Archive of Our Own ^beta

In his defense, Percy hadn’t quite grasped the scope of the drama course when he signed up for it.

He thought it would be easy enough, then he turned up to the first class in Goode High’s theatre (usually only reserved for assemblies and concerts) and was given the largest ring binder he’d ever seen for coursework. They were expected to fill the. Whole. Thing.

He decided to choose loads of creative subjects: fine arts, food technology, music and drama. He figured if he could cut down on his written exams then he could study more for the harder ones and it would be easier.

He was dead wrong.

He had to fill three whole sketchbooks for art, write up to fifty pages for food tech, compose at least two songs AND learn an instrument for music and then there was drama… oh drama was the worst.

He had to analyse so. Many. Plays!!! They were all so depressing too! Metamorphosis, Romeo and Juliet, a View from the Bridge- but he couldn’t drop it, not with his scholarship on the line.

Yeah, he was shocked by that too. But, his mum was an author and his step-father an english teacher, they had a new baby on the way and were still sending him to private school! Since he wasn’t actually related to Paul he didn’t exactly get the fee cut that most teachers had for their kids, so he was determined to help lessen the load anyway he could!

Percy had applied for basically all the scholarships and was shocked he got one at all! Let alone the drama one (he supposed spending so much time around the god of theatre could do that for you). And that meant he got a 15% fee cut! But he also has to participate in pretty much all the extra stuff lest he lose it.

So here he was, sitting in the theatre, waiting for the school play’s auditions to start and next to his most hyper (and only) mortal friend, Rachel.

Percy had never been more pleased to hear about an expulsion in his life when Rachel told him about her departure from that fancy girl’s school. Very quickly after becoming the Oracle she learned that any supposed fortune telling device, no matter how fake, would work with almost 100% accuracy if she was the one who used it. She sold her services at her very catholic girls school and was expelled by the end of the year for “devil worship”. Goode was very excited to have her father’s funding back so they were pretty lax about what she could or couldn’t do, she was still running that ‘business’.

It was nice to have her around so much, they had the same art class so they spent a lot of time chatting, sometimes it was normal school gossip, sometimes it was demigod gossip (Percy even mentioned Atlantean news from time to time- fish are all nosy bastards but it makes for fun conversation) he was sure by now their classmates either thought they were insane or LARPing.

Percy was snapped out of his blatant exposition dump by a prod the elbow, right on his funny bone. He jumped and twisted around to Rachel, who grinned back as innocently as the cat who caught the canary.

“What the heck was that for?!” He demanded, but there was no real bite.

“Mrs. Godwin just asked all the boys to go up to sing, that includes you Mr. Scholar,” she winked and handed him a lyric sheet, it had a few Choruses of the show’s songs on it, Wouldn’t you like, Survive, Thunder Bringer, Open Arms, Ruthelessness. Gods, how long was this going to take?

Without another word he shuffled over to the growing line of boys: They were all fiddling, cheeks flushed and taking glances at each other and their friends back in the seats, some were tussling in the line. It was kind of funny how quickly they all switched up to embarrassment when they were even a inch outside of their comfort zone.

He was a little embarrassed too but he was determined not to show it, Mrs. Godwin (quite possibly the most wonderful teacher on earth (sorry not sorry Paul) and definitely of godly descent) had promised in the last class that is they got a major role in this (a named part with at least one dedicated song) they would only have to do half the work for the final exam and could use this to put towards their grade.

Percy did not want to write an essay of the hopelessness of Gregor Samsa and how it’s portrayed in the lighting of the first scene, no thank you.

And if he had to put on his wolf-stare to avoid blushing? Then it was nobodies’ business (especially not Lupa’s).

He tried to parse the Script while he waited but there were just so many lines, he was probably going to say them all wrong.

Gods, he was nervous. It was weird, he’d bested Titans and Giants but he couldn’t swallow a high school show audition?

But he wasn’t going to let anyone see that, especially not Rachel or Paul who were sitting in the crowd and smiling encouragingly. Not Piper either, who wa- wait why was Piper here?

“Come on up, Percy! It’s your time to shine!” Mrs. Godwin called out, it almost felt like a betrayal how such a lovely woman could force him to do this.

He didn’t have any more time to question Piper as he hurried up, mumbling apologies all the way.

Ms. French (the sweet but stern head of the music department) played the first twinkling notes of Wouldn’t you like, and Percy frantically went over the lyrics one more time. He groaned internally as they flew about the page and decided to just sing what sounded about right.

It was a painful slog through the first songs. Percy wasn’t a bad singer, but he just wasn’t all that great either. He eventually got into the groove though, Ms. French’s flawless piano accompaniment guided him, and he sounded okay even if he got some words wrong. After a while he managed to steady his voice, it sounded much better, the shakiness before kind of messed it all up.

When he got to the Ruthlessness section he was feeling much more confident, even if he knew for a fact that he got a bunch of the lyrics wrong. He was on the home stretch and was still determined to get that cut to his workload, so he sang.

