Fandoms: Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Ancient Greek Religion & Lore
Characters: Athena (Greek Religion & Lore), Annabeth Chase (Percy Jackson & the Olympians), Percy Jackson (Percy Jackson & The Olympians)
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Opened my eyes and there was everything. It burns. Hot gold washed away from my vision still wrapped around my body.
Beautiful. Warm. It stuck to my skin like the silk youād use to swaddle a babe. It held me like the most precious thing.
Then again. When I had everything. The gold followed me.
Clotted, muted, scalding. Like bile clawing itās way along my body, it pricked and lashed at me like it knew what I had done. It crushed me like a Lion with a cub that wasnāt itās own.
Warmth trickled down from my the tops of my temple to the bottom of my mandible. The gold pooled and consumed my vision till I was as blind as the first minute I was born, gold wrapped my body like a tired goodbye.
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I go Christmas shopping and itās... normal?
My name is Annabeth Chase, Iām a demigod daughter of Athena (yes the Greek goddess), architect of Olympus, two time world saviour and the first Athenian to see and recover the Athena Pantheons single handedly, so as you can see Iāve done many things. Except this. Itās an extremely simple task and I should be able to do it. However, Iāve never been Christmas shopping before and the last I celebrated Christmas was when I was six, it was with Helen and-
Well anyway, I told Piper and co I havenāt had a Christmas with actual friends before, the camp doesnāt exactly celebrate Christmas; they have their own winter thing itās just not the same, when I told them that they blew up! Well, Leo blew up (completely unprompted) ,the others were just baffled. So they came together and made me a Christmas starter kit things to buy;
ā¢ Cookie ingredients ( blue dye!!)
ā¢ 14 Gingerbread house kits
ā¢ 7 tubs of blue frosting
A pack of all blue jolly ranchers gets dunked into the shopping cart followed by an excited hiss of āyessssāfrom the next aisle, I imagine heās probably fist bumping the air too. At least Percy seems to be in his element, Sally did say she worked in a candy store, he knows more about what candy works with gingerbread houses and what doesnāt, but really? Jolly ranchers?
āYou sure Percy? Jolly ranchers donāt seem conventional for gingerbread houses.ā
Thereās a heavy pitterpatter of feet before Percy tackles me from behind before he looped his arm over my neck.
āI thought you liked a challenge Wisegirl or are you telling me the architect of Olympus canāt build a gingerbread house with fun decorations.ā He leaned dramatically into my back with the whole hand on forehead thing like Leo does.
Heās setting a trap for me he knows I know and Iām not falling for it today because Iām better than that
āMaybeee you know me and Leo aāā āLeo and I,ā sorry reflex, āāare gonna beat you so bad you wonāt be able to build ever again.ā
Wow. Heās going straight to my pride, I thought he loved me.
āIām going destroy you and your stupid team nameā we look at each other with all the hate we can muster up, pushing our foreheads against each otherās like weāre rival rams fighting to the death. āsnrk-ā Percy breaks first because heās weak and Iām superior.
But it is nice to hear his laugh again, I was starting to miss how he just lets go when heās fully laughing like that, āOk, Iāll put up an entertaining fight for you.ā He cracks his back and stops slouching so heās be taller than me, to compensate for his loss.
āYep, least you can do. Cāmon stupid I got all the stuff on the list, you go get the extra stuff,ā Percy stared at me until I went on my tiptoes and give a kunik before he goes, I even get a little giggle from Percy when my nose tickles his the side of his cheek. Youād never expect such a soft noise from such a demigod, if I had to describe the laugh itād be like when my dad took my to the movies for the first time and that smell of buttery freshly made popcorn draws you in and make you even more excited to see whatās on the big screen for the week. Percyās laugh had the same effect on me.
Percy races off to go find more blue candy Iāve never heard of before, I donāt even know where he finds them Iāve never seen any of the candy he gets in the store when I come alone, itās like they only appear for him. I should ask him about it sometimes.
It feels nice to be like this, shopping for Christmas, arguing about candy, just normal things. Itās actually been a while since anything happened, itās a little uncomfortable because with us every calm borders an oncoming storm.
But hey donāt look a gift-horse in the mouth. I donāt wanna worry about the future right now, I donāt want to think about how easy this moment can be ruined, I donāt want to think about last year, I just donātā
Where was I? Right, checking out. Scanner beeping, bright blue candy, plastic wrapper in my hand, smell of the sterilised grocery store, metal at the back of my throat. Iām here right now checking out.
