Chapter Text
If Percy had thought school was a terrible experience when he was seven, it’s nothing on going to school at fourteen.
To be fair, he hasn’t actually attended mortal school in the years in between. And he never went to a rich kid’s school in the Hamptons. It was more inner city elementary school? Too many kids, not enough teachers.
This school, on the other hand… Oh, how he wishes there were more kids and less teachers. Lee’s been driving him and Clarisse to and from camp to this insane school since January. They are ‘day boarders’. It’s like being under a non-stop spotlight.
Most days, Lee gets called in early to come and pick up Percy for whatever disciplinary issue he’s triggered this time. At least at first, it was always Percy.
At this point, both him and Clarisse are equally bad with the disciplinary thing. She did make an attempt to look and dress like a nice normal mortal, but she got so frustrated with the dress code.
It wasn’t an actual uniform, just kinda colour coded with a shirt with a logo, but girls have to wear loose pants or knee-length skirts. Nothing fitted and definitely no leggings. No jeans either. The school’s extra helpful definition for this is ‘appropriately modest’.
Over five months they’ve learned; any fitted clothing is not modest when worn by a girl, any clothing that shows knee caps is not modest when worn by a girl, any clothing that allows actual full use of your legs is not modest when worn by a girl… The list goes on, and it all only applies to girls for some batshit reason.
Clarisse’s lived in workout clothes and jeans since she came to camp. She has no interest in changing clothes every time she wants to spar. Piper and Drew tried their best with the dress code, but Clarisse hated the clothes so much. And the fact she wasn’t allowed to wear her spiky ribbons.
Percy tried wearing a skirt to school in solidarity with her and promptly got sent home. That was when they realised Lee’s also spent too much time away from the mortal world, he was totally lost on the skirt thing.
He’d just figured since it was knee length it was fine like, have you ever seen actual Ancient Greek clothing? Way less gendered.
The school disagreed, vehemently.
One teacher attempted to explain to Clarisse that, “ you would find life easier if you tried to be a little more feminine.” Percy and Clarisse didn’t wait for them to call Lee that time, they left and walked back to camp by themselves.
Which actually did get them in trouble with Lee. He’s loosened up on Percy leaving the barrier, since there aren’t any gods available to act as escort, but he still wants someone with them when they travel between the school and camp.
Percy honestly doesn’t know who’s happier, Percy and Clarisse or their teachers, now that the school year is finally over and they can officially be expelled.
Clarisse certainly looks positively delighted as they walk out of their classroom for the last time.
Poor Clarisse. Even when she found the miraculous ‘appropriately modest’ clothes, she’s still repeatedly dragged into the office over him calling her War Drum. Or her calling him Prissy. What’s perfectly acceptable at a demigod camp has caused intense concern at the stupid mortal school.
Somehow, Clarisse is always the one who gets in trouble for the names, even if Percy is the one who said something. It’s not ladylike to be okay with being called War Drum. Apparently.
Percy was so very tempted to sic Aphrodite on the school after that one.
Lee’s total lack of concern over Percy’s “disturbing behaviours” caused whole new issues. Even Lee got kinda snarky after the fifth time he was called because Clarisse brought a knife to school. Or the time she found a spiky ribbon thing in the correct shade of navy blue and the school still dinged her for ‘bringing a weapon to class’.
Like, they make her happy? Why is this a problem? If some moron grabs her by the hair and it cuts them, it’s their fault, not hers?
It probably didn’t help that she flipped out on that poor maths teacher over it. Percy thought it was awesome. The guy’d already made her take it out and was trying to force her to hand it over.
She got right up in his face, her brown eyes were like totally flashing with fire and her honey blonde hair was whipping around her just like Zoe’s used to when she got angry.
Total hero moment as far as Percy’s concerned. Scared the crap out of the teacher though.
And there was that time they kinda started wrestling in the middle of lunch. They may have gotten a little too focused on debating whether their tridents could actually damage each other.
On the plus side, neither of them actually drew their tridents? Yay for restraint? Lee got called in for a conversation about ‘their home life.’
Percy did finally tell Lee all of this was Apollo’s doing, and Lee looked so dead. He can’t even force his dad to show up so he can scream at him. Apollo and Artemis are off dealing with the ‘worst monsters’ at Zeus's order. Also known as; Zeus is cranky with them and has put them in the godly version of a time out.
No-one is having fun right now.
Percy didn’t actually tell Lee about Rachel though. Just that Apollo wants them here and that being expelled won’t be an issue.
At least they haven’t broken Rachel? And Percy is now one hundred percent certain that they found her before Zeus did? So, assuming they keep her close, whenever Hades lifts his curse on the Oracle of Delphi, that whole thing where the world is gonna end will be nicely sorted out. No fuss, no muss.
Percy still hasn’t told anyone about Ophioter. He was born at the very start of Zeus's rise to power and gave a prophecy saying if his spirit was ever lost the new age of the gods would end. Also the entire world. Ophioter was then promptly killed. Because. Of course.
Poseidon, Ophioter’s dad, and also Percy’s, did a thing and for awhile Ophioter’s spirit was passed from clear sighted mortal to clear sighted mortal who were each known as the Oracle of Dodona. Until Zeus got hold of the last one and kinda caged him and forgot about him.
By the time Zeus remembered his caged oracle there was no body and as far as everyone but Percy and Poseidon is aware, the spirit that inhabited the Oracle just went poof and was lost forever.
Zeus still seems to think that this means if anyone can claim the domain of prophecy, it’s him. Despite the fact that the guys sole interest in prophecy is the power it grants the domain holder. He has zero interest in cryptic prophecies, he just doesn’t want anyone else to have access to them either.
The Fates did a thing, as they do, and either created Python, or found Python, Percy’s still not sure which. Either way, Ophioter’s spirit was dumped inside Python until Apollo came along. Apollo killed Python and released the spirit and placed it in the first of the Oracles of Delphi. In doing so, he also claimed the domain of prophecy which used to be Poseidon’s.
A little more than four thousand years of the spirit being passed from clear sighted mortal to clear sighted mortal later, Zeus decided his son was getting too powerful, and since the idiot thinks the domain should be his, he started sticking his oar in.
Zeus began finding clear sighted mortals before Apollo and having them swear loyalty to him. By the time the last Oracle of Delphi came along, the whole situation was majorly bad. Zeus found that one when she was four. Apollo didn’t find her until she was ten.
Percy has thoughts about how Zeus found that one. But sadly, the knowing says it’s still not for him to know so he hasn’t pursued that rabbit hole. He definitely plans to. He kinda suspects he’s finally worked out how Annabeth Chase connects to it all. But that’s a later problem. Sigh.
He and Clarisse are currently standing just inside the main door of their very fancy school and are both so incredibly relieved this is the last time. They’ve got at least half an hour before Lee turns up. They were both “excused from class early.”
Also known as their teacher was going to commit homicide if he had to deal with Percy’s total inability to stay in one place for even a minute longer. Which means Percy has far too much time to follow brain tangents since anything he says aloud will be taken the wrong way by their now ex-teachers.
So he and Clarisse stand there like silent idiots and wait for Lee to show up and rescue them. They still have to talk to Rachel before they can leave. And Percy can’t work out how to communicate this without someone overhearing and taking it the wrong way.
That last Oracle of Delphi took on the spirit and immediately did a thing, something that isn’t for Percy to know, but it upset everyone. It led to Zeus attempting to kill Hades's two children and their mother, so Hades promptly cursed the Oracle of Delphi.
He trapped the spirit in her body until Hades is freed from his oath on the Styx and his children are once more welcome. The Oracle died a while back and now her mummified body is kept in the attic of the Big House at the camp. It’s as horrifying as it sounds.
But Uncle Hades likes Percy! He’ll totally lift the curse whenever it’s the right time. He’s technically free of the oath because Zeus broke it ages ago. His daughter, Bianca, is a sworn maiden of the Hunt and his son, Nico, is Percy’s adopted little brother.
Except, right now, Nico’s sort of spending all his time with Castellan and Chase who are kinda working for Kronos and intending to overthrow the gods?
But it’s all good! Apparently, once Hades took away Zeus's new toy, Zeus stopped hunting clear sighted mortals. Or at least, he never found Rachel Elizabeth Dare.
So as long as they keep up this awesome streak of not breaking her with the weird, everything is just gonna be awesome!