“The line between

Naïveté and hopelessness

Is almost invisible

So cross your heart

The world is dark

And ruthlessness is mercy,”

He was panting by the time it was all over, the campfire songs were so much easier. He wasn’t even bothered by the lines he got wrong, he got more right than he thought he would.

He scanned the room, it was suspiciously quiet, he thought for a moment there had been a monster attack, but no. Everyone was just staring at him, silently. Hell, even Piper and Jason were aghast- hang on, Jason was here too?!

Mrs. Godwin lit up, clapping at lightspeed, slowly the rest of the room followed suit, if a bit more hesitantly. He was shocked himself, was he really so bad he’d left everyone speechless and his teacher laughing at him?

“Oh, bravo, Percy! Bravo!” She exclaimed, still clapping. He whipped around to stare at her, his wolffish gaze melted into something more incredulous.

“You really captured the scene perfectly! Poseidon’s cold wrath, just- wow! No wonder you're a scholar,” She praised, Percy was flushing now. He was pretty sure the scholarship was a pity thing, to build up his self esteem after loosing a year of school, he wasn’t actually an actor.

“Uhm… thank you, miss,” he was a little stumped for words, so he just went with; “Sorry if I got some of the lyrics wrong, I’m dyslexic…”

“Oh, don’t worry dear! This was more about testing your strengths and weaknesses, you’ll have plenty of time to learn the songs later on,” Mrs. Godwin waved her hand placatingly. Percy stood there for a little longer before hurrying back off the stage so the next kid could go up, someone in his class called… Jorge?

He plopped down next to his apparently growing collection of friends.

“Dude, that was so good!” Jason marvelled “I felt like you were going to strike me down right there and then! Reminded me of- of Kymopoleia, even!” he actually shuddered at the mention. Percy didn’t really know what to do with that praise either, he hadn’t considered the consequences of using his most I-am-going-to-stab-you scowl to steel himself, but he guessed this was it.

“What are you two doing here??” Percy accused, ignoring the previous statement, “actually, better question. Piper, how the Hades do you know Rachel?!” The two girls in question made eye contact, snickering like it was an inside joke before Piper turned to him and decided to grace him with an explanation.

“Well, I wanted some advice on Katoptris and I thought ‘who better to ask that the actual prophet at camp?’-“ Piper started.

“-Then we just kept bumping into each other at galas and stuff and… we kinda just hit it off from there!” Rachel finished. Percy caught Jason’s eye, he had a similar look of apprehension at the news but neither said anything.

“But that doesn’t matter now, Perce- when you sang that last part, it was incredible! Like, I’ve heard you at the campfire but this was at a different level!” Piper squealed, grinning.

“Oh no no no,” Percy refuted, shaking his head almost frantically “I’m- no- guys, I’m not a singer, I’m just not!” He couldn’t help but gulp when Rachel and Piper shared another knowing look.

“Well, even so, your acting was great!” Rachel said in a calmer voice, then immediately perked back up with her token evil grin “whoa, what if you got Odysseus?! Ha! Imagine the family drama, that might just start another Great Prophecy, hehe...” Jason visibly paled, recoiling at the notion. Poor guy was scared to death of the sea, he felt the way about Poseidon that Percy should probably feel about Zeus.

"Ugh, don't even joke about that," Percy winced.

Then they were shushed, and Percy figured (like a true scholar) that they really shouldn’t be talking through auditions, it was rude to the people who actually wanted to be here. So he lost the opportunity to insist that, really, no, he was not that good and it was wishful thinking to hope that he could get a main part.

He cursed that he still didn’t know why Jason and Piper were here. Seriously, they should be at school- their own school.

A week later Percy was standing in front of the cast list. Sweating.

Well, he wasn’t exactly in front of it, more like lingering at the back of a loud crowd around the cast list. It was moments like this that made him wish he could have electronics, it would be so easy to snap a photo and run if he had any kind of digital camera, granted it would be so blurry he wouldn’t be able to read the damn thing but it would be far better than loitering here.

He jumped almost a metre when someone grabbed his shoulder, he almost pulled out his sword there and then, but he felt the very human shape of the hand and decided he probably shouldn’t stab a classmate.

“Congrats, Percy! I don’t think there was a better choice for the part than you, and if the audition said anything then I just know you’ll do great!” Said a feminine voice. He turned and took in her appearance, slicked back brunette hair in a ponytail, a summer dress and hoodie combination, two small pink gemstones in her ears…

Yep, this was Stacy alright, the female drama scholar and one of his classmates in drama class, she was always volunteering to do group work with him but she seemed reluctant every time. Percy didn’t know quite what to make of her…

“Thanks, Stacy,” He replied with automatic politeness. Wait, if she was congratulating him that meant she had seen the poster and- “H-hey, actually can you tell me what my part is I-“ but she had already run off to her friends, they were all giggling about something, he really hoped that wasn’t a dare.

After another five minutes of unproductive waiting for the crowd to thin he was just about to give up when Rachel dashed around the corner.

“PERCY, IS THE LIST UP!?!?” She all but yelled, grabbing his shoulders and shaking him with all her strength.

