its just that it won't be us who'll be screaming in pain." Percy shrugged casually.
"What is with all the casual threats right now?" Apollo chuckled.
"Hey, this did happen. So I already know." Percy grinned, making the god of music laugh.
"That's fair." He said.
This slow death is boring…will be removing that statue."
"Ha! You wish, fuckers!" Annabeth whooped out of nowhere, taking everybody by surprise especially Athena who looked frozen to her spot but making Poseidon laugh his head off.
"That's my girlfriend." Percy cheered.
"We have taught you well." Thalia nodded approvingly.
"Excellent." Ephialtes rubbed his…even get any media attention."
"Well, maybe if you'd fallen-" Hades said, throwing his hands up in exasperation, making everybody snort in amusement.
"Loving the dry humour here, uncle. Keep it up." Percy grinned at him with a thumbs up.
"Why thank you."
"This is different…stale breath and tarnished metal.
Ares froze, praying to gods know who that the description would not go any further. Just the description of the smell already brought back the feeling of having to continuously breathe the same air for what felt like millennia.
Nico eyed the god of war in concern as he knew that his predicament would probably be explained enough to make the war god remember flashes of his own time in the jar. It'd especially be worse seeing as he was in the jar a lot longer than Nico had been. The only thing was that Nico didn't know exactly what to say when Ares himself wasn't saying anything. That was kind of Percy's department. But Nico would try his best to make the situation little less triggering if anything and he really didn't want Ares to be alone as this whole thing was discussed. He looked at Hermes, Dionysus, Apollo and Artemis who looked even more concerned for Ares and smiled to himself. It looked like he wasn't going to be alone after all.
The only light that came…son of Hades couldn't hear him.
Nico gave Percy a small smile. "My bad." He said. Percy punched him lightly in the shoulder with a grin.
"Yep." He nodded, trying to lighten the mood and Nico chuckled. Hades and Persephone did not look pleased to hear about Nico's condition but then again, they couldn't expect him to be cheerful while he was trapped. Hades grimaced and tightened his grip on Nico's shoulder.
The container was completely sealed. The air was turning poisonous.
Ares took a shaky breath and clenched his fists to stop them from shaking as well. The thoughts of panic flooded through his mind as he remembered the sheer claustrophobia that he had been facing in the jar and as he remembered every prayer that he had sent out to anybody who'd listen for rescuing him. He'd felt as if somebody repeatedly shoved his head under water until he couldn't breathe except nobody ever pulled his head back out again.
Hephaestus, who'd been sitting next to Ares for whatever joy at that moment, shifted slightly closer to his brother. He may not have always gotten along with Ares and heck, he still didn't but he knew that he was the only one who'd seen Ares just days after he'd gotten back from the jar. He knew that he was the only one who'd seen him shatter ambrosia jars just because they were jars. He was the only one who'd heard him collapse against his bedroom door in the middle of night just because the door was closed and it was dark. Hephaestus had been the one to open the door and make sure that Ares made it back to his bed. Of course, the god of war didn't remember because he was completely out of it but that had been the one time that the god of fire had seen the humane side of Ares. Hephaestus knew that Hermes, Apollo, Dionysus and Artemis had talked to Ares but they hadn't seen him be a danger to himself as much as Hephaestus had. Hephaestus didn't get along with Ares but he sure as Tartarus wasn't going see Ares fall into that void again.
Ares shot Hephaestus a grateful look as he sensed the god of fire sit a little closer to him and create a small enough fire that would provide Ares with heat to make him stay grounded to reality but not to be seen by anybody else. He remembered the time that Hephaestus had helped him in the middle of the night when he had collapsed against his bedroom door due to the wave of claustrophobia, lack of air and nausea. Obviously, the god of fire thought that he didn't remember but Ares did remember. It was the one time that Hephaestus overlooked his grudge for Ares but the thing was that Ares never thanked his brother for that. At that time it was due to shame and embarrassment but it was now that he realized that Hephaestus never saw that entire situation even the least bit as humiliating.
Nico's eyes were closed…thinner than Percy remembered.
Everybody winced, imagining the condition of the son of Hades. Nico grimaced at the memory and then shrugged.
"Definitely needed a happy meal." He joked. A couple of the demigods chuckled and then Thalia glared at him.
