(semi-open.)

[phykios]

Who: Percy Jackson (phykios) & various
What: April catch-all
When: ...April.
Where: Olympia for now.
Warning(s): Will warn as necessary.

[ Closed starters will be in the comments. Feel free to hmu if you'd like to plot something! ]

Comments

Claire Fraser ♆ A very hard fall.

[phykios]

[ the cavern is huge.

one end leads to a tunnel that clearly snakes away to locations unknown, and the other end houses a massive statue. the lost statue that used to grace the parthenon, the athena parthenos towers above the rest of the scene, radiating power. its pure ivory make, the golden clothes, all shine like the day it was made. in one hand, athena holds victory, the winged goddess nike in her palm; the other rests on a huge shield. the statue is easily the most beautiful thing in the cavern.

the entire place is full of spiderwebs: covering the floor like meshwork, running from wall to wall like pure white streamers. any spider that could spin this kind of silk had to have been huge, though it's nowhere in sight. there are deep cracks running through the floor -- watch your step -- and a huge hole through the ceiling, through which sunlight floods. there's a matching hole in the floor.

through the ceiling, a huge ancient greek trireme is visible floating midair, a rope ladder suspended from it. and not too far away from it is a huddle of demigods, all in varying states of being scuffed up and exhausted -- though annabeth, a tall athletic girl with blonde curls, takes the cake. she's covered in spiderwebs all over, strings trailing so far away it's hard to tell where they end, and one of her ankles is splinted with a cast made of bubble-wrap. percy's right next to her, holding her hand and watching her like nothing else matters. they're all in the middle of conversation, relating the battles they've all faced.

percy, the present-day percy, realizes with a jolt that he knows exactly where they are, and what's about to happen. he turns, sees claire, and his frown deepens. ]

We have to get out of here.

[ said because this isn't the kind of happy memory he wants claire seeing, or that he really enjoys reliving. said because he needs the reminder, though, because a part of him powerfully wants to stay in this vision. things might've sucked and been about to get a whole lot worse, but at least he'd been among friends. and on his planet.

so the mortal side is in epirus, annabeth's saying. at least that's somewhere we can reach.
a boy who's younger than most of the rest, pale and haunted, says, but the other side is the problem. tartarus.

the name trembles through the air, a gust of cold billowing from the hole in the ground. there's no question that that's what's beneath them. ]

[nineteenfortyfive]

[Strange to see the Percy she knows, the boy she so very much wants to keep safe despite him not needing the protection, and then the Percy in his... well, his element, perhaps. Doing whatever it is a demigod does. Getting into trouble? Helping? Having a perilous adventure? Who knows.]

What?

[Sorry, Percy, she's a little confused by--everything. Very much everything.]

What is this?

[phykios]

[ all of the above tbh.

what is this? is a pretty reasonable question. this is clearly a vision or a dream or something of one of his memories; there's no way they're actually standing at the lip to tartarus. but it feels real enough that he starts to shake despite himself, edging a step backwards from that hole in the ground.

he starts to say, ]

I don't know --

[ but there's an echo in the room. the percy of the past comments, bacchus mentioned something about my voyage being harder than i expected. not sure why --

there's a loud sound as the statue starts to list to the side, the ground underneath them all crumbling to dust. annabeth calls for them to secure it, and the demigods mobilize: frank turns into a huge eagle, picks up leo and flies him back to the ship. jason promises percy to return for them, holds piper and summons the winds to fly her back.

this floor won't last! hazel shouts as the room starts to come apart, webs snapping and the chasms in the floor growing larger. the rest of us should get to the ladder. she hurries towards it, helping nico -- weak and weary -- along. and the annabeth and percy of the past wait, watching with trepidation. it'll be fine, he promises. grappling lines are thrown towards the statue, jason and frank-the-eagle flying around wrap them around the athena parthenos. ]

Come on.

[ and percy'll reach out to pull claire, if she doesn't resist, towards the tunnel at the other side of the room, not realizing they'll just end up where they started, the scene still playing out. ]

[nineteenfortyfive]

[It's like something out of a film. Claire's distracted, too distracted to protest much when Percy begins to drag her along.]

This isn't real.

[Not real for them right now, but... real for him once, she assumes.]

[phykios]

It was real.