“Rach- Rachel, what?” He peeled her hands away and stepped back, trying his best to shake the dizziness away.

“Is the list up?!” She probed again “the cast list, I mean, is it up?” She looked frantic, almost nervous, even.

“Uhm, yeah? Yes- yes it is, why do you care so much? You didn’t audition,” Percy asked, to which Rachel deadpanned.

“First of all, I am appalled that you thought I wouldn’t care about this, you’re my friend, Percy, and you’re not getting rid of me that easily! Secondly…” Rachel tapped her thumbs together and then mumbled something so quietly Percy doubted even a god could hear. She looked back up, sheepish and nervous, and noticing his questioning gaze repeated the statement only a decibel louder:

“…the betting pool…”

“THE WHAT?!?” Percy yelled and at the turning of a few heads he was prompted to lower his volume “the what?” He hissed.

“Okay, okay so I know it sounds bad but…” she started and Percy couldn’t help but snort at the understatement “We thought it would be funny and- Percy you don’t understand, I put so much money on this thing! I asked the Zoltar in the big house attic and a magic eight ball and like, ten fortune cookies and-“ Percy didn’t want to question why the camp had a Zoltar machine as he cut in with a more pressing query.

“Rachel, who is we?” Percy did not need the entire camp to know he was doing the school play, least of all EPIC:THE MUSICAL which was practically a retelling of his own second year at camp.

“Oh, uhm, not that many? Err well there’s me, Piper, Annabeth- basically the whole Seven barring Frank and Hazel… err… Oh! There’s Grover, Thalia, Reyna, the Hermes cabin, the Nike cabin, the Dionysus cabin and… Clarisse?” Percy blue screened.

“Wh- CLARISSE?!?” At his shout Rachel whipped her head over her shoulder like she thought he could summon the her.

“Well, yeah. But she kinda bet that you would be baby Astyanax so I don’t really know how serious she was about that…” Rachel tugged on stray strands of her red locks and hopped from foot to foot, there was no way just the idea of Clarisse alone was making her this anxious.

“And that’s everyone?” Percy questioned, shamelessly putting all his interrogative skills to work. Rachel jumped and the fluorescent lights shone like a flash bang (he didn't feel like questioning if she had powers now so he was going to ignore it).

“Yes!” She yelped far too quickly “Come on, let’s just check the list!” She seized his wrist and used the mass disorientation to shove to the front of the crowd.

Percy finally got a peek at the list after being blocked from seeing it (read: stalling) for so long. He quickly scanned from the bottom, sure he would find himself in the role of Soldier 8 or Wind Spirit 3, but he wasn’t there! So he went from the top instead.

It was no surprise that Jorge was Odysseus, the guy had an incredible voice, he was probably the only guy who could go for the full two hours, there was no doubt he was a music scholar. And Stacy was Athena, she deserved the role for sure, no matter how weird Percy thought she was she was a hard worker and a brilliant actress.

He kept going down the list Penelope, Polites, Eurylachus, Telemachus and…

Written right next to the name of his father, in block capitals was his own name, it read:

'POSEIDON - PERSEUS ACHILLES JACKSON'

Percy was floored. One one hand he got a major role, that meant he wouldn’t have to do the full final paper, so it was a huge win. On the other; what the fuck? How did he get a major role? Did Rachel meddle for her betting pool? How?! And on the third… well… it was his dad, he had to play his dad in a musical where he was an antagonist!! This was going to be so awkward! Then again, he was pretty sure Poseidon didn’t really need to find out…

Next to him Rachel was let out such a long row of expletives so blasphemous that Percy felt the need to back away so he didn’t get caught in a stray lighting bolt. She whipped out a sheet of paper and started furiously scribbling, the top read: ‘Who’s Percy gonna be?’ or something else to that effect, so he guessed the Rachel meddling theory was ruled out.

He didn’t really have time to ask her though as the bell rang and the short break ended, Rachel stormed off to (hopefully) her next class and Percy scampered to his.

When he arrived at drama Mrs. Godwin handed him the largest stack of paper he had ever seen, precariously held together by different layers of staples. She smiled so warmly at his and quietly congratulated him before hurrying to the projector to start their lesson on body language.

Percy left school that day with a much heavier backpack, and incredibly nervous, but somehow a little excited.

Percy was sure this was the most apprehensive he had ever been in his life.

It was the first rehearsal after school and he was sat at the back of the theatre. And he was not clutching his bag, just making sure it didn't get stolen.

For context, the last school production he ever done was the Lion King Jr, when he was eight, he was Zebra 5. Percy was not a ‘theatre kid’ by any stretch and he had absolutely no idea what to expect of this.

Before the cast list came out he had thought that he would get all the details from this rehearsal then decide if he wanted to tell his friends, which would be done with moderation and subtly. Unfortunately, Rachel dashed that plan with her -apparently very scary- betting pool.