Me, Percy, Piper and Leo are doing a gingerbread house contest again. Leo challenged me to a rematch (and stole Percy for his team) because heāll never accept that Iām better at buildings than him and Iām more than happy to prove him wrong again.
Weāre also getting a discount for stuff because Sallyās friend works here. Iām explaining that because Iām ignoring the Percy coloured blur that was speeding between the aisles on a cart full ofā¦blue. Heās like a blue athletic Santa, that only has the blue version of everything. Wait.
Some gods explained to us that their continued existence is perpetuated by belief, a god canāt die unless the very memory of them is completely erased or the core of their existence has been tainted so much it doesnāt even exist anymore. I think Apollo mentioned that even if he doesnāt drag the sun across the sky the other forces will move the sun across the sky, including science physics, the the power of pure belief. Does that mean Santa exists?
By all means he could. Heās a figure with multiple sources of legend, according to legend he has powers and he has many, believers who are children but still believers.
āWhatcha thinkin bout?ā Percy, satisfied with his rampage on the candy aisle and dumped his horde on the checkout. The employee just looks like him with an excruciatingly dead look in her eyes, even more dead than a corpse and Iāve seen actual ghosts before. I send out a little prayer for her before facing Percy.
āYou think Santa exists?ā Beep
āI mean think about it, exist by belief, stories, power.ā It makes complete sense and by the blank look in Percyās eyes heās also making that revelation. The employee seems to be both listening to the conversation and judging us if her twitching eyebrow is saying anything (I canāt blame her, this is deranged behavior by mortal standards)
After we get our bags we pile them up in the back and I take the driverās seat (as much as I love him I cannot let him drive) we agreed to shelve the Santa topic until we get back to everyone, so we just talk about random things. How excited we are for the first Christmas weāre gonna have together, Sallyās cooking ,how weāre gonna beat each other so bad at the competition, presents, Sallyās cooking, prank gifts, did Percy mention heās excited for Sally Christmas cooking?
I parallel park in front of the apartment and start unloading the unholy amount bags of blue things. Down the road we see the most beautiful lady walking towards us, wavy brown hair more luscious than the strawberry fields, a smile warmer than any ambrosia, wrinkles and smile lines that perfectly show the kindness in her face and lastly her blue eyes that sparkle like the clearest lake in all the lands. The lady of the hour, Sally Jackson.
āAnnabeth! Percy, youāre back. Could you help with these bags, love?ā How could anyone ever deny a request from the greatest woman in the world. Percy adds the bags to his stack, at least thereās a little more variety of colour in that now
āThatās a big haul you got, I thought you were only making two houses?ā Fair question this is an insane amount of candy for only two mini houses, counterpoint. We are Demi-gods.
āThis is the perfect amount.ā For the houses were building? Hopefully we have enough candy for the houses. Sally doesnāt question us, itās useless to question demigod activity, especially if what weāre doing is supposed to be normal, mortal activity.
The apartmentās not big but it fits all of us just fine, the room is filled with Christmas decorations but it still had that cozy lived in feel it always had, itās just a lot more festive now. Speaking of lived in, almost everyoneās here, Piper, Leo and of course Mr. Blofis; heās the judge. (Hazel and Frank couldnāt make it sadly)
āHello demigods!ā Sally came in last and waved at them like a queen to her subjects.
āHii Mrs. Jacksonā they all say it together like a hive mind. Itās one of the few times our group are completely in sync, this and life or death situations but between you and me, I prefer this to the fighting for your life thing we have every year.
Competition fighting however, a different story. Leo (and by extension Percy) is directly challenging me at my own domain and I canāt just leave this blatant disrespect uncorrected, cue evil laugh. I (gently) dumped the gingerbread kits on the table in front of Leo, Iāll call his bluff one last time, give him a chance to turn back before I completely destroy him. He doesnāt budge, instead he grabs seven packs of the pile and takes the seat opposite of me at the folded table Sally just set up for us. Percy takes his position beside Leo (the traitor) and Piper takes her position beside me.
Leo clears his throat and stands on the chair, he raises a glass clinking it with a spoon to get peopleās attention (even though everyone was already looking at him when he stood up) āLadies and gentleman,ā he throws his arms up like the greatest showman āand Piper,ā he added and the look she gave,I thought Hades was about to personally visit us in a special suit and tie.