First, Percy has to explain to her that while she totally should come to camp, it just can’t be right now. Like, if she could just wait, say two weeks? Not even two weeks actually. Ten days or so should do it? It’s May twenty-fourth now, and she’s good to go by June fifth!
He just needs to explain this without letting on he can see the future. Easy as pie!
Clarisse coughs and brings Percy’s attention back to the real world in time to realise a nearby teacher is giving him the stink eye. Oh. He’s kinda pacing isn’t he? He huffs and he and Clarisse move outside the main door of the school and a little further from the mortals.
Lee’s given up on controlling caffeine intake and is now giving them energy drinks before school. But that wears off by like lunchtime and the school hit the roof the one time they brought their own caffeine.
Given that both of them are completely fine with the chaos when they are at camp and not confined, they’re totally lost on why caffeine is bad. And also why caffeine is different to medication. It gets the same result?
All that stuff the school said about flexible learning environments and experience with learning disorders apparently just meant they had an extensive list of methods of torture designed to ‘teach’ Percy to be calm and quiet.
Clarisse is usually a lot better than he is at all that, but she got the same crap from their teachers too. For some reason, Percy has to get to the leaving his seat level of twitchiness before they intervene. Whereas if Clarisse so much as taps her fingers too frequently they are after her. It really doesn’t help that they are both kinda overprotective of each other.
It made Percy so grateful he grew up at camp, if he’d been subjected to all that since he was little? Gah. He is so very glad to have Lee instead. Lee might be driven nuts by the chaos, but he’s never tried to force Percy to be anything but himself. If Percy fails to stay for morning lessons at camp, Lee just lets him leave.
Lee’s never tried to lock Percy in a classroom.
Clarisse utterly lost her shit when the stupid school did that to Percy. She might possibly have broken the door down. But the Mist did a thing, so all good. No-one knows that one was them.
Clarisse says she’s never been more grateful for Lee. She’s far better at staying still and focusing, but she needs to move as much as Percy does. If they’d forced her to be all nice and ‘feminine’ since she was little? Yeah, Percy’d have nothing on Clarisse when it came to property damage. His would be accidental, hers would be super deliberate and intentional.
Five months of politely telling teachers to fuck off whenever they tell her to act more ‘ladylike’ is definitely his War Drum’s limit.
If Aphrodite, the literal goddess of beauty and all things feminine, thinks Clarisse is perfect exactly the way she is what right do random mortals have to tell her different?
See above, re: overprotective of each other. It’s causing problems. Lots and lots of problems.
Honestly, besides Rachel, the only good thing in all of this is that Percy is now super duper okay with growing up to be a prophet living in the divine world. He is very certain the mortal world is not for him. Nope. No thank you.
It’s kinda impressive that Rachel hasn’t freaked on them really. All the other kids avoid them like they have the plague. Percy really hopes this means they’ll be good friends with Rachel. Assuming she doesn’t hate him over the delayed camp thing.
Percy can feel Rachel approaching, and he still hasn’t worked out what to tell her.
He’s just turned to tell War Drum she’s gonna have to tell Rachel, when he feels two super not fun auras nearby. He instantly switches focus.
“Ah, Clarisse?”
Clarisse stiffens, yeah, he doesn’t use names much. He doesn’t need to say anything else, she’s already dropped any attempt to look like a random middle schooler and is rapidly scanning the area, one hand ready to draw Amyntor.
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When Prissy uses that voice and says her name, she already knows it’s bad. So much for getting expelled without property damage?
“Prissy, what are you seeing?”
She follows his eyes and is so confused. Prissy is staring, and blinking rapidly and staring some more at cheerleaders? Huh?
Two of them in the stupid school’s maroon, gold and white cheerleading uniforms with the ultra short skirts.
She does not understand how the school can keep after her about her clothes and be so fine with the cheerleaders uniform having like, three inches of skirt. Total. And yet she has to wear pants or long skirts that restrict movement?
Like, not that Clarisse can talk when it comes to the short skirt thing. The skirt on her High Priestess armour is still shorter than the cheerleaders’ skirts. But she does wear leggings underneath it?
And even her armour gives her more movement than the tight cheerleader skirts do. How do they do any sort of acrobatic movement with those skirts?
Yeah. Actually, she doesn’t care. She’s watched the cheerleaders practice a few times just trying to work out what on earth they were doing. All she’d realised was that the whole concept of cheerleaders is like, so very weird. Prissy tried to tell her they are the mortal version of a war cry, but that just made it weirder.
She suspects that was his intention.
The older cheerleader has like, intensely long braided hair. Doesn’t that hurt to wear it all tightly braided back into that high a ponytail? Girl’s hair legit hangs like a foot below the edge of her skirt, isn’t that heavy? How do you do flips and stuff with that much weight on the very top of your head? And the ponytail is maybe two inches back from her hairline? Like, ow?
Clarisse has definitely been spending too much time with Piper.
Given how tense Prissy is, these cheerleaders are probably not actual cheerleaders. Huh. Maybe that explains the crazy hair? Because, again. Ow?
The other cheerleader looks younger, and is a much more boring blonde blue-eyed stereotype. With a much less interesting plain high ponytail. The cheerleader uniform is so weird though! Teensy skirt, and long sleeves and a high neck. And shoes without socks.
Mortals make zero sense. It breaks her brain every time she sees one of the cheerleaders.
Except, she’s pretty sure she’s never seen these two. She’d remember that giant ponytail.
It’s the blonde who asks with a super bouncy voice, “Hi! Will you be joining Rhoden Academy’s Summer School?”
Clarisse wrinkles her nose, “Uh, no?”
Granted, she and Prissy have been trying to limit their interactions with mortals because if they break demigods on the regular the poor mortals have no chance, but after the past five months they’re pretty infamous?
It’s not just the teachers who are glad they’ve been expelled. Neither of them ever say the right things, and apparently, most of their conversations are super concerning.
They’d switched to Ancient Greek but that just got yet another phone call to Lee because someone thought they were planning some sort of criminal activity?
After that, they were told they could only speak in English on school grounds. And then they got in trouble for ‘not engaging with the lesson’ in Latin studies.
When they’d been speaking Greek, she’d just been arguing with Prissy about trying to help Grover find Pan, it really wasn’t that concerning!
The girl with the gravity defying ponytail is extra bubbly and bouncy, “Oh, we’re here to help out with the summer school! You sure you don’t want to join us? What’s your name? I’m Kelli and this is Tammi!”
Clarisse tries to focus on her but she is completely distracted by the smell of horse.
It can’t be Spot. Prissy sent his zebra off to see her zebra friends weeks ago. Before that, Clarisse’d only convinced him not to bring her to school by reminding him it’s illegal to have a pet zebra in New York, and just because they know Spot wants to live at camp, no mortal is going to believe that.
With Mr D away, if the mortals seize Spot, retrieving her is going to be a task and a half. So, maybe just leave her at camp?
Gods she cannot wait to go back to life at camp where ADHD just feels normal and not like she’s fighting her own brain. She’d had no idea how much the constant training helped keep her focused. She’ll gladly train with Chiron like, daily if she never has to go to school again.
Priss wrinkles his nose at the two idiots, “You know what my name is. You know War Drum’s name too?”
Oh, great. Must be sent by Castellan and Chase. Not that she and Prissy were making much of a secret of the school thing. They hadn’t needed to do anything to have Rachel focused on them. They’d just been careful not to be seen with her or do anything to draw attention to her.
To anyone else, it looks like Lee decided they needed some normal experiences and sent them to the nearest school. Since both of them have been virtually confined at camp for years, and every other camper gets forced into the mortal world once they get over discovering they’re a demigod, it’ll seem perfectly reasonable.
Especially with the whole prophecy thing, most people who know about it assume Priss’ll die when he turns sixteen. So of course Lee wants to give him normal life experiences before his inevitable death.
The fact the school costs an absolute fortune won’t occur to most demigods, and the handful who notice will assume it’s Mist manipulation. Not Apollo’s credit card.
Ponytail tilts her head and makes an exaggerated frowning face at Priss, “Nope, can’t say I do.”
Seriously, why can Clarisse smell horse?
Her voice drops to purr and she looks up at Priss through her eyelashes, “But I’d really love it if you could tell me your name?”
Clarisse’s necklace does the weird not-tingle thing as the girl’s voice washes over them.