“So, Athena and Poseidon, huh? A god and goddess… we could be a duo!” Stacy said in a hushed tone as she sat down next to him. Percy didn’t really get what she meant, there were loads of gods in this play, why would these two be a duo specifically? There was also the matter of…

“Actually, Athena and Poseidon have a pretty big feud. When they competed over being the patron god of Athens they got really competitive, then Athena won… and… well, they’ve both been salty about it ever since,” Percy commented, Stacy seemed taken aback, blinking rapidly with her mouth agape. When she noticed his attention on her she straightened up again.

“That’s… uhm…” She wet her lips, eyes flicking over to the row of seats at the front of the hall where her friends were perched, “That’s really cool, Percy! You know a lot about this stuff!” She smiled up at him with a taught grin, did he really hurt her feelings that much with the feud thing?

“Yeah, I’m… of Hellenic descent, I guess you could say…” he chuckled, that was one way to put it. Quickly he tacked on “Also don’t worry about the Poseidon-Athena thing, we can still work together if you want? I think basing your own grudges on other people’s is ridiculous,” Stacy lit back up at that.

“Yay! That’s great! You definitely know your stuff, maybe you can help me with my lines?” She stared right into him with glistening eyes.

“Hah! I should be asking you that! I’m super dyslexic, if either of us needs help with lines it’s me,” He said, grinning wryly. Just then, she perked up as if a light had gone on right behind her eyes.

“Hey, does that mean you, like, believe in the Greek gods?” She put a finger to her chin, brows scrunched as she leaned closer. He leaned back.

“I mean, I wouldn’t rule them out altogether. But I don’t know if I’d really want them to exist, they all seem like assholes to me,” Percy said , snapping his fingers with perfect timing as a strike of lighting flashed outside, he had to stop from cackling so as not to freak out Stacy, but he still silently noted: Percy-1, Zeus-0.

Despite his best efforts Stacy still seemed thoroughly freaked out, so it was probably good that Mrs. Godwin had stepped up on stage and started to address the 50+ pending child actors all lingering for rehearsals to start.

“Thanks for coming, everyone!” She boomed, everybody jumped at the volume and she gestured to someone at the back of the room to lower it.

“Well, that was a great start,” She smiled at the room, “Now, I have some very exciting announcements to make before we start on the admin, so: as you know, every year we as a department open up for donations to hopefully increase the budget, this year we’ve had a total of four whole major contributions!!” Her grin grew impossibly bigger at the notion and she still seemed astounded despite probably having known the news for a while now.

“The first two are anonymous donations but- but they’re very large, so if you know who gave them please thank them for me!” Mrs. Godwin was swaying in delight as she listed them “And we must also thank Dare Enterprises and the McClean Royalties Fund for generously deciding to sponsor this project, who are each covering the cost of the Venue and Costumes respectively,” Her eyes sparkled as she glanced of stage before continuing.

“All this is the courtesy of Miss Rachel Dare and Miss Piper McClean,” She made welcoming gesture to the wings and Percy’s stomach sank as he realised where Rachel (and by extension Piper) had been this whole time. They strutted out onto the stage, both making shameless and unrelenting eye contact with him, like they were determined to give him trouble.

“Rachel will be helping organise the art and effects department while Piper does the same for the costume and textiles section,” Mrs. Godwin clasped her hands with joy and Percy tried to ignore the devilish grin Piper was sending his way. She didn’t even come to this school, how was she allowed to be here?!

“Everybody, this is wonderful news! We may have the biggest budget of any school musical. Ever. So I want us all to make the most of it, please learn all your lines to the best of your ability and note all stage directions, by the end of this production your scripts should be twice as thick!” Her joyful shock was contagious as murmurs started up, not contagious enough to lift Percy’s sense of dread, though.

“We’ll even be able to give all our profits to charity…” she marvelled, Mrs. Godwin's voice so soft and disbelieving she sounded like she couldn’t tell if she was dreaming.

“For those of you who don’t have internet access I burned some CDs with the soundtrack, they’re at the front, and we can actually afford it! Ah ha ha!” She laughed in disbelief before calming herself with a few deep breaths “Now, if you’re in the first group please make your way to the front and we’ll start on directions…”

Percy didn’t really know how to feel about this whole thing, all he knew was that Piper and Rachel were going to run their departments like Tyrants. He thought Stacy may have whispered something to him but he didn’t really hear, he just got his script out and carried on highlighting his lines from where he stopped of last night.

When he was eventually called up to meet his group he felt a mild but nagging sense of foreboding, all he could do about it now was hope for the best.

Orchestra was always an interesting environment. It was a melting pot of kids from all cliques in the school, from misfit music kids to the top of the school prom Kings and Queens, which is to say not very social.

The trumpet players were all pretentious assholes, the clarinettists were meek and quiet, the violinists were there because their parents made them and the percussionists just wouldn’t shut up (seriously, when we stop playing to focus on a section we stop playing). Obviously they didn't all follow that pattern, but it was a pattern.