[ not that she's wrong. but they end up, of course, back at the scene like no time passed at all. they're close enough to the pit to see everything that's about to happen.

the next part happens very fast: as hazel and nico make it to the ladder, and percy and annabeth start moving that direction, something pulls on annabeth, so hard that she falls on her face and is dragged backwards towards the chasm. percy lunges, grabbing her by the wrists, but the force is clearly much stronger than he is, easily pulling the both of them. hazel cries out, and nico starts hurrying their way, but in all the chaos no one else has even noticed what's happening.

annabeth and percy both go over the edge, fall some fifteen or so feet before percy grabs onto a ledge with one hand. nico's made it to the edge, reaching for them, but they're too far down. there's something else at work now too, an inexorable gravity emanating from whatever's at the bottom of the hole. it'd be hard to save annabeth anyway, but with this magic at work it's impossible.

annabeth says: percy, let me go. you can't pull me up.

there's clearly no way to save her. there's also clearly no way he's going to do what she says.

he says: never. then, upwards, the other side, nico! we'll see you there. understand?
but -- nico protests.
lead them there! promise me.
i-i will.

percy's attention is all for annabeth now, looking her in the eyes as they both realize what he's about to do. we're staying together. you're not getting away from me. never again.
she answers, as long as we're together.

and then percy lets go of the ledge, and they fall. ]

[nineteenfortyfive]

[No escape from seeing this, then. Percy may have Claire's hand still, but it's her that grips his tightly, her other hand reaching across her body to hold onto his arm. The logical part of her knows this isn't where they really are. It's magic, or something she can't understand, but it's real enough. And it was real for him.

She can guess what's to happen. He's a stubborn, foolish, incredibly brave and sweet boy, and so it's no wonder he'd drop with this girl he cares for. Hell, once even she herself was willing to burn with her friend instead of letting her die alone.

It doesn't stop Claire from flinching so hard she has to turn her face away, unable to watch or listen even if there's nothing to hear.]

[phykios]

[ he's still shivering, even as claire holds onto him; it's less about this specific memory than everything that comes after, just under three weeks in tartarus that felt more like a lifetime. this might not be real, but the sensation of being so close to the place is real enough, and feels terrible.

the memory carries on with things percy never saw: the rest of the statue's rescue, being loaded into the ship, and the others finding out what happened. but his attention turns to claire's obvious distress.

says, gentle as he can manage, ]

Claire. It's over.

[ well, the worst of it anyway. ]

[nineteenfortyfive]

[That's enough to snap her out of it enough to be ashamed that he's the one talking softly to her, trying to soothe her. She looks at him for half a second before drawing him close.]

Christ, what the hell was that, Percy?

[He might be able to better answer if she wasn't currently clutching him tightly to her chest, but he'll figure it out.]

Sansa Stark ♆ The anti-Poseidon.

[phykios]

[ they land in the middle of a battle.

it's utter chaos across the massive green, multiple forces clashing in combat. some of them are normal humans: teens around percy's age (and younger, and older too, adults) kitted out in ancient roman-style armor, an entire army of women in dark camouflage led by a woman in black battle armor and a golden belt shining around her waist. but there are also countless monsters: cyclopes, many-armed creatures, two gorgons, wild centaurs, and grain spirits, and more. towering over them all is a giant standing taller than thirty feet, scaly and dragonish from the waist down. his hair is green, sheds snakes every time he shakes his head, and his battle armor depicts leering faces with mouths open. he carries a trident large enough to match him, a weighted net in the other hand, and he glares at percy.

well, the percy of less than a year ago, anyway. that percy carries his gleaming bronze sword in one hand, and points at the giant with the other.

you, he says, me. to the finish.

the percy of the present day, apparently weaponless, heaves a sigh at this scene. he doesn't seem to have noticed sansa yet. ]

I really hate that guy.

[ polybotes.....with his luck, this could be a sign that that giant has woken up on thesa instead of one of his friends. polybotes chased him across california, tartarus, and the ancient lands; why not another planet?

gods, that'd be annoying though. ]

[unprays]

[ the downside to having only spoken to someone through texts is that you have no idea what they look like, nor how they sound — and so Sansa, with wide eyes, considers the scene unfolding in front of her just as strange as the boy to whom this particular memory seems to belong to.

for several moments, she stands still, for however much she has seen death and battle, she has never seen anything like this: there are monsters she has never even thought to have nightmares of, creature that look more like they belong on the pages of books full of old tales than here, in a world that, at one point, was as real as she is now.

when she has her breath back, she swirls to the young man who's muttering to himself — apparently there's some history here. clearly there's some history here, she thinks as she watches the memory-Percy challenging the giant. ]