"Not funny." She said. Nico grinned at her.
"Too dark?" he said with a raised eyebrow.
"The joke, no. The circumstance, yes." Thalia raised her eyebrows.
Hades, himself, on the other hand was beginning to feel the effects of the curse and his air supply slowly decreased to the Nico's level in the jar. He took a deep breath, knowing how the trance worked and looked at Nico in worry.
"How did you survive with such less air?" he said, concern lacing his voice and he shook his head.
On the inner wall of the jar…that he'd been imprisoned?
"They marked the number of pomegranate seeds that I had eaten already." Nico said.
"You didn't try attacking the jar with your sword?" Clarisse asked curiously. "I mean not that its going to work but you didn't try?" she frowned, figuring that that was the one thing that would come to mind. Nico tilted his head and nodded.
"I thought about trying but then there were some other marks in the jar that I thought had been caused by the giants or something because though they weren't sword marks but at the same time they looked bad enough to break the jar if it could've been broken." He said.
Ares clenched his fists tight enough that his nails dug into his skin. The marks definitely had not been caused by the giants. He'd had no sword when he'd been imprisoned so he'd tried to punch his way out and when that didn't work he tried to kick his way out. He'd tried to every possible method to break the jar and perhaps, that had been a great source of entertainment for the giants but it hadn't done him any good.
"That was smart, Nico. You really don't want to waste your strength or consume air faster than you have to." Persephone nodded at Nico who smiled at her.
It didn't seem possible he could…She was sentimental that way.
Everybody chuckled despite the somber atmosphere.
"What can I do? Nothing is more attractive to me than you drooling when you sleep." Annabeth snickered and Percy grinned at her.
"Well then, you'd always find me attractive when I sleep." He said
"Wh—what's going on...his breath didn't smell great.
"Priorities." Grover teased his best friend.
"What else would you be concerned about if your girlfriend sneaks into your room in the middle of the night." Percy complained and Grover chortled.
"He makes a good point." Chris said and winked at Clarisse.
"Thank you!" Percy said, throwing his hands up in exasperation.
"You sneaked into my cabin…you seen his baseball bat?"
"Bro that shit's scary." Jason shook his head violently.
"I swear. I'm about to turn 18 in 2 days and I'm still terrified of the old goat." Percy agreed.
"He can't be that terrifying?" Hermes said amusedly.
"Oh you have not met him, little bro." Apollo told him with wide eyes.
"Besides, Seaweed Brain…brush my teeth first?"
Everybody snorted in amusement. Percy grinned sheepishly at Annabeth who chuckled fondly. Percy then got an idea and looked at Annabeth and the two of them had a conversation without talking and Annabeth snickered but nodded. Honestly, it was always so fun freaking their parents out with random relationship stuff. She couldn't resist but going ahead with Percy's idea.
"What toothpaste was that again, Seaweed Brain? It was kinda citrus-y?" Annabeth smirked at him, making Athena choke on air and Poseidon laugh. The god of seas figured out exactly what the plan was. Oh, the look on Athena's face was priceless. He wished he could take a picture and luckily, his nephew knew exactly what he wanted. Nico clicked a picture and winked at Poseidon.
"I'll send it to you." He whispered and Poseidon high fived his nephew.
"You'd better…kissing you until you do
All the couples in the room laughed.
"Ah, tough luck, brother." Hermes chuckled.
"Can't blame her though. I might have practically eaten 6 pancakes for dinner but that really did not retain its mouth-freshening abilities till then." Percy snickered.
"Now I 1000% cannot blame her. I have never ever known pancakes to have any mouth-freshening abilities." Nico face palmed. Percy stared at him.
"And how does that not get you into the fields of punishment?" Percy complained and looked at Hades and the god of the dead chuckled and shrugged.
"Because I agree with Nico." He said with a grin.
"I feel betrayed." Percy said, dramatically flourishing a hand to his chest.
"Pancakes on its own, I don't know but maple syrup sure has mouth-freshening abilities." Poseidon said with a grin. Percy whooped.
"Finally!" he said.
"Now that that debate is resolved, maybe we should continue reading?" Persephone said with a small smile.