Sure there were some tentative friendships, a cellist and double bassist who loved to snipe and quip at one another, a trombonist who would quote Star Wars at anyone who would listen and a little flutist who would always look to him for reassurance with a nervous grin (she was pretty adorable to be honest, she was just a little kid but he couldn’t imagine why she thought to highly of him).

Percy was sitting in the brass section, squinting at the top of the piece trying to comprehend the key signature and failing miserably (F#, G# and C#? He was going to ignore that last one, he did not know the fingerings for a high C#) he was next to George, who was nice enough and possibly the only other person with an E♭ Tenor Horn in the world.

Originally Percy had wanted to play the drums or a piano but there was no way they could fit even an electric version of either in their tiny New York apartment. As a fall back he wanted to maybe play the Tuba, but that was still too big so he settled for a Euphonium but, well, all the school’s renting options were far too pricey. As a last resort he had begged Austin to let him borrow a spare instrument from the Apollo cabin and lo and behold the Tenor Horn was the closest thing to what he wanted.

Currently they were all ‘tuning up’ which was more like a cacophony of random bars from meme songs or the imperial march. Finally Ms. French arrived, she was followed by two unfortunate sax players who she must have caught in the hallway, all three of them were burdened with stacks upon stacks of sheet music. The two students slammed their stacks down on the piano and scurried to unpack their instruments.

“Right! Today we’re- BOYS, PUT THE STICKS DOWN!” She yelled at the percussionists, having shuffled behind the piano. Percy turned to glare at them too, they kept crashing the symbols directly behind his head and he was this close to reflexively punching Ralph. Thoroughly cowed, the boys finally gave the drum set a rest.

“Many of you have heard about the school production I’m sure. Well; it has a frankly insane budget, so the school has decided that we should participate as well- the full orchestra, that is,” Ms. French explained, organising the packets into different piles and flicking through the score.

“It’s optional, of course, you don't have to play at the show but we will be practicing during club time whether you want to or not. If you don’t want to participate or can’t because you’re already in the show, please come to me at the end and I’ll note you down, if not I’ll assume you’ll be there,” She finished, by the end of her little speech there were four clear piles of music. Percy listened half-heartedly, screwing and unscrewing his third valve, this didn’t really concern him.

“I’ve taken the liberty of printing a part for each of you so you don’t have to photocopy the whole thing to take it home, don’t loose these, I want you all practicing,” She handed the piles to their designated sections, and everybody got up to find their own parts. Eventually Percy got his, he already had a part in the show so he wouldn’t be playing but it might help to learn the cues if he had the sheet music, it was much easier on his dyslexia that English, he could probably jot down his lyrics between bars in greek.

He and George had the same part: Part 5. He looked around the room and could spot loads of different parts maybe even up to seven! The music they usually played seems to only ever have five parts at most so it was a pretty full piece (or polyphonic, as Ms. French would want him to say on the test) it turned out that he and George were the only ones part 5, which was weird but they could manage it.

Percy, realising how jammed his second valve was after a moment of fiddling, hastily tried to oil it. The child cap always slowed him down, and he knew he should probably take the whole thing out instead of just tipping it in the bottom hole, but it loosened.

Just in time Ms. French finished counting them in (wait- when had she started?! Damn ADHD) and Percy brought the mouthpiece to his lips, desperately trying to keep up as he sight-read the intro.

Taking one last glance at the thickness of the booklet he groaned internally; he would not be feeling his lips by the end of this.

It had been a few weeks now since the show started, they were running through the whole thing over the first rehearsals so they could figure out the choreography and entrances and exits.

Percy had basically been sitting out for every single one of them, busying himself by translating the lines to greek, trying not to think about the implications of his role or how his dad would take the whole thing (he couldn't tell if he'd be proud or offended). 

But today was the day, the day where Percy had to actually sing, sincerely, and pretend to be his dad.

So there he was, loitering in the wings as Keeps your Friends Close played, Jorge and a girl called Miranda twirling around each other with the ensemble running around behind them and being periodically stopped by Mrs. Godwin telling them to face the audience or correcting their stances or telling them to sing louder.

Quickly, Ensemble 1, who were playing the Wind Spirits then (he refuse to call them ‘winions’) ran off stage with Aeolus and were replaced by Ensemble 2, Odysseus’ crew. Percy gripped his broom to his chest as the groups rushed past him to get to their places, he was sandwiched against the wall, holding his breath.

As soon as he had the space to peek again he looked around the curtains, Mrs. Godwin was directing the cast to different spots and getting them to pull on the imaginary rigging as if the boat was rocking (apparently they might have an actual rocking platform for the show, that was just a rumour though)

Percy wanted to personally thank whichever god invented music players, it was so difficult to start and stop the orchestra when everyone was staring down at their music instead of the conductor and the damn percussionists just had to finish the bar. He was pretty excited about the live music, don’t get him wrong, but in the early stages it was more hassle than help. They would get to join in when they started doing dress rehearsals and everyone knew the songs.

Percy didn’t really know when he was supposed to go on but he figured Mrs. Godwin’s frantic gesturing was a good enough cue.