Awesome. Charmspeak. Either children of Aphrodite or monsters of some sort. Silvertongue feels different and no way is there a second one kicking around. Not when Deadbeat is so obsessively focused on Castellan.
Clarisse’s voice is carefully even, “Priss?”
He keeps his eyes on the cheerleaders but shakes his head, “Not one of Bright Eyes, something else entirely.”
Monsters then. Dressed as cheerleaders. Because that makes sense?
Gods! What she wouldn’t give for a proper fight right now. But these two don’t seem to exactly be at the level of the Nemean lion. Hey! At least her brain is starting to stay on target now?
Clarisse squints at them, “I’m not seeing feathers, they ain’t Sirens.”
Kelli and Tammi are staring at them, blinking rapidly. Kinda ruins the seduction thing they were trying.
They are also standing like, two metres from the entrance of a mortal school. A rich one, but still. Little kids go to this school and monsters tend not to care if they kill a few mortals while hunting demigods.
Priss has noticed this and he asks all brightly, “Any chance we can move this conversation somewhere with a few less witnesses?”
The cheerleaders are now downright startled. Ponytail’s mouth falls open and everything.
The blonde recovers first. She steps forward and reaches for Priss’s arm as she purrs, “Of course, let me show you the way!”
He steps back and gives her a hard look, “You know who I am, you know what I’ll see if you touch me. Are you really that dumb?”
Yes. She definitely is.
Ponytail steps in, all pouty lips and fluttery eyelashes, “Oh, Tammi’s my trainee! She’s still learning!”
The situation gets so much better when Rachel comes barrelling out from who knows where.
“Wait! Stop!”
She’s staring at the cheerleaders with huge eyes looking totally horrified.
Oh, just wonderful. Rachel’s clear sighted, she’s definitely seeing whatever the cheerleaders actually are. Clarisse isn’t perfect with the Mist, she can sort of see through it enough to know it’s being used, but not always past it.
There’s definitely something a bit funky about Kelli and Tammi’s legs now she’s actually scanning them. Clarisse doesn’t really stare at people’s legs normally, she totally missed it. She’d been much more focused on the three inch skirts and why she has to wear stupid knee length ones that restrict movement.
Which is going too cause issues if this comes to a fight. Just great.
At least them being monsters explains that gravity defying ponytail? But also, why would you choose to be ruin your centre of balance if you’re a monster expecting to fight?
Prissy keeps his voice super casual, “Yo, Red, you ever have a weird dream about a first test and being tempted?”
Rachel’s eyes get kinda bulgy as she switches focus to him, “Uh, yes-”
He cuts her off before she can say anything else, “So, could you just roll with this and ask questions later?”
Surprisingly, Rachel just nods and gestures for him to continue. Huh. Prissy hasn’t mentioned a dream before. Problem for later.
Rachel is a little too accepting of the weird, clear sighted or not. With the red hair and green eyes, Clarisse even asked Prissy if she was related to Georgie, but nope, she’s pure mortal. Pity, be easier to explain things if she was a demigod.
Clarisse turns back to Tammi and Kelli, “Well? Lead the way, let’s go talk?”
Monsters are nowhere near as fun as gods are with the whole making them bluescreen thing, but it’s still entertaining. Takes a good thirty seconds for them to reboot and then they actually walk off. Like, she and Priss could just run for it while their backs are turned? Monsters are really dumb sometimes.
They end up tucked down the back of the mostly empty carpark, gods only knows what anyone will think if they see this out of a window, but whatever. It’s at least not right next to an entrance mortal kids use. She and Prissy have already been expelled, she’s more concerned about limiting injuries than witnesses.
Both of the cheerleaders keep smiling at Prissy, all simpery, it’s so weird. They both completely ignore Clarisse. At least this is more normal behaviour. Mortals make zero sense but most of the dumber monsters seem to think Clarisse is Prissy’s bodyguard. Makes it more fun when she kills ‘em.
Kelli cocks her hip out and gives Priss another pouty big-eyed smile, her voice dropping low, “Forget them, you should come with us, we’ll show you SUCH a good time.”
Priss stares at her blankly, “I’m fourteen? Also, charmspeak doesn’t work on me? I thought this was pretty well known at this point?”
Tammi huffs and steps forward, thrusting her chest out and kinda swaying her hips. She pouts her lips and purrs at Prissy, her voice is totally drenched in charmspeak, “Oh, I’m sure we can find something to do. How about a kiss to start with?”
Priss is looking at her kinda horrified.
Whatever he’s seeing, it’s not the same as Clarisse. He looks like he was just told to french kiss Heracles. Like, he’d still be bothered by the cheerleader doing the come on routine, but it wouldn’t normally make him look quite so physically ill?
Clarisse huffs, “Prissy, what are they?”
He shrugs a shoulder but keeps his eyes fixed on the two girls, “Vampires? I think? With super weird legs. Not sure. Only seen them once before, with the Witch, no clue on an actual name.”
With Hecate? Weird.
But if they’re vampires… Huh. “Like Twilight? Do they sparkle?”
She looks at the two girls with more interest. That book had been so totally wacko. But if the sparkling thing is real… She’ll happily toy with them for awhile if they sparkle and have impenetrable skin. Mostly just so she can have one up on Piper, they’ve been arguing over the most ridiculous fantasy character for months.
Tammi is super offended. She totally drops the sultry thing and is all stiff posture and fiery eyes, and her voice starts off like a hissing cat, “What! We aren’t vampires! That stupid mortal story!” She’s kinda screeching by the time she throws herself at Priss, “AND WE DON’T SPARKLE!”
She impales herself on Anaklusmos as Priss manifests the sword and promptly explodes into gold dust.
Sparkly gold dust.
Prissy asks the dust all cheerfully, “You sure about that sparkling thing?”
Kelli is furious and has finally dropped the Mist. Okay, Prissy was not lying about the super weird legs. One is a goat leg and one is brass?
Wait, are the cheerleaders the horse she keeps smelling?
Clarisse tips her head to the side as she tries to work out what the hell is going on with the legs. Like, the top half is also now super pale, with red eyes and fangs, but the legs, now they’re something else.
She cuts off Kelli’s ranting about being formed from magic, drinking men’s blood and Priss killing her trainee.
“Hey, how’s that ponytail work? Like, it looked super heavy before, but now it’s actually on fire? I don’t get it. How’d you do it?”
Sadly her answer boils down to, “Magic.” Which is so not helpful. Clarisse isn’t sure she wants to try that look, but if there’s a way to pull it off, it would look kinda badass with her armour? She’ll have to ask Silena.
This is also probably proof she’s spent too much time away from camp. Since when did she have time for thought experiments about her hair? She is so glad this school thing is over.
Rachel is staring at all of this wide-eyed but still hasn’t said anything that would give her away as more than a mortal school friend who’s having the worst day of her life. Impressive.
She also somehow gets away with wearing comfortable clothes. The teachers are after Clarisse like, daily and totally ignore Rachel’s jeans. Prissy swears Rachel doesn’t know magic. Clarisse still isn’t sure if she should believe him.
Kelli has her lips pulled back, baring her vampire fang things. And she keeps clenching her fists. She’s also kinda snarling at them, “I am a senior empousa! No hero has bested me!”
Prissy chirps, “Oh! Empousa! Cool. Still never heard of you, but I do like to know the names of monsters. Don’t suppose you’d mind telling me what’s with the legs?”
Kelli starts to stalk forward but Prissy just kinda waggles Anaklusmos at her silently, and she stops. She’s totally shaking with rage, even her hair is extra fiery.
Kelli snarls, “It’s rude to comment on a person’s physical attributes!”
Priss pulls a face, “Okay? I’m sorry? Look, just tell me why you’re here and either go away or wait for War Drum to stab you. I don’t care, but since I already stabbed Tammi, War Drum gets first crack at you.”
Prissy’s the best. Aniketos, her new trident still hasn’t been used on a monster yet. Though, would Tri think an empousa is a worthy first blood? Not quite the chimera and the War God that were Priss’s first kills with Katecho. An adamantine trident deserves a worthy monster. Maybe she should just use Afosi, her practice spear?
The school has no idea that she and Priss wear transformed weapons that exist as charms on a necklace and a bracelet for each of them. Which is good, because no way was she going to school totally defenceless.
She’s pretty sure Apollo did a thing with the Mist since jewellery is the only thing she hasn’t gotten a detention for at this point.