Who is that? Where are we? [ if her voice sounds just a touch shrill... look, there's a limit to how much she can deal with, and a mythological battle is pushing it. ]

[phykios]

[ percy turns when he hears sansa -- who he similarly doesn't recognize -- and opens his mouth to answer, but there's a loud crash before he can speak.

the giant has just crushed part of the aqueduct, shouts, go on, then, son of neptune! let me see your power! does water do your bidding? does it heal you? but i am born to oppose neptune. he shoves a hand beneath the water, which turns green, throws some towards past-percy; but the liquid doesn't seem to land, moves away mid-throw and hits the ground in front of percy. my touch turns water to poison, the giant goes on. let’s see what it does to your blood!

the present percy finally gets his chance to respond as polybotes and the past-percy do battle. ]

A memory. I don't know why this is happening...or why you're here. [ he's reminded of the blackouts hazel used to have, reliving her past life after being rescued from the underworld. ] And that? Is Polybotes. A giant, but you've probably noticed that.

[ a little in the distance, the giant tries to ensnare percy in his net. percy rolls, and a spurt of water blasts out of the smashed aqueduct to hit the giant in the face. percy in the meantime stabs the giant in the gut, leaps out of the way as the giant cries out and bleeds gold.

nice try, demigod. but i will break you still.
percy says, gotta catch me first. and...turns and makes a break for the city behind them. ]

[unprays]

[ she flinches at the loud sound despite herself, despite the fact that it seems that they are here as spectators, nothing more. son of Neptune, the giant calls him, and she wonders who this Neptune is, what in that heritage might give him the power over water, as the giant seems to think.

she shakes her head, focuses on the real person next to her. a memory. his memory, then. it would be stupid to even ask why this is happening, she thinks — strange things happen here. likely no one has any explanation for this.

she offers him a small, wry smile. ] Hard not to notice that.

[ what with the size and all. and then, as she listens to the exchange in the memory, ]

... a demigod? That isn't a figure of speech, is it? [ it's phrased as a question, but in reality it's more a statement. isn't it. ]

[phykios]

[ polybotes makes chase after the percy of the past, running right through the battle. but this is no mad dash: percy clearly knows where he's going, waving off help as people offer it.

percy needs help?
i'm good!
meanwhile, the giant shouts, die!

he raises his eyebrows at sansa. ]

No, it's about as literal as you can get. Neptune -- ugh, it's Poseidon -- is a god.

[ the percy of the past finally skids to a stop at a statue of a bust...one who holds a harried, shouted conversation with him.

completely unacceptable! buildings on fire! invaders! get them out of here, percy jackson!
i'm trying! but there's this giant, polybotes.

percy asks for help, insisting that a giant can only be killed by a demigod and a god working together, but terminus points out that his gig is guarding borders! not killing giants!

stop right there, young man! no weapons inside the pomerian line!
but we’re under attack.
i don’t care! rules are rules. when people don’t follow the rules, i get very, very angry.
hold that thought.

the giant catches up with them then, enraged. you...you will die slowly. i will take you prisoner, percy jackson. i will torture you under the sea. every day the water will heal you, and every day i will bring you closer to death.

unfazed, percy suggests, great offer. but i think i'll just kill you instead.

a crowd's gathering around them now, the rest of the battle dying down save for this showdown. the giant charges percy, who leaps out of the way at the last second so polybotes runs straight into city limits. and the statue...doesn't take that well. terminus shouts at the giant, who simply pushes it over and then breaks it to pieces, clearly unbothered by angry talking statues.

which is what it takes for terminus to agree, at last. percy jackson, you’ve got yourself a deal! let’s kill this upstart.

while polybotes literally stops and laughs at being threatened by a broken statue, past-percy acts -- leaps up onto the giant's knee, buries his sword deep into his chest. then he grabs the head of the statue, lifting it over the giant.

you'll never win! you cannot defeat me alone!
i'm not alone, percy points out. i'd like you to meet my friend terminus. he's a god!

and, with that, he drops the head onto the giant's face; and the giant melts into -- not quite nothingness. he doesn't leave behind a body, but he does leave a gross pile of poison and seaweed and skin.

which is great and all, but percy of the present day has to stop himself from sighing again. if only!! polybotes!! had just stayed dead!! but no, of course not; the earth goddess gaea had brought him back not long later, and he'd come after percy again. ]

[unprays]

You're half god.