Percy strolled on nervously, clutching his broom-trident in a white knuckled grip. The instrumental part of the song faded out and the said his line:

“Odysseus of Ithaca,

Do you know who I am?”

The start of the next song begun to ramp up but was cut short by Mrs. Godwin, who wore a pinched expression.

“Percy, I have a few things to say…” she started, Percy bit his lip and tried to ignore the swelling of heat in his face. Gods, he just knew he wasn’t cut out for this, why did she pick him? He was crap at acting.

“This scene is Poseidon’s first clash with Odysseus, he’s angry and grieving, he’s out for revenge!” She proclaimed, he winced, looking back he definitely did not look or sound like a grieving god…

“I need you to be fierce! Imagine you have the power of armies and you want to use it all on one man!” Percy couldn’t help but find humour in that despite his embarrassment, he didn’t have to imagine that, not since the first war.

“How would you feel if your son was Permanently injured? How would use feel if… I don’t know… your mum was killed? Envision that an use it!!” He didn’t have to imagine that either, not after his first summer at camp, even if she hadn’t really died he still thought she had. It was more sobering that the last thought.

“Also, use your body! You have a trident- wield it! Strut like you own the place and you’re in full control of the situation!” She finished, Percy figured he could probably do that, it was better than whatever he had being doing before. At his nod she directed him “alright, go back to the wings and we’ll try the entrance again. You’ll do great, I know it!”

As the music started up again Percy steeled himself, he needed to be scary, terrifying, to look like an omen of death. He was no child of Hades but he would try anyway.

He stomped out with passion, swinging the broom menacingly in front of him, with so much force it was audible. When he stopped he lowered his head and pointed the tip of the brush of the broom straight at Jorge, he made eye contact through his hair before he jolted his head high and bellowed:

“ODYSSEUS OF ITHACA!!”

He let the words hang in the air for a moment to marinate. Then he lowered his volume as much as possible to still be heard at the audible at the back of the hall, in his most cold and spiteful voice he seethed:

“Do you know who I am?”

Jorge was just staring at him, looking lost for words and scared out of his wits, he was a really good actor. Then the music cut out again.

Percy lowered his broom and whipped to look at Mrs. Godwin for affirmation. She gave him a hearty smile.

“Good job, Percy! See what happens when you try to put yourself in the character’s shoes?” She turned turned to address everybody on stage, “Okay, let’s just block out the choreography for this next part, then you guys can try it and we’ll tweak it as we go along, hmm?” He nodded absently as they all huddle to the front of the stage to hear the teacher better.

In all honestly, Percy was still kinda on the edge about this whole thing, he wasn’t typically very good at anything school related, but he couldn’t exactly back out of it either… so he’d just try really hard and hope for the best!

Percy was not convinced that pearl-diving was necessary for a high school play costume, but Piper had promised to by him that new limited addition, blue donut that was being advertised everywhere, afterwards and he thought it was a fair enough trade (Blackjack may have pretty much kidnapped him at the offer too, under the impression they were both getting one).

So there they were, him, Rachel and Piper aboard a private yacht in the middle of nowhere, apart from a supposedly good pearl-diving spot. Jason, the traitor, stayed behind with the excuse that the sea of not a good place for a son of Zeus to be, and while Percy had argued that his dad was much more lenient that Zeus when it came to that sort of thing, he still lost the debate and was left all alone.

“You’re not just going to pawn these off to the highest bidder, are you?” He questioned one more time.

“Do either of us look like we need the money?” Rachel sassed from her place lounging on a beach chair, “If we have any spares we’ll make some jewellery you can give to Annabeth or something,”

“I doubt we will though,” Piper added “I mean, we also need pearls for Telemachus, Penelope, the Sirens-“

“Why would you need pearls for the sirens?” Percy asked, incredulous “they’re bird-people!” Piper rolled her eyes at that.

"They live in the ocean don’t they?” She explained, it was clear she had never had to pull her best friend from the rocks they were perched on. Just before Percy could correct that actually they didn’t live in the ocean, Rachel butted in.

“Oh! And don’t forget, we need seashells too!” She perked up like she had just remembered.

“You’ll have much better luck finding those at the beach, all the shells down there are taken, I not going to evict anyone for the sake of a costume,” Percy wrinkled his nose at the thought, that would just be cruel. Rachel nodded solemnly at the news.

“I guess that calls for a beach day too then,” She brushed a hand through her hair, it got caught very quickly “Okay, Aquaman, get going. We still need those ethically sourced pearls!” She pried her hand out and made a shooing motion.

Now that he was reassured about the legitimacy of the the pearls’ use he made no excuses as he dived straight in. Guiding the water around him he plunged to the sea floor, immediately spotting the oyster covered rocks hidden between swaying seaweed.

Now, oysters weren’t exactly the sharpest tools in the box, he wasn’t sure if they could comprehend human (or any) speech but they understood tones well enough.

Percy drifted down to one and gently scratched the lip of its shell like the chin of a dog. The rim shook like a purr but didn’t budge vertically, he tried a different tactic.