Kelli tries some more purring sultry tones. It super doesn’t work with the whole vampire thing. Did she forget she dropped the Mist?
“They told me you had limited intelligence. Surely you can see what is coming? Soon your camp will burn, that little guardian of yours you cower behind will be dead, your friends will be enslaved to the Titan of Time, and you-”
Clarisse cuts in, “Wait. Titan of Time? Uh. I thought we were dealing with the Crooked One? You know, the Titan King?”
Like, sure, people keep getting Kronos and Chronos confused but they aren’t the same? There’d been this whole long argument about that, but even Chiron said they were different. And Chronos is nowhere near as interesting as he sounds with his whole ‘Titan of Time’ title.
She’d asked Chiron about that title, she figured, of anyone, he was the most likely to have a weird fake myth that could be fun. Sadly it’s just ‘cause his realm created like, days and weeks and stuff. Plus, he’s a primordial, not a titan. And still no time freezing or time travel. Sad face.
Okay. Clarisse has definitely spent too much time around mortals. Can we please kill the vampire lady and go home now?
Pissed Ponytail off for sure, “My lord goes by whichever titles he chooses to.”
“Okay. Cool. But, uh, the Crooked One is all about the harvesting and the devouring of the world. All chaos and discord? The ‘Titan of Time’ is a hell of a lot older and is all about order and things happening at the right time?”
Only one of them wants to destroy the world. Also Kronos has something to do with ice that no-one seems entirely clear on. Still terrifying, but no time manipulation from either of them.
More importantly, Chronos is very much a primordial who is equivalent to the Fates. Kronos is the forerunner of Zeus. They are absolutely fucked if Chronos tries to destroy the world, they can no more stand against him than they can stand against the Fates. The Crooked One is a touch more realistic.
Ponytail actually stamps her goat hoof and flicks her ponytail. She ignores Clarisse and speaks directly to Priss, “Oh, they have the prettiest little collar waiting for you. It would be far more merciful if I just killed you and drained your blood.”
Priss raises an unimpressed eyebrow, “And you say you aren’t a vampire? You sure about that? Also, you understand I ‘see’ everything, right? ‘Cause if you pull the trick you’re thinking of, you aren’t gonna like the result.”
Clarisse tenses, “Priss?”
“Nah, War Drum, I got it. Hold ‘less I say, ‘kay?”
She gives a sharp nod. Prissy always lets her have fun if it’s an option. He wouldn’t keep her back unless there was more to this.
And- Yep. Kelli explodes into flames and she and Priss quickly back up, taking Rachel with them. As soon as the flames start, a tiny little storm cloud forms straight over Kelli and absolute drenches her.
By the time they’ve pulled back ten feet, they’ve entirely avoided being drenched and Kelli- Yeah, Kelli looks like a wet rat. If the rat was a vampire with one goat leg and one metal leg.
The horse smell is now more of a wet dog stench.
Whatever plan she has is entirely abandoned as she makes some weird high pitched hysterical screeching sounds and turns and runs away from them.
Clarisse flattens her lips and glares after her, “Prissy, why’d we leave her alive?”
His answer is clipped, “Reasons. Later.”
Oh. Yeah. Rachel.
Prissy turns to Rachel and gives her a big grin, “So, ah. First, I promise you’ll get a proper explanation. It just has to wait for camp. But, uh, camp’s been delayed?”
________________________
So those were empousa. Awesome. He still needs to somehow convince Rachel to hold off on getting answers until the fifth.
He also needs to keep her attention on him until Clarisse can pocket the whatever that Tammi left behind when she went boom. Spoils of war are the dumbest things ever.
Rachel looks less than impressed. She’s handled the whole exploding cheerleader thing super well though?
Huh, wonder if she’s already having prophetic dreams?
Rachel crosses her arms and stares at him with narrowed eyes, “What exactly do you mean when you say ‘camp has been delayed’?”
Percy gives her his best big innocent eyes, “Uh, there was a whole thing, and uh, you need to wait until the fifth?”
The downside of being a Prophet of Apollo is that he’s basically allergic to lying. This is what War Drum and Shadow are for. But Shadow is off being a lieutenant of Kronos and War Drum is currently cranky with him and ignoring the angry Rachel.
War Drum is definitely pissed she didn’t get to kill Kelli. She is absolutely desperate for a proper fight. Triton being gone is making things suck for both of them.
But the more ‘reports’ Castellan gets back about Percy being just a dumb goofball with good luck, the better for everyone. Tammi’s little suicide by sword thing is gonna go a long way to adding credibility to that stupid belief.
Rachel still has not broken eye contact. Percy is trying very hard not to shift awkwardly on his feet.
She keeps glaring at him and now her voice is getting so loud, “First you were super intense about me going to this weird camp, and now you don’t want me to go? The hell?”
He rubs the back of his neck and looks anywhere but at her, “Look, I’m sorry. There’s a thing, related to what just happened?”
Oh, she’s so not happy with him.
Rachel hisses, “Percy Fletcher, are you ever going to explain what’s going on?”
After five months of being called that, Percy’s an old hand at hiding the flinch. Clarisse is just as bad with it. Like, they adore Lee. He’s their Lee. But they also never call him Lee Fletcher? Last names just aren’t a thing they do.
The dumb rich people’s school disagreed with that concept. And, since neither Percy nor Clarisse wanted to go near their actual last names, Fletcher had to do. It was even worse because the teachers call students by just their last name.
If one more person screams “Fletcher!” at him, he may just join War Drum in the property damage.
Rachel sees way too much. Not just from the whole clear sighted thing. She saw that hidden flinch and now she’s like a dog with a bone. She’s completely ignoring the exploding cheerleader in favour of finding out who Percy is.
She takes a step closer to him and keeps glaring into his soul, “Who the hell are you, actually? Are you in witness protection or something?”
Clarisse is still pretending she doesn’t see any of this. Girl’s super not happy she didn’t get to kill Kelli.
He tries a new innocent look on Rachel and tries very hard not to flinch backwards, “Uh? No? Totally, not. It’s just… hard to explain?”
Rachel rolls her eyes, her voice is getting super terrifying, “Which part? The cheerleaders just now? Or the bit where I totally saw your sister at Hoover Dam last December?”
Neither of them manage to fully hide their wince this time. Rachel glares even harder.
She points at Clarisse and demands kinda shrilly, “Or the bit where you both twitch whenever someone says she’s your sister?”
Percy tries a smile, he’s pretty sure it looks more like a grimace, “Uh, War Drum actually is? There’s just some… family trauma around that term?”
Athena totally didn’t kill her adopted sister and Triton’s daughter in cold blood or anything. Triton who considers Clarisse and Percy to be his. Clarisse stays very far away from anything that remotely links her to Athena.
Green eyes narrow into slits and she goes to step forward again. This time he does step back. For a mortal, Rachel’s kinda scary.
“Look, Ra-” Yeah, he still can’t do it, gods damn it.
He tries again, “Look, Red. I swear everything will be explained, even the cheerleaders, just… wait until the fifth? Please?”
She’s practically shaking with suppressed fury.
She hisses at him in a super impressive imitation of Kelli, “You do realise that this camp of yours doesn’t exist on any maps? Like, at all? No-one’s heard of it?”
Clarisse finally jumps in. At last! “I thought Priss gave you that brochure? And the phone number?”
Rachel scowls, “Dad hasn’t called it.”
Yeah, Rachel might be mortal but apparently she’s got the same luck with parents that demigods do.
Percy tries to soften his voice, “Yeah, I know. I’m sorry. I promise, me and War Drum will meet you at camp on the fifth. Lee’ll answer all your questions then. If you’re still freaked, he’ll take you home, or enrol you in the school’s summer camp. I promise.”
She stares at him, “And you’ll tell me how you learned to draw like that?”
Gods, he so regrets that one time he brought a sketchbook to school with him. There’s no way to say ‘I’m a prophet and the mad art skills come with the gig’. Can’t she just be focused on the weird vampire cheerleaders?
Then again, she’s a natural artist too. Wonder if she’ll get the same party trick when she’s the Oracle of Delphi? Huh. Thought for later.
Oh, thank the gods! Lee must have pulled in just after his mini storm, and now he’s come to see why they aren’t racing for his car.
He’s all casual school dad today in jeans and an old t-shirt. He’s all sunshine smile and bright voice, “You two can’t seriously be planning to hang round? Pretty sure you’ve both been expelled?”