[ said in the flattest tone imaginable. she stares at him for a moment, before she figures that it's not the craziest thing she's ever heard in her life, what with Jon coming back to life and Arya's whole assassin shtick and, oh, the whole deal with the white walkers.

and then she starts listening to what the people in the memory are saying (yelling, rather), and her eyes are impossibly large and bright as she looks from Polybotes to Percy and back. ]

Wait — Percy? You're Percy?

[ she pauses only to grimace at the horrid pile of seaweed and whatnot, before looking back at Percy with a half-amused, half-impressed smile. ]

The last time we spoke, you wondered if you should call me lady, but I suppose I'm the one who should call you my lord.

[phykios]

[ percy could answer sansa's initial skepticism at him being part-god, but truthfully -- if the memory doesn't convince her, he's not sure there's anything he could say that would. she moves on from the point, though, and he's not sure at first how to read her expression. ]

Uh. Yeah, I'm Percy. [ he's about to ask if that's a good or bad thing, but then sansa goes on, and a memory clicks. ] -- you're Sansa? Nice to finally meet you.

[ though he makes a face at her comment. ]

Yeah, please don't. Besides, my lord Percy just sounds stupid.

Tony Stark ♆ Leap of faith.

[phykios]

[ the gateway arch observation deck is closing.

annabeth and grover have already gone on ahead in the elevator, leaving behind percy (twelve years old, now), a park ranger, two parents and their little boy, and a large woman in denim carrying a chihuahua. the dog jumps from her arms, glaring daggers at percy while barking at him.

now, now, sonny. does this look like a good time? we have all these nice people here. but the dog doesn't relent, and the woman sighs. well, son, if you insist.

uh. did you just call the chihuahua your son? percy asks.

chimera, dear. not a chihuahua. it's an easy mistake to make.

she smiles, revealing fangs, pushing up the sleeves of her dress to reveal scaly green skin. meanwhile, the dog seems to grow exponentially in size with every bark, until it stands the height of the room. instead of looking like a dog, it now has the head of a lion, mane bloody, a goat's body, and and a huge snake for a tail. its collar reads: CHIMERA—RABID, FIREBREATHING, POISONOUS—IF FOUND, PLEASE CALL TARTARUS—EXT. 954

the child screams, his parents drawing him away from the monsters.

present-day percy, five years older, frowns as he takes this all in. he'd sort of almost forgotten, if he's being honest, at least the details. ]

Man. She's even uglier than I remember.

im late cuz i was doing my homework obviously

[arcreact]

[ Tony's seen some weird shit in his life. Gods, aliens, magic - he hasn't fully embraced these things just yet, obviously, but they're not quite as mind-bending as they once were. It makes accidentally walking into people's memory's a little easier to deal with, for starters.

But that doesn't make him any less prone to staring in extreme distaste at the contents of some of them, like how his eyes track the morphing chihuahua the entire time. ]

Uh - I'm thinking I was onto something when I made assumptions about how outlandish your daily life is.

that's acceptable

[phykios]

[ he hadn't noticed tony's presence at first, though he isn't sure why he wasn't expecting someone else to be here, at this point. just going to slant a wry look tony's way, sidelong. ]

The chimera? That's not even close to the weirdest thing that's ever happened to me. [ a beat. ] So, uh, yeah. You have a point.

[ meanwhile, the lady's doing a lot of talking about how zeus rarely lets her test a hero with one of her children, how she's the echidna, mother of monsters. percy asks her if that isn't a type of anteater, which she doesn't appreciate for some mysterious reason. the chimera lunges at percy, who jumps out of the way with all of the grace of any twelve year old kid; and in a bid to keep the monster distracted, he uncaps riptide, drawing it away from the terrified mortals.

(what's funny to percy now, the percy of the present day, is how differently he would do things. the chimera had seemed so scary at the time, but now he can imagine a couple of ways to give the thing a real fight.)

the chimera blasts flame in percy's direction, and he dodges, but there's now a hole burned straight through the wall of the arch.

older-percy winces. ]

They were closed for repairs for a while. I can't ever go back to St. Louis.

[arcreact]

[ Uh, yeah, he definitely has a point. Percy Jackson is suddenly reminding him more and more of Peter Parker with every passing moment. He raises an eyebrow at the gaping hole in the arch. Yeah, he could easily see that happening back home, but the midwest has been mostly spared the drama so far.

(And if it occurs to Tony that it's weird to chat about someone's memory while standing around watching it, like commenting on a particularly eventful baseball game, then he has no inclination to point that out.) ]

You remind me of somebody else I know who likes blasting holes through national landmarks. This must be what highschoolers do in their spare time these days.