"Hold on. Are we certain that its resolved?" Nico protested. "Because I didn't hear a tie-breaker." He said
"Maple syrup has mouth-freshening abilities. There. My unbiased opinion." Katie said, putting her hands on her hips, looking like a mirror image of Demeter, terrifying Hades and Nico.
"I guess its settled then." Hades declared, making Demeter snort in amusement.
And brush your hair…"You're kidding, I hope."
"Still never got an answer to that question." Percy grumbled.
"I wasn't kidding." Annabeth supplied.
"Well." Percy swallowed "Then its good that I didn't get an answer to it." He grinned.
She smiled. "Come on…"A glass-bottomed boat?" Percy asked
"That is so cool." Triton said wistfully "Imagine seeing the sea through that." He said with a smile. "How was it?" he asked Percy who smiled just as warmly.
"Beautiful." He said softly. Poseidon and Amphitrite kept their hands on their kids' shoulders with smiles of their own.
"It was the one part of the boat ride that I actually liked." Hazel said. "Helped me feel better." She said. "Like the sea wasn't all just waves. There was a life below it as well." She said. "You've got an amazingly enchanting realm, uncle." She said to Poseidon who gave her a wide smile.
"You have no idea how much I appreciate that." He said to Hazel who hesitantly gave the sea god a side hug, making the god chuckle and gladly return it.
Hades smiled at the exchange. While, it had been a while since him and Poseidon had gotten along like brothers like before, if there was one god that he would trust to keep his children safe if Hades wasn't able to, it would be Poseidon.
Annabeth grabbed a blanket…What if they opened?"
"Then you'd experience the adventure sport of bungee jumping without the bungee cord." Hephaestus deadpanned. Everybody stared at him and Percy snorted with laughter.
"Fun." He said.
"I suppose we'd fall to our…he'd gotten the answer right.
"Looks like somebody's acing the boyfriend gig." Grover wagged his eyebrows at Percy and punched his best friend playfully on the arm.
"Hey, never managed to ace a test. Might as well ace this, right?" Percy grinned.
"That's the spirit!" Annabeth whooped and Percy's grin widened.
"That was so long ago…find that stupid lightning bolt
"Hey now!" Zeus protested. "My bolt isn't stupid." He said and everybody in that room could have sworn that the god of the skies was pouting like a 5 year old who'd been denied candy.
"Ah yes, the lies we tell ourselves." Poseidon sighed dramatically. Hades and Demeter snickered and Zeus just stuck his tongue out at them, acting like their younger brother after a long time.
Trapped in a truck with a…you be nostalgic for that?"
"Honestly, even I miss the times when things were so light. I mean apart from the fact that Kronos was the one who stole the bolt but like…still." Grover said sheepishly. Percy and Annabeth nodded in agreement.
"You think you could lose your bolt again just for us to find? And then accuse me of it and threaten war against dad?" Percy smirked at Zeus who raised his eyebrows amusedly and a small smiled appeared on his face.
"Ha-ha. So funny." He said, making half the people in the room choke on air as they saw the banter between two people who basically hated each other not too long ago.
"Because, Seaweed Brain…father's palace at the bottom of the sea.
Aphrodite squealed and grinned wider than a Cheshire cat.
"Okay. Now that is adorable." Amphitrite admitted and fist bumped Percy. "You're doing well." She said approvingly. Percy grinned and bowed.
"Hey, how come you've never said that to me?" Poseidon whined to his wife who smirked playfully at him.
"That's because I've said a lot of other things that I can't basically tell somebody whose basically my own son." She said, making Triton's eyes go wider than marbles and Poseidon smirk. Percy looked like he wanted to plug his ears already.
"I've actually never seen the pendant." Grover mused. "Show it." He said to Annabeth and grinned. Annabeth pulled out the camp necklace and showed it to everybody seeing as they all looked interested either in seeing what Percy gave her or what a coral from Atlantis looked like.
"Huh. I've seen that before. Hey, Perce, doesn't you mom-ahhhhhhhh." Thalia started and then gave a soft shout of realization as she saw Percy make the gesture of 'you're going to die if you continue. Stfu right now.' "Never mind." Thalia muttered.
"What now?" Amphitrite raised her eyebrows at Poseidon who looked like he froze.
"Whaaatt?" the sea god said and Amphitrite's eyebrows just raised eyen further.