Rachel gapes at him. Oh yeah, guardians aren’t meant to seem quite so cheerful over their kids being expelled from a fifty thousand dollar a year school.
Then Percy sees Rachel’s eyes slide back to Anaklusmos.
Oh. Guardians also shouldn’t be so unbothered by the fact their kid is holding a sword. Oops. Percy hastily returns Anaklusmos to pen form and tucks it away. Lee hasn’t even glanced at it. Guess he’s saving the questions for later.
Lee ended up concluding that, while he enjoyed the break from attempting to homeschool Percy and Nico, the constant phone calls from the school were even worse.
Trying to explain to the school that he is entirely okay with his kids calling each other War Drum and Prissy also didn’t go over well. There were some mentions of CPS after that one.
Since all of Percy and Clarisse’s mortal paperwork is very much forged, that would be less than fun. Like, Apollo would totally come back from wherever he is to retrieve them, but the waiting to be retrieved bit would just suck so much.
The school also super didn’t like all those interesting lies Lee had to tell in order for the school to relinquish the confiscated knives to him. Lee did make Clarisse promise that if she absolutely has to take a knife to school, to at least take normal steel ones. The mortal world is not ready for adamantine. They never got that blue ribbon back though.
Yeah. It’s definitely better for everyone if Clarisse and Percy stay far away from the mortal world. Possibly Lee too. He may not be as good at the mortal stuff as Percy thought he was.
Rachel very obviously does a double take and narrows her eyes at Lee and goes, “Wait, you look just like the guy I saw at the dam! You got another kid around here or something?”
Come on, Rachel! Ask about the exploding sparkly cheerleader! That question is easier! Why does she keep asking the hard ones?
Percy had entirely forgotten that Lee looks like a grown-up Apollo. And that there is no easy way to explain that the guy who looks like Lee’s kid is actually Lee’s dad.
Lee considers her for a long moment, and then turns to Clarisse, “Something I need to know?”
Percy jumps in before Clarisse has to work out how to answer that with all the listening ears, “Probably one of D’s siblings, you know, that one who super likes poetry?”
Lee gives him such a dirty look for that. Sorry, dude. Not like he can say she’s talking about his dad? Apollo looks sixteen, at best. Lee is almost twenty-seven and looks it.
His birthday is in four days, Percy’s been having fun sneaking around to set up a party for him. Lee deserves the best of everything.
Lee’s face is turning a little too thoughtful. There really aren’t many reasons for Apollo to be interested in a thirteen year old mortal girl.
He might be well known for getting around, but Apollo’s also the Protector of Youth. Gods can be gross, especially in the old stories, but Apollo’s not that gross.
No comment on Deadbeat.
Lee clearly decides now is not the time to ask and just says, “So, you ready to go?”
Rachel stops them, “Not so fast! Tell me why I can’t come now?”
Lee pauses and turns to Percy, raising an eyebrow, “I didn’t know you’d invited a friend to camp?”
Lee saw the sword but he’d have assumed Rachel didn’t. Mist and all.
Percy has given him the very bare bones outline on all of this. That a clear sighted mortal who is probably the next oracle will be coming to camp. He just hasn’t told him how or when, or that she was the reason Apollo sent them to the school.
Since Percy is a prophet, Lee definitely assumed he’d dreamed about it all. Not that he’d been investigating her for five months to make sure the risk was worth it. She has the potential to be the next Oracle but if she’s had even the slightest contact with Zeus, Apollo would have kept searching for someone else.
Percy’s pretty sure Lee thinks Apollo sent them to the school for some unknown godly machinations. Or because Percy’s trying to make sure a fated path happened or something.
Which he is. Sort of. Rachel hasn’t got a fate. Not yet anyway. It’ll depend on everything that happens this summer. And where her loyalty lies when the time comes.
Percy taps his pocket where Anaklusmos sits, but all he says is, “Same thing as Sea Foam and Cranky. Been a bit of a hiccup and camp won’t be able to properly start till the fifth.”
Cranky, actually called Nathan, is one of Clarisse’s favourite people. Terrifying black ops guy, son of Ares.
He won her undying loyalty when he got all up in Chiron’s face the day of the chariot races. It’s even funnier ‘cause Nathan is absolutely terrified of Clarisse. Percy and Clarisse approve totally.
Fear is the appropriate response to Clarisse and that had been before she killed a Nemean lion. She’s the first person in all of history to manage that.
Lee squints at him. Percy had told him he needed to hold off on calling the auxiliaries in. The whole camp is expecting war at any moment. Castellan and Chase are mobilising an army and no-one doubts the camp will be their first target.
Lee was not impressed when Percy told him they needed camp to look nice and normal. Just a whole bunch of underage kids and no adults. Sitting ducks for the taking.
Lee did agree. Eventually.
Lee gives up and makes all the same assurances to Rachel. She tells him she’s meant to be going to a two week long art thing at the stupid rich people’s school, and Lee assures her he’ll come and collect her himself on the fifth.
Percy also tells her that she doesn’t need to worry about that bitchy cheerleader, she’s gone for good. Rachel gives him such a filthy look.
Lee hesitates at that one, but then goes back to assuring Rachel that everything is arranged. He doesn’t point out she’d clearly intended on dipping out of school and going to the camp without her parent’s permission. Lee is amazing.
Rachel is still suspicious and makes a few sarcastic comments about being kidnapped and stealing her kidneys. Lee points out the camp is practically in Montauk, not really the place for that sort of thing? The inner city would be much more viable.
Rachel blinks at him, looks horrified for a moment and then gives him a big grin.
Huh. She really is doing so well with the weird. Even before Tammi went boom, Percy and Clarisse constantly failed at the undercover stuff. They have no clue how to act like mortals. Apparently, rich mortals have a whole extra set of rules?
Though, War Drum’s probably right about that whole thing where wearing shoes is normal for like, everyone. It’s just Percy who’s weird. Shoes are annoying! Not his fault he takes them off and then forgets where he left them.
They eventually escape Rachel and make it back to the car. Percy really wants to know where the hell the car came from, it showed up the same week they started at the school.
It’s totally the same armoured SUV Triton got from who knows where a few years back. At the time, they’d claimed Percy had ‘hired’ a driver and Triton had shown up in one of his weird mortal disguises and ‘driven’ them from Vegas to Santa Monica.
Since Triton can’t drive and spends most of his time under the ocean with two tails, Percy still isn’t clear on how that worked. But Triton super loved it? Or just thought it was funny how much the idea of him driving freaked Percy and Clarisse?
Percy scowls, he misses Tri so much. He hasn’t seen him since before Winter Solstice. Stupid gods and stupid wars. Triton and the other gods still do the aura check in every night, but it really doesn’t make up for them not being there.
Clarisse doesn’t even know that Triton checks her every night, so she hasn’t even got that bit of comfort.
Percy lets Clarisse explain the empousa thing and that it’d been a halfhearted attempt from Castellan to get them with charmspeak. It’s so awesome how Castellan and Chase think he’s a total moron.
That bit about his ‘limited intelligence’, gods that stuff shouldn’t still sting. Chase is literally a lieutenant of Kronos? Planning to overthrow the gods?
Yet her telling an empousa that Percy is an idiot still hurts? The hell is wrong with him?
It’s definitely a good thing that they underestimate him. But he also hates it.
Lee and Clarisse finish their back and forth. Since they won’t be returning to the school and Rachel gave them nothing, they aren’t too concerned about another attempt. It was more information gathering than an actual attack.
Clarisse hands off the weird magic charm thing from Tammi and Lee pockets it without comment. He’s very used to them dumping spoils of war on him by this point.
Percy keeps sulking and glaring out the window. As soon as he tries to make himself forget about Chase’s latest barb, he’s back thinking about Tri. The stupid car always makes him miss Tri.
Of all the gods, Percy and Clarisse saw Mr D and Tri the most, and Tri was the one who was actively engaged with their training. They’ve never gone so long without them. He’d only seen Mr D for like, two minutes last month.
Lee looks over at him and goes all teasingly, “Come on, Perce! It can’t be that bad! School’s out forever!”
Lee is way too happy about this whole expulsion thing. Poor guy, he super hated being told how terrible his kids were. They’re demigods and powerful ones at that, the mortal world just isn’t made for them.