“Hey little buddy, would you please open up so I can get that itchy pearl out your chomper?” He spoke softly. The lid unclamped just slightly, so he kept going, talking about how uncomfortable that rock must be. This seemed to work as the oyster unstuck it’s stiff maw to reveal a lumpy, off-white pearl. No shucking needed!

Percy plucked the pearl from its bed and absently stroked the oyster’s top shell in thanks. He turned it over in his hands, it was bumpy and oval shaped with a small fleck of pink under one lump, it was rather large though, about the length of the top of his thumb.

As the oyster closed, contented and relieved, Percy took in the rest of the sea floor. There was a practical army of oysters and he didn’t know how many pearls he’d need… he stripped off his shirt and tied a large knot in it just under the arm holes, his mum would kill him for stretching it but he didn’t want to drop his hard won pearls.

Flipping the ‘bag’ upside down he threw his first catch in, he scrunched the entrance in his fist so nothing would fall out and carried on to sweet-talk the next oyster….

… this better be worth it.

Percy had not been putting off going to camp, not at all, and definitely not because of the supposed betting pool.

Which is why he was sitting at the Poseidon table in the amphitheatre, leaning over his art coursework as he painstakingly sketched the outline of clownfish. Not talking to anyone. As a matter of fact he was listening to the musical soundtrack on his portable CD player (he was so glad to have one of those, they didn’t even attract monsters!).

Admittedly though, that was why he jumped when Nico snuck up behind him.

“Ah! What the-! Oh, err… hi, Nico…” he chuckled awkwardly as he paused the music and took his earbuds out.

“Hey,” Nico said, slightly sharp and cutting straight to the chase “would you mind telling me why Rachel wanted me to resurrect the seer Tiresias to, and I quote ‘check out his fit’?” Percy winced at the accusatory look.

"Why do you assume that I know?! I'm not her keeper!" he protested. Nico's glare hardened, and Percy conceded "Okay, fine, I can probably guess why."

“So, umm… They’ve kinda commandeered the art department of my high school musical?” Percy answered, when Nico’s squint didn’t lessen he elaborated “The, uh, the seer guy is in it? They’re in charge of the costumes so I guess they wanted historical accuracy?” Nico’s expression lightened into something more akin to confusion, it was difficult to tell with him though.

“You’re in the school play?” Nico asked incredulously.

“Yeah, you may have heard about it around camp? Rachel had a betting pool,” he said, scoffing.

“But… why??” Nico definitely looked confused now.

“It’s for my scholarship, I have to take part in basically all the extra drama stuff to keep it,” Percy shrugged. Nico chocked in shock at the news (understandable) and blinked rapidly.

“Uh, wow…” Nico straighten out his face, putting something far more disinterested on his face and shifting his stance, his hands slipped into his pockets.

“Sorry, I just hadn’t pegged you as the kind of person who would have a… have a scholarship?” Nico finished tactfully, he winced at the phrasing but Percy understood, with his expulsion track record it was a miracle for him to get even a single award, let alone a scholarship. Percy just nodded with a hum in agreement.

It was quiet for a minute, Percy turned back to his sketchbook and added a touch of red to the base of one of the stripes like he knew what he was doing.

“Uhm…” Nico probed. Percy whipped around to stare, he was surprised he’d stuck around so long, “what’s the musical about?” Percy blinked uncomprehendingly for a minute, then…

“Oh, err… it’s about the Odyssey, it’s called EPIC,” He didn’t really get why Nico was so interested in this. Now that he thought about it, Percy didn’t really know a lot about Nico at all, maybe they should hang out sometime?

Nico’s eyes lit up. Well, he was pretty sure they did, he was quite subtle. And his gaze flicked to the big house and back a few times.

“I’ve- I’ve got to go now bye!” He blurted before dashing off, leaving Percy in the figurative dust with his coursework.

He decided it was probably best to leave it; when it came to Nico, Percy’s concern usually just made the situation worse. He tried to shove his worrying to the back of his mind and focus back on the fish in front of him.

Maybe he should do a skeleton fish? Nico might like and he could say it was an ‘attempt to better understand the anatomy of the species’ in his annotation… yeah, that was fancy enough.

He just hoped his art teacher wouldn’t call him out on his bullshit…

For once in her life, Piper was taking full advantage of the perks being a famous actor’s daughter brought. She used to reject it fully and it was never any help in mythological matters but she learnt overtime that it would always follow her in life so why not strategically use it from time to time?

Afterall, she got to do this! Butting in on the Goode high school musical was quite possibly one of the best ideas she had ever had! She had an army of textiles students all brainstorming and making incredible costumes for the cast.

She was settled with the group doing the pearl jewellery now, demonstrating how to use the delicate hand drills she nicked from the Hephaestus cabin. Everyone was having fun, stringing pearls onto laurels, earring bases and nets.

With the help of Hazel (but not her powers as to avoid cursing the cast) Piper also had a huge collection of glistening gemstones, she was planning on giving them to the gods in order to distinguish them from the mortals.