"Dad's in trouble." Triton said in a sing song voice to Percy who snorted. But apparently, Poseidon had a few tricks up his sleeve and he proceeded to make baby seal eyes at Amphitrite which was something that Percy had apparently inherited and Amphitrite chuckled.
"What?" Hermes said, throwing his hands up in exasperation. Him and the younger gods had pulled out popcorn just to watch their uncle turn a kaleidoscope of reds and pinks but that got over faster than expected. "This was disappointing." Hermes pouted at Amphitrite who smirked at her kind of nephew.
Thalia snickered and continued reading.
"And," Annabeth continued…"Okay, fine."
"You really aren't going to make it easy for me, are you?" Percy looked fondly at Annabeth who shook her head with a wide grin.
"Of course not, Seaweed Brain but neither are you, are you?" she said. This time Percy shook his head.
"When do I make anything easy?" he smirked and Annabeth chuckled.
She leaned over and kissed…didn't really cover that
Annabeth pulled Percy in for a kiss and Percy grinned once they pulled back.
"So every time I think something overly romantic, I get a kiss?" he asked. Annabeth smirked and winked at him.
"Couple goals, guys." Aphrodite squealed to anybody who would listen which ended up being Hephaestus and honestly, he loved listening to her talking about anything, except Ares of course.
He remembered earlier in the…removed from his forehead
Poseidon's hand flew to his forehead as he pressed it in pain.
"Never have I heard a more accurate description of that." Jason winced.
He hadn't realized how…his eyes in a lot of ways.
"The city does that to a lot of demigods especially once they see the peace that the demigods are able to live in. The security that they have." Dakota said.
"I think it encourages the hope that even they can start a family rather than just wait till the time they fall in battle and even if somebody is old enough, live without the fear that their whole life, they and their family will be chased by monsters." Beckendorf said to Dakota with a small smile. A lot of the gods grimaced at Beckendorf's statement, thinking about how the endless quests that the demigods went on held them back from the basic desire of starting a family.
"We're going to replicate this at Camp Half Blood. We're going to make our home safe as well." Percy said with determination in his voice.
"We'll be more than happy to help, Percy, as we've said before. I'll arrange all the plans that are needed in order to create that shield and seeing as we have a god whose duty is to stand at the line and obviously, you cannot ask Mr.D to do the same, I'm sure that the Hephaestus kids can figure out something along with the others." Frank said with a smile to Percy.
"Yeah, we'll manage that. Thanks a ton, man." The son of Poseidon replied gratefully. Frank chuckled and shook his head.
"There's no need for that and all now." He said and gave Percy a two fingered salute which Percy returned.
"We'll definitely figure this out. You have my word." Chiron declared as well and Mr.D nodded in agreement. All the CHB campers cheered and grinned while the gods gave Chiron and Dionysus grateful looks.
Her expression turned guarded…something wrong and breaking it
Annabeth gave Percy a watery smile.
"How do I have the best boyfriend in the world?" she chuckled and Percy grinned widely at that.
"It wasn't that you scared me with plans of the future. What you thought…that was just so godsdamned sweet. Its just that I was worried that we'd never be able to patch things up with the Romans and I just didn't want that hope building up only to see it get crushed." Annabeth explained Percy who nodded in understanding.
"We're going to have a future now, Annabeth. Don't stop yourself from thinking about it anymore because we're going to have it." Percy said with just certainty in his voice that everybody in the hall believed it. Annabeth thought that she couldn't love Percy more than she already did but apparently, the son of Poseidon surprised her in that as well.
"I'm sorry," he said…both sides of their nature.
"Maybe being able to exist as parts of both worlds is what's so special. Having the best of both worlds." Reyna said with a small smile. Everybody nodded in agreement.
"You get to understand mortals. You get to understand feelings. What's better than that, I'd say?" Hermes said with a sad smile. Chris furrowed his eyebrows as he looked at Hermes.
"I'd say that its not because that we were part of the mortal world that we understood feelings. Everybody can understand feelings and each other. The only thing that's needed is the belief that you can. When we say we got the best of both worlds, we don't mean that its that we were more human because even gods can do that. In fact, isn't the reason that you withdrew from your children because of the fact that it hurt too much when they died?" Chris said with a smile of his own. All the gods sighed and had slight smiles on their face and Hermes gave Chris as grateful look, his eyes glinting and gave him a side hug.