Lee’s been dealing with the school trying to send Percy for psychiatric assessments all year. Either because of him getting bored and going poking around with his sight, which totally looks like dissociation to the rest of the world, or from teacher’s catching sight of stuff he’s randomly drawn without realising.
They wanted to put Clarisse in counselling too. Percy’d accidentally overheard the principal absolutely ripping into Lee about her having ‘no appropriate female influences’. Only reason Percy heard that was because he’d felt Lee’s aura go all super distressed and he’d thought he was under attack by monsters.
The principal is a monster. Just the mortal kind. Lee’d started dragging Silena to meetings after that. Poor Sea Foam pretended to be their stepmother and got judged right alongside Lee for Clarisse not being ‘ladylike’. Fucking morons.
Percy shakes his gloomy thoughts off and tries for a bright grin as they pull onto the road to the strawberry farm and camp. It’s not so successful. Sadly.
His voice is at least a bit more upbeat, “Oh, I am super glad to be done with that. Like, never again, Hot Air! But, also not looking forward to the next couple of weeks?”
Lee squints at him, “You gonna actually tell me anything now?”
War Drum just huffs a laugh from the backseat. Percy did have to tell her the basics. If he hadn’t, she would absolutely have lost patience and done something about the camp situation.
Especially the bit where he said she couldn’t spar with her trident ’til the guy goes. With Georgie arriving at camp, she’d been looking forward to sparring with ‘real’ weapons again.
He just didn’t tell her exactly who the guy is, and neither of them know the guy’ll be there when they get back.
Percy offers, “There’s gonna be someone at camp when we get back. Need him to see exactly what everyone expects to see. Camp of kids, training for war, no support from gods or like, actual adults.”
Lee looks at him out of the corner of his eye, “And the adults that are at camp?”
This guy is guaranteed to discount Lee just for being a son of Apollo. Sorry, Lee.
“Chiron’ll be whatever, he’s been kept in the dark for reason, but he can know everything after the fifth?”
Lee rolls his eyes and makes a grouchy noise, he was extra enthusiastic when Percy suggested not telling Chiron about the extent of zombie apocalypse plans. He super hates the centaur and it’s just getting worse. It’s kinda funny, actually.
“And the others?”
“Grumpy and Mermaid are fine, you can tell them everything. Kazoo, Prepper and the others are just gonna be campers for now.”
Beck, ‘Grumpy’, lives in the Big House and does all the maintenance and forge work. These days he’s mostly focused on the armoury.
Technically, there are other ‘adults’ at camp. Will and Kayla are eighteen and nineteen, but with the only two under eighteen Apollo kids not coming to camp, they’re staying in Cabin Seven and continuing as campers.
Easier to explain and means there are adults near the cabins if needed. Travis and Connor have technically aged out as well, but are staying on as Cabin Heads. That cabin needs leaders with experience.
There was a reason Percy’d been so pushy about getting Chris Rodriguez away from the camp. Guy’s doing well since Mr D stopped in for all of three seconds to de-blenderize his brain, but best they keep his continued existence a secret.
Besides, Percy hadn’t lied. Chris’s aura is super whacked and not fun to be near. He’s pretty sure it’ll come good in time, but right now, Percy so doesn’t want to be in his vicinity. He doubts Chris’ll ever go back to Castellan, but still better this way.
Lee’s long suffering voice, “Perce, I don’t know everything?”
Good point. He purses his lips and then offers, “Tell them that new guy needs to be treated like he’s staying, but I’m confident he’ll be gone by dawn on the fifth of June?”
Lee’s voice is dripping with scepticism, “You seem very confident on that date?”
Percy grins savagely, “Course. That’s not Fates stuff. If he’s not made a move by then, me and War Drum’ll make him move. We’ll let him have his looksie, but he’s not staying.”
“Perce, this better not be like the Child Killer.”
Percy winces, Lee still has nightmares about that. Who knew Piper had such a vicious streak?
He answers as honestly as he can, “Nah, Hot Air. It’s more… This guy hasn’t decided what side he’s going to be on? He’s gonna want to see both before he makes a decision.”
Lee hesitates and then asks, “Is this going to change tomorrow’s campfire?”
Tomorrow is officially the first day of summer. Just after Haloa, when Percy told Zoe and Phoebe’s full story for the first time, Lee asked if he’d be willing to tell it again for the summer campers. With even the gods acknowledging Kronos's return, everyone needs to be prepared.
It’s extra important with the new Nightshade cabin opening for business this summer.
Percy shakes his head, “Nah, it might be good for this guy to hear it. Dunno, plenty of people will hear Zoe’s story and just ignore it because they heard the moronic losers story first. And this guy- I don’t actually care which side he picks, just don’t want him taking stories back to Chase and Castellan about us. But so long as he doesn’t see more than he should, no harm in him looking around?”
Lee slowly shakes his head at him, “You have definitely been spending too much time around gods. Where’s my nice honest as the day is long kid gone?”
War Drum cackles, “Pretty sure he never existed? Kid’s been a snarky little shit since day one.”
Lee sighs so very tiredly. “Clarisse, just because you successfully got yourself expelled, it doesn’t mean that the rules on swearing have changed. The summer campers have already started arriving.”
“Aww, come on, Hot Air! I even talked her into putting all her favourite knives away while our guest is here! At least let her talk how she wants!”
Poor Lee. He hasn’t even got time to find a new argument because they’re pulling into camp and the new guy is standing outside the Big House talking to Chiron.
Percy really misses Mr D right now.
________________________
Clarisse scans the new guy and is so not impressed.
Prissy had warned her that she needed to tolerate the guy. That he won’t be here for long and no matter how tempted she is, she can’t treat him like Chiron.
Chiron comes with the advantage of basically being made of Teflon. It’s both super frustrating because nothing gets through his head, and also means she can use him as a guilt-free target for her anger.
Apparently, new guy is here as their ‘new sword instructor’. Like, Georgie’s right there? Sent by Triton to make sure all the underage campers are absolutely lethal by the end of summer?
Piper finally has an actual trainer to help her. Clarisse’s been trying to give her some training as well, but with the whole school thing she hasn’t had time. Seriously! Eight hours a day, five days a week! The hell are mortals doing?
Like, she guesses an extra trainer could be good, maybe? Clarisse’s just not so certain it should be this dude. Nathan’s already said he’ll pitch in with training when he gets here. Chiron, Georgie and Nathan should be enough? Plus Lee too?
New guy is also like, old? Which is… weird. She’s used to adult demigods, doesn’t see them much but they are around.
It’s just… Most of them are still under thirty. Lee’s generation is the first to kinda bond together. The older ones that survived want nothing to do with the Greek world. Some of them will foster kids or whatever, but they are very firmly mortal. Even Nathan’s only a couple years older than Lee.
This guy… he’s got actual grey hair? And a grey beard too. Super pale blue eyes, kinda freaky looking actually. And for some unknown reason, he’s wearing the orange t-shirt they give to new campers. The one no-one ever actually wears.
Apparently, they used to use it as a kind of uniform? Lee says it had more to do with kids arriving with nothing and it being the cheaper option for the camp. Silena had Opinions about that one. Even if a kid arrives at camp with nothing, they leave with at least a week’s worth of clothes in their own styles.
Silena and Lee say that life as a demigod is hard enough without feeling like you’re stuck in a juvenile detention centre too.
With Priss at camp, ‘Dite has regular contact with her kids and she or Apollo covers camp expenses most of the time. Everyone still gets an orange shirt, it’s just more like a souvenir than something anyone wears.
The camp necklaces with the summer beads get worn regularly by most of the summer campers and some of the year rounders, but never the orange monstrosity.
If this guy just arrived, why does he have one and why is he wearing it?
It is super ugly. The bronze breastplate he’s wearing over it is not helping. And, uh, why is he wearing a breastplate?
She checks on Prissy but he’s just standing there with an extra bland expression on his face. The same one he uses when he’s forced to tolerate Chiron for too long.
Oh, this is gonna be super fun.
She tunes back into the conversation where Lee is attempting to get information about the guy and even Chiron seems hesitant but he does tell them that Quintus is an excellent swordsman.
Did this guy seriously just turn up and figure with a war coming they totally wouldn’t have already made arrangements for trainers?
She narrows her eyes and demands, “Wait, Quintus? Like, Fifth? That a nickname or something?”
Stupid rich school taught latin. Apparently, it’s another language she and Prissy are naturally good at. It was a mild improvement on all the classes they were totally lost on.