āhahaā¦hah. Ahem, Welcome to the third annual Builder V.S Builder Christmas ver. Extravaganza com-pet-ti-tion!ā Leo reaches down to press a key on the laptop, but he proceeds to stumble on the chair, tries to course correct by veering to the right, over corrects and tips the chair over, āoUuaHhāā and him along with it; annnnnnnddd- CRASH.
Percy presses the key and a power point slide transitions in with a 3D cube spin, itās a poorly made presentation with āBuilder V.S Builder Christmas ver. Extravaganza com-pet-ti-tionā thatās red text on black background and animated bit crushed flames, after three whole seconds of silence a party horn plays. (that one, you know the one)
āThank you. Per-manā flambĆ© huffed, still face down on the floor. Iām a little tempted to start while heās down but that would be unsportsmanlike and itād be far too boring.
āSO. Da ruuullleeezz,ā Leo bounced back to the table, combing his hair back like a tv show host just for his curls to immediately bounce back like a spring āWe start by timer goes and we end by the timer. No using powers to build the houseāā
ābut messing with each other is fair game!ā Piper asserted āyeah yeah, messing with each other is fair gameā he mumbled, then clears his throat āNo touching each otherās houses, no hitting, scratching, slashing, bitinā, pullinā, stabbinā-ā
āNo blowtorches or power tools!ā I had to add because what happened last year? Leo only won because my house was collateral damage.
Leo clicks his tongue and rolls his eyes like he didnāt force us to make that rule āYeeesss, no blowtorch and power tools I get it I get it,ā he grumbled, slumping onto a chair to start pulling out stuff from his person. After about a minute he finishes thereās a two foot tall pile of tools at the base of the table.
āNow where was I. Rules, rules, rules,ā he flips through a little notebook he pulled out his belt, āno, no, no, no, nananana. Hah, there it is. No dropping anything on the floor annnd. The last rule, no matter what you do, never ever ever under any circumstances EVER. Have your house builder leave the table.ā Leo throws the book away and it disintegrates into nothingness.
Mr. Blofis moves to sit between the two teams and hovers his hand above the stop clock. āI hereby declare the competition between the team uh- steamers and the team hearts of owls, a start!ā Time slows, Leo and I lock eyes as we tense our bodies coiling in like a snake, Paulās hand goes lower and lower towards the button; last yearās defeat was a a failure on my part and now I have to get ahead of him again, Paulās hand will get to the button inā
In under a minute I have the base of the floor finished, three normal panels, middle large, two mid sized ones side by side it, one hexagon. Piper starts on cutting the pieces into windows sills, door frames and any and all little details she can think of but even if it looks like weāre making progress, Leoās right behind us. I grab a bunch of the communal candy at the middle of the table, itās time to prepare
āPipes. smash and melt. Even squares.ā She salutes at my command and dash to the kitchen area and politely asking Sally for her rolling pin and cutting board, I refocus back to building the bones of my house when I hear aāvery. Loud. banging in the background.
Finally finished the interior and walls of the house, installed the sills, the door frame and door, stairs, mini furniture (thatās actually just biscuit boxes in a variety of sizes). I just need to finish the exterior with the final touches.
After thirty minutes into building I finished touching up the exterior now I just need my windows, āPiper? Gonna need those meltedāāuh.
Piper seems to be a little busy fighting off a water tentacle with a pot lid. So it has startedāThe tentacles are trying to wrench the tray of our melted blue jolly ranchers away from Piperās hand. If those candies are taken away from us weāll be put at a major disadvantage, but I canāt leave my chair nor can Piper hold that position forever. So either Piper stays there and distract Percy so he canāt help Leo but lose our decorations or we risk Piper throwing the decorations and dropping them to the floor.
Leoās only starting on the structure of his house so adding the candy window now would likely put us at a major advantage against them because even if we run out of time weāll still have a fully furnished first floor and Leoās team would only have the hollow bones of the house. Five minutes till halftime judge.
āPiper! Throw it to me!ā She locks in, looks to me and nods, she spins around, bashing the water on the way, grabs the tray and throws it when she faces me again.
āALLEY-OOPā Piper yelled out and shoots the tray. It sails through the air in a perfect arch, spinning and spinning like its actively trying to shake off its candy passengers but the melted candy hangs on for their dear non-existent lives. Itās in a perfect line to land in right my hands.
But first it busted though Chironās face that suddenly shimmered into existence.
(Test test. A first chapter thing. Iāll add more things to it probably, feed back appreciated)