Unfortunately, that got him…hold out so long with no oxygen."
"I've got a couple of tricks up my sleeve." Nico smirked.
"Five more days…Anybody who can scare a giant
"Is not good news." Poseidon finished grimly, increasingly worried for his son. He was very much aware of the quest that Athena would send her children on as were the other gods but knowing that this time it was Annabeth, he knew that Percy would somehow be a part of it and whoever this monster was, he was not looking forward to seeing the two demigods get into a fight with it.
Annabeth gazed down at a highway…but that was last August.
"Wait a second. When did that happen?" Triton asked.
"Oh, dad met me the next day after my birthday for fishing together. Said that we'll make it a tradition for him to come on my birthday every year." Percy smiled. Poseidon chuckled.
"Missed one, sadly." He said.
"Well, in all fairness, your mind was being internally split in two." Percy said. His smile then turned mischievous. "I remember you also saying that you're going to be sending some extra siblings or something?" he said. Poseidon's eyes widened.
"Cheeky brat." He said fondly.
"What are these secrets being revealed now?" Amphitrite chuckled. Hermes conjured the popcorn again.
"I meant the cyclops. No demigod children, my love." He said.
"Also, I said that I didn't want any demigod half-siblings either. I already have to deal with Nico, Thalia, Jason and Katie. Hazel's a cinnamon roll so she doesn't annoy me." Percy smirked.
"I like you even more now." Amphitrite high fived Percy and Poseidon pouted at both of them.
"Now that was better." Hermes whispered to Apollo, making the god of sunshine laugh.
"Can we talk about how that's a violation of the law?" Zeus said but he didn't seem angry about it and rather looked amused. Poseidon snorted.
"Lets be honest. Its not possible for me to follow that law in particular. Anyways, Atlantis doesn't have that law and technically Percy is a prince of Atlantis so I can visit him and that's not going to be breaking any laws." He smirked. Percy looked at his dad in amazement and then the two grinned and high fived. All the other demigods looked at the sea god, open mouthed as well.
"Now that was supremely cool." Katie declared.
"Why thank you." Poseidon said to her and Zeus shook his head with a light chuckle.
A sense of dread settled…How could you ever-
"The question here is how could you have told your one demigod child who exceeds all expectations that she failed you? She won a war for us! For you! She redesigned Olympus in a span of months while dealing with her academic life and getting over the friends she lost and never complained once! And you didn't give her an ounce of appreciation. There was not a single 'I'm proud of you'. Not a single second of contact and the one time you see her, you tell her the one thing that hurts every single child when it comes from their parent that she failed you and then you send her on a quest that no demigod has returned for. A quest whose end none of us apart from you know. Honestly, sister, she didn't fail you. You failed her." Apollo hissed venomously. Athena looked at Apollo with wide eyes and yet there was anger in them.
"I am getting increasingly intolerant of you continuously berating me, Apollo." She told him coldly.
"This isn't berating. Its stating facts. And if you can't deal with the truth then you shouldn't act like you're smarter than the rest of us." Apollo snapped. There was pin drop silence after that comment. Annabeth looked at Apollo gratefully and the god gave his younger sister a side hug. Thalia hesitantly continued reading after Artemis quietly told her to do so.
"I don't know," she said…admit they deserved it.
"There's absolutely no denying that you do." Hades shook his head. "All of you do." He said to the demigods who sighed.
But he had a gut feeling…Shut up, Seaweed Brain," she ordered
Everybody chuckled lightly at that.
"You remind me so much of Jake Peralta, man." Will laughed and grinned at Percy.
"He's literally my spirit animal." Percy nodded in agreement.
"The Brooklyn Nine Nine guy?" Poseidon asked. Percy looked at Poseidon in pride.
"I am so proud of you for watching that series. Just so proud. They grow up so fast." Percy said, wiping a fake tear and Poseidon rolled his eyes playfully.
"Thanks." He said.
"Just hold me for a while…You are in so much trouble."
Nico, Clarisse and the seven excluding Percy and Annabeth cackled.
"10000 pushups for sure, Prissy." Clarisse snickered. Percy and Annabeth grinned sheepishly.
"Chapter's done." Thalia said.
"I'll read." Ares said.