Media studies and technology? Like, what? They quickly learned to leave their god provided mobile phones with Lee during school hours. The first time that teacher saw one there were a LOT of questions.
But for most of the classes, it was just… ugh. Like, when Lee went over it with her, it was always stuff she did actually know. She’s just never had to sit down and read books about it. Dyslexia? Ever heard of it? She might have been able to fidget less than Priss, but the school was as useless with her.
Quintus gives her a friendly smile, “Oh, it’s good to see the old languages are known here! It was actually a common name in Rome, Octavius is another.”
Okay. This is not Ancient Rome though? That was kinda thousands of years ago?
Prissy stares at him and then announces, “Yeah, I’m just gonna call you Fifth.”
Huh. That’s… different. Prissy’s nicknames are weird but they’re usually descriptive rather than like, nickname, nicknames.
Then again, Priss did he say the dude would be gone by the fifth? It’s the twenty-fourth, so eleven days. They can do eleven days. She hopes.
Quintus looks at Percy and smiles wider, his eyes are so creepy, “Ah, you must be the Prophet of Apollo I have heard so much about?”
From who?
Percy raises an eyebrow and asks all politely, “What makes you think that?”
“Well, I was told you looked the very picture of your father. The resemblance is uncanny?”
Fair point. Prissy looks like a fourteen year old Poseidon, same black hair, sea green eyes and sun tanned skin. Though, poor Priss is looking kinda pale after months of being forced indoors for actual school. So not his thing.
The sparring after school has been absolutely savage. Prissy normally spars for fun while Clarisse is the one trying to get a grip on her aggression. She’s not sure how she feels about that being reversed. Or how it’s not been enough to work out her own aggression either.
Lee is still looking unimpressed. Clarisse thinks it’s kinda awesome how he can flip from exhausted dad who is so done with his kids’ shenanigans straight into camp leader mode. He’s definitely trying to tone down the commander thing, but at this point this kinda impossible to hide.
Ever since winter when Kronos, via Chase and Castellan, kidnapped Bianca and Artemis and they discovered Kronos has like, a literal army ready to go, Lee’s own preparations have majorly stepped up.
Not just all the organisation and stuff. Kayla’s taken over most of the day to day coordination for that and Piper’s doing most of the camp stuff. But Lee’s been totally throwing himself into physical training.
Not that Lee has ever been unfit. He’s a son of Apollo and archery is totally in his blood. According to Priss it’s even a central component of Lee’s aura. Lee’s always disappearing to the archery range whenever he needs to think things through, or deal with emotions, or he’s just bored. It’s his thing, and demigods are all intense in their own ways.
Now, he’s actually joining the Ares Cabin for weapons training everyday and he’s like, running every morning. Piper keeps saying they need to make sure her dad never meets Lee or he’s going to start trying to cast him the next movie or something.
Prissy’s calling it Lee’s quarter-life crisis. Technically, Prissy doesn’t know about the looming war, that’s all of one year and three months away, at best. But he’s also said they can tell him on his fifteenth birthday, which is in less than three months.
Anyway, it makes the difference between Quintus and Lee, kinda super noticeable?
Lee is still standing there glaring at Quintus, arms crossed, looking super commander-y, even in old jeans and a t-shirt with holes in it. Today is the last day of school, which is when summer campers start arriving. He was definitely helping the Stoll brothers get set up for the massive influx of Hermes campers.
Lee’s tone is cool and ultra polite, “How do you know Mr D?”
Quintus keeps smiling with his weird cold eyes and speaks much more warmly, “Oh, I’ve been around. I do know Dionysus has gone to visit some old friends. Needs to check what side they’re on. He suggested I come and help out.”
Okay. That was a bald faced lie. Mr D is Camp Director in name only. Lee does all of it and Mr D super respects Lee. No way would he send a trainer along without some sort of separate message.
Mr D also knows they’ve taken on two additional trainers already?
Quintus also called him Dionysus. Which uh, is not really a thing they do at camp?
Lee’s all polite interest, “Oh? So you know where he is?” Lee does actually have a fair idea of where Mr D is.
Quintus gives him a tight smile, “I do. I probably shouldn’t say anymore than that though, you know how it is. The gods don’t like us speaking out of turn.”
Clarisse is a little too amused as she watches Lee clearly debate whether he should interrogate the new guy or not. His eyes flick to Percy who is back to a totally blank face and Lee seems to decide questions are left for later.
“Tell you what, we can give you a trial. Two weeks. Prove to me why we should keep you around and I’ll consider it. Not sure you noticed, but we do already have a sword instructor here for the summer.”
Quintus looks completely gobsmacked and he keeps glancing at Chiron, as if he thinks Chiron makes the decisions?
Lee beckons Georgie forward from where she’s been leaning against the Big House with her arms crossed, watching the latest drama. She’s looking a lot tidier than usual, so someone definitely inflicted Drew and Piper on her.
Georgie’s amazing, she’s a daughter of Galene and arrived at camp almost the same time as Percy, though she’s a few years older than them. She stuck around so he wouldn’t be the only sea kid here. Like them, she’s been training with Triton for years. A couple years ago she started an internship thing with him and moved permanently to Atlantis.
She’s totally been taking advantage of being away from Triton and his very firm views on ‘one’s appearance and the image they project’. Which means Tri insists her hair be ‘both well brushed and neatly braided when outside your personal quarters’.
Normally when she’s at camp, she leaves it hanging loose, and it’s one big massive tangle of bright red curls down past her butt, permanently full of sand and seaweed from her last trip into the ocean. Georgie can do the same dry clothes trick Prissy can, she just doesn’t feel the need. Prissy is not wrong with the Mermaid nickname.
Today, her hair is still hanging loose but all the curls are defined and hanging just so. No sand or seaweed to be seen. She’s got Prissy’s bright green eyes, except hers don’t change colours like his. She’s almost nineteen now and all warrior. There is nothing soft or sweet about her.
She strides over to Quintus and holds out a hand to shake. Definitely leaning hard into actual Ancient Greek ritual. Triton has lectured them endlessly about how handshakes started with the Ancient Greeks.
She’s got Triton’s favourite regal face on too. The one he says is ‘best used for unavoidable political meetings’. Her posture is just as stiff and precise as Triton’s is, completely unbending. Even in jeans and a t-shirt she can’t be mistaken for anything but a warrior.
“It is good to meet you, I am Georghaliae, daughter of Galene.”
Georgie keeps her voice ice cold and uses Triton’s exact pronunciation on her name, ‘ge-or-GAH-lee-ay’, normally when she reluctantly admits to her full name she turns into a slurred mess.
Clarisse keeps her face blank, but all of her is so surprised. Like, she does know that’s her actual name. Georgie’s endlessly fighting with Tri over it because she thinks it’s too fancy. But to introduce herself like that without also mentioning her rank? Tri insists she use her full name whenever she lists her rank, but she avoids it at all costs otherwise.
Quintus looks confused. He also doesn’t shake her hand. The fuck?
“I’m sorry, I’m not sure I’ve heard of Galene, I take it you’re one of my campers?”
Chiron makes a weird choking noise. Yeah. Chiron’s been terrified of Georgie since she moved to Atlantis full time. Most people consider it common sense to treat the sea gods and their people with respect. That whole flooding camp thing is not a bluff.
Georgie stares him down coldly and Clarisse could swear she’s Triton for a moment, she’s gotten his expressions and posture down pat. She’s the same height as Quintus but she definitely looks taller like this.
She’s even got his tone and clipped accents perfect, “I am not a camper. I am here as a personal favour to Prince Triton, heir to King Poseidon, to continue the training of the second prince in his absence. I am the Strategos of the Atlantean Military.”
It totally freaks Clarisse out that Athena mimics Triton, but when Georgie does, it’s just completely awesome.
Quintus still seems confused. “Oh. I thought Atlantis was completely isolated. There are Atlantean children at camp?”
Dead silence as they all give him dumbfounded looks, even Chiron seems startled. Wasn’t the guy just talking about how much Priss looks like Poseidon? What?
How does he know what Poseidon looks like if he thinks Atlantis is completely isolated?
After a long stretch of silence, Prissy offers, “She’s talking about me?”
Then Priss pauses and tilts his head, squinting towards the barrier, “What’s with the hellhound?”