[phykios]

Hey, I don't like blasting holes in national landmarks. [ with a point!! at tony!! ] And for the record? It was just this one. [ THE HOOVER DAM WAS UNTOUCHED, okay, he got better at this. though then the rest of what tony said hits him, and he says, ] Wait, who else do you know that's done that?

[ that's just. an oddly specific! shared experience.

in any case, the memory continues to play out. percy slashes his sword at the chimera, but the blade just bounces off its collar. the chimera's snake tail strikes, biting him in the leg and knocking him off his feet, his sword falling out the hole. percy gets to his feet, backing towards the hole, but there's clearly not much left for him to do.

the echidna says, if you are the son of poseidon, you would not fear water. jump, percy jackson. show me that water will not harm you. jump and retrieve your sword. prove your bloodline. then, when he doesn't, you have no faith. you do not trust the gods. i cannot blame you, little coward. better you die now. the gods are faithless. the poison is in your heart.

percy backs towards the hole, looks out. and as the chimera sends another blast of fire his way, as he starts to burn...jumps.

the percy of today comments, ] And that's how I found out water doesn't hurt me. Even from six hundred thirty feet up.

[arcreact]

Just a super spider I know.

[ Does that clear up that question? No? Good, that's fine.

Tony watches the rest with mounting incredulity. It confirms the demigod thing Percy had said, at the very least - Poseidon? - which Tony had still been on the fence about believing. But really, once you're pals with Thor and Loki has thrown you out of your penthouse window, what's the use in selective disbelief?

So, fine, the kid is the son of Poseidon. Apparently. Damn. ]

That was a little, uh - [ He aborts the thought because he apparently can't find a word that succinctly encapsulates everything he just watched. ] Wait, is this why you don't like flying?

[phykios]

A what?

[ if he seems a little displeased at the idea -- well. you try meeting arachne and then see how well you like the idea of super spider people after that.

at the question, he frowns. ]

What, that fall? No way. The air is Zeus's domain. He'd strike down any plane I got on.

[ zeus, the most loving of uncles. ]

https://data.whicdn.com/images/90030908/large.jpg

[webdesigned]

( at first, being dropped into a figment of his past is incredibly welcome. Peter does not realize he's dragged someone else along for the ride and instead is too willing to be lost in the memory to notice anything but. there's the thrum of city life, people going about their lives with little attention paid to anything else. brutally new yorker in their refusal to see anything five inches away from them, unless it runs into them and then they might notice (though not politely).

it's more than the people, though a lot of it is the people. the loud voices, the constant hum of conversations, the transactions at street vendors and the occasional shouting match across deadlocked traffic. it's the city itself, too, the lights and signs and the enormous slices of metal and glass stretching toward the skyline.

Peter has missed home every day since he lost it, and suddenly seeing it makes him homesick enough he could nearly cry. perhaps he might have, if the normal din of the city did not slowly start shifting to shrieks of terror. then the memory seems less like a memory and more like a nightmare, maybe even one he's been having quite recently, until Peter looks down the busy street and sees the unmistakable plume of gray smoke curling along the sidewalk. )

Oh, come on! ( of all the memories he had to fall into, it had to be the one where people were being transformed into lizards, didn't it. )

[phykios]

[ peter isn't the only one who wouldn't mind staying in this memory. missing new york city is less like missing a place and more like missing a best friend. it's the people; it's the views; it's the food; it's everything. percy's only been away for a couple of months, not as long as a lot of people here, but he misses home powerfully. the sudden immersion back in the city is enough to knock him breathless.

but something's wrong. and when peter speaks up, percy turns towards him with a furrowed brow. ]

What? What's happening?

feel free to let this go if i am too late responding!!

[webdesigned]

( if only they could just get lost in the memory, enjoy the remnant of the city that had been so fundamental for both of them. Peter did not get half enough time to truly relish the reminder of his home, though perhaps no amount of time would have been enough. he's been homesick since the day he landed and wandering around in the remnants drawn straight out of his head probably wouldn't help. if anything, it might make things worse.

though, he can't say he misses this part of his life in the city. the constant attacks, the threats, the danger. it is odd to be watching in on the terror the citizens of the city felt when usually he's sky-high, lost in the adrenaline of finding and stopping a threat. if he watches, will he see himself swing across the sky?

(what on earth is happening right now?)

Peter can't place the inquiry as something from the memory or perhaps someone dragged into it with him. either way, his answer is the same. ) We've got to run. That smoke? We don't want to be hit by it.