Prissy just stands there while Chiron and Lee race for the barrier with Quintus trailing behind exclaiming, “She’s friendly!” Georgie is definitely stalking him, she looks ready to run him through with a trident already. She’ll do the hellhound too, but Clarisse suspects Quintus is first on her list.
Clarisse turns on Priss, “Hellhound?”
Priss makes a face, “He apparently has one as a pet? Which like, you know me, I’m all for friendly monsters, but turning up here and announcing Mr D sent him, while bringing a hellhound with him?”
Plus asking a son of Poseidon whether there are Atlantean children at camp.
She huffs, “You’re saying he sucks at common sense?”
“Pretty much.”
They both agree they don’t feel like watching the fallout of the weird new guy showing up with a monster, so they grab their dumb school bags and head for their cabins so they can finally ditch all the mortal stupidity, change into proper clothes and go back to their normal lives.
As they walk, she asks, “Please tell me you aren’t going to make me keep him and Georgie separated or something?”
She’s ever so slightly more willing to place herself between Georgie and her desired target than she is Triton and his, but she’d still rather avoid it entirely. She may have grown up with them, but Georgie’s all warrior and will definitely win against Clarisse.
Prissy shakes his head, “Nah, War Drum. I really don’t care which side he chooses. Soon as Shadow or one of the gods catches sight of him, he’ll be handled. If we’d turned him away at the barrier they’d know we were hiding something. This way-”
She fills in for him, “This way they’ll get an independent witness saying camp is exactly what they expected?”
He doesn’t answer, so she adds, “That why you let the cheerleader live too?”
He gives a half hearted shrug as they reach the common area. Prissy glowers at the fire in the centre of the common area, and she exhales very loudly. “Prissy, she’s allowed to tend the hearth.”
“That’s not the issue, the issue is that she’s still here when everyone else is preparing for war with the Crooked One!”
As always, Hestia doesn’t even look at them, just completely ignores them. She used to engage with Prissy a bit, but since winter Prissy keeps trying to make Hestia help the war effort. Now she acts like he doesn’t exist.
They used to be a little more okay with her lurking, both she and Prissy have spent time sitting with her when they were little.
Then they got older and actually understood what it means that the Goddess of Home, Hospitality and Family sits in the centre of the cabins and never intervenes. And the few conversations they’ve had with her in the past couple of years have gotten distinctly weird.
Every other god they know can’t ignore their nature. Mr D deliberately got himself assigned to camp as a ‘punishment’ because he didn’t want more demigods dragged into another war.
Apollo may have technically obeyed the non-interference rules, but there’s never been a time he hasn’t been involved in his kids lives. The moment he started spending more time at camp because of Priss, he got involved with helping all the campers.
Whereas Hestia… She is such an utterly useless goddess. Like, today, she’s right there, tending the fire, while Cabin Eleven is being turned into what is basically a temporary evacuation shelter. Some Goddess of Hospitality she is.
If Clarisse eggs Prissy on, he will definitely decide to use his trident on the goddess and they really can’t afford all that drama right now.
“Come on, Priss. Let’s ditch our stuff and go and see if we can help Travis and Connor.”
The Hermes cabin has always been way too full, especially in summer, but it’s just gotten worse since they found out Hermes wasn’t sending his kids to camp. Most of his kids are never found.
Prissy, being an overachieving prophet, decided to find all of them. Ever since the guy broke his favourite clear sighted mortal twenty-five years ago, he’s been making babies like crazy. The Hermes cabin traditionally also houses all campers who are unclaimed or whose parents aren’t Olympians.
If they’d continued that this year, they’d have had thirty-six kids crammed into one cabin. A full third of the camp’s underage demigod population.
The only other cabin that ever houses that many is Cabin Eight when the Hunters come with the full contingent. But they don’t even try to sleep in the cabin. They use it as an operations base and set up their big camping tents in whichever field isn’t in use inside the barrier.
Lee set up a new cabin to house the ten non-Hermes kids. He’s basically hoping that the gods are so busy with war preparations that they don’t have time to whinge about an unauthorised cabin.
Or at least, that’s what he says. Prissy goes oddly silent whenever Lee talks about it. Clarisse is suspicious.
It sits at the end of the big U shape, between Cabin Eleven on the end of the ‘male gods’ wing and Cabin Twelve on the end of the ‘female gods plus Mr D’ wing. It faces Zeus and Hera’s cabins at the base of the U. Clarisse thinks it’s location is an excellent non-verbal ‘fuck you’.
It started out as a prefabricated thing that Beck majorly upgraded with Jonathon’s input. Lee’s made the ‘executive decision’ that the group of ten would be acting as their own cabin for all camp activities. Which means there’ll be thirteen cabins this summer. Thirteen tables in the dining pavilion now too.
It’s been named the Nightshade cabin. Clarisse thinks it’s Lee’s own version of telling the Olympians that if the gods can’t be bothered to care about the kids, they’ll just elevate one of their own. She just knows Zoe would totally approve, even if it houses boys too.
The Hermes cabin was more of a challenge. When they were little, Cabin Eleven was the smallest of all the cabins. Because Hermes is a moron. It got majorly renovated a few years back to match the other cabins, but then they found out how many kids Hermes actually has.
The old cabin could stretch to twenty-four kids if they convert all usable space into beds, but they’d be crammed in like sardines and a fair number would be sleeping on the floor. Since half this mess was caused by a disgruntled Hermes camper, no-one loves the idea of isolating them even more.
As Hermes is a total deadbeat who doesn’t care about any kid not named Luke Castellan, Lee decided he didn’t care enough to ask permission and they added big extensions to the main cabin at the same time the Nightshade Cabin was built.
Lee very much decided he’d prefer a ragingly angry Hermes over yet more demigod kids feeling abandoned and betrayed. Besides, the war effort means Hermes is being kept super busy. Unless Castellan personally invades camp, he’s unlikely to even notice the renovations.
It does mean it now spreads right up to the edge of the Hephaestus cabin on one side and way out into what was a garden at the edge of the cabin area on the other. At least now the twenty-four children of Hermes have two full sized dorms. Everyone has an actual bed that is not on the floor and their own locked dresser for their things.
Plus, there’s a main common area with enough seating for all of them even in summer. Even the cabin’s bathrooms got completely upgraded so the kids didn’t have to use the communal camp ones all the time.
They still have to use bunk beds and things are a bit tight, but it’s a huge improvement. Most of the cabins are intended to house twelve to fifteen campers at most, and only during summer. Virtually all of them convert into actual bedrooms with only one or two kids in each during the rest of the year.
Clarisse and Prissy spend most of their afternoon setting up all the assorted bedding and getting the new ‘welcome packs’ ready for the kids as they trickle in.
Travis and Connor keep their distance. While Priss has mostly letup on the non-stop hatred, he hasn’t quite forgiven them for the centaur blood thing. Prissy says that, since Zoe isn’t here to take revenge, he’s just gonna have to do it for her.
Doesn’t stop her and Prissy helping out with the cabin though.
At winter they’d had twelve new Hermes kids, but with everything that happened Lee got them sorted super quick and they’re down to Travis and Connor as Cabin Heads, and Jonathon who will be leading the new cabin but is still pitching in with Eleven. By tomorrow, the cabin will be overflowing with kids.
Prissy is way too amused by the welcome packs. He’d originally been intending to try and track down a minor god that’s allied with Hermes to do the Deadbeat’s job, but Apollo and Artemis stepped in.
Apollo’s the Protector of Youth and Artemis is the Protector of Young Children. Despite them having been virtually out of contact for months now, they sent along Artemis’s Hunters two weeks ago with supplies for the camp. Most ear-marked for Cabin Eleven. And a note for Lee to use Apollo’s funds to provide anything the Cabin Eleven kids “are going without.”
It also means the camp won’t get in trouble for providing extra support without Hermes approval. The Hunters do as they please, and simply because they have a new lieutenant doesn’t mean they’re going to change that longstanding tradition.
Huh. “Hey, Prissy. Where did the Hunters actually go?”
Priss grins at her, “They’re doing a favour for me?”
She scowls at him, “And would that favour involve them returning on the fifth?”
He smiles super innocently and goes, “Maybe?”
She glares harder, “Prissy, I swear to the gods, if we get attacked because you’ve dismantled our forces…”
“War Drum! I promise. I checked and triple checked. We’re good. At least until the fifth. No promises after that, but there’ll be time to reset everything. I promise!”
Prissy better be right or Aniketos's first blood is gonna be his.