A girl came up to her, someone who she didn’t recognise. Her hair was a lighting and bouncing blonde, lighter than Annabeth’s but not white. Her eyes were blue, nowhere near as sharp as Jason’s but still piercing. She hopped over excitedly and waved, Piper waved back.

“Hi hi hi!” She all but sang “You’re Piper, right? Are you friends with Percy Jackson?” Wow, she was on a mission, huh?

“Umm, yeah, we’re pretty close. How’d you know?” She replied, setting down her beading kit to fully face the girl.

“This is kinda weird to ask but… are you dating him?”

Piper chocked.

“N-no,” she gasped, regaining her breath. Gods, in what world…? Ugh, she didn’t even want to think about it.

“And, er… is Rachel? Dating him, that is?” she pressed further, Piper shock her head rapidly.

“Oh, no way! She is way out of his league,” she chuckled, “But, uhm… why do you ask? Er…. Name?” She really wanted to know who this girl was, maybe she had a crush!

“Ah! Sorry, sorry- I should have introduced myself! I’m Miranda! I’m playing Aeolus in the show? Yeah…” Miranda answered, she hopped from foot to foot a bit, looking lightly more awkward for the next part, “as for why… well… my friend kinda likes him… she’s been pining all year and I just wanted to check if she had a chance..,” Piper thought that was sweet of her, and that she would be rubbing this in Percy’s face for all time once he found out!

“But now I know so… I’ve got to go to a club! Thankyoubye!!!” She sped off before Piper could tell her the very important tidbit that Percy was, in fact, dating someone.

She sort of just stared for a minute, trying to figure out how and if she should track Miranda down to tell her the bad news.

Suddenly there was a shout, she whipped around, hand hovering over where Katoptris was on her belt. Fortunately, it wasn’t a monster. Unfortunately, someone had managed to stab through an artery with a drill and was bleeding out all over the art classroom floor.

Piper was preoccupied for the rest of the day as the unofficial leader of the group and had to take them to the school matron.

The crush thing probably wouldn’t amount to much though… probably.

********

Percy was doing his music work this time he was interrupted. He was in one of the individual practice rooms, trying to figure out the dynamics for this one section that went really quiet but every time he tried it he ended up an octave too high and it was just- anyway, he was practicing his performance piece when Miranda came in.

Miranda was a social butterfly, he had found, she wasn’t one of the ‘popular girls’ (there weren’t many of them doing the show, they all thought the 2+ hour run time was far too long, they might break a nail!) but she was well liked by most. If Percy wasn’t either on stage or going through lyrics with Stacy then he was sitting by Miranda, having his ear talked off about her previous experiences with shows or how great Stacy was.

So when she creaked open the door he wasn’t surprised, just curious as to why she would seek him out.

“Hey, Miranda, need something?” He asked, giving his buzzing lips a break from the mouthpiece. She grinned back.

“Yes, actually!” She fully entered the room, hands behind her back and smiling “So, I’ve kinda organised this little lunchtime group for the show? It’s got everyone who’s playing a god, it’s just for practice and stuff, you know, tips and tricks, advice,” she licked her lips.

“I was wondering if you wanted to join? Everyone so far has said yes and they all want to get to know you!” Miranda fluttered her eyelashes and Percy tried not to snort, he severely doubted that anyone wanted to get to know him, he was a verifiable delinquent by all means on paper.

“Sure,” He shrugged, there was no harm in trying it out, “when is it?”

“Right now!” Miranda chirped “I can take you if you want?” Her eyes looked like they were sparkling, how did she have so much energy??

“Okay, just let me put my stuff away first,” he requested, Miranda nodding obligingly  and Percy set to work.

He quickly folded up the stand and threw it in the corner shoving his music into his book bag and whipping open the instrument case. He plucked out the mouth piece and placed all the parts in their slots in the case. He dashed out the room, followed by Miranda, and launched his horn into the storage room with a force that would probably have Austin and Ms. French conspiring to murder him if they found out… whoops?

After a shared mutual nod Miranda set off to the English department with him on her tail. They dodged around clumps of people and skirted around clubs. They speed walked through hallways until they reached the second English room, aptly named: English Two.

Percy heard voices inside:

“- expelled-“

“Must be pretty coo-“

“-so mysterious, but so-”

“Wasn’t - swim team?”

Miranda crashed through the door and the din ceased. The first thing Percy spotted was the two boys at the end of the table, both with their arms crossed and giving him the stink-eye, not a great first impression but not unexpected.

“We’re finally all together! Everyone, this is Percy. Percy, this is everyone!” She gestured to the room and got a few half-hearted waves in return “Oh, we should all introduce ourselves with a fun fact! Like icebreakers!” That got some winces, fun facts were never fun.

Stacy made eye contact with him and patted the seat next to her, the tables were all arranged in one rectangle in the centre of the room so he skirted around the back of some chairs to reach her. Miranda followed suit, sitting on the other side of Stacy and next to another girl in a large jumper.

“I’ll start! Then we can go anti-clockwise from there,” Said Miranda, quite possibly the only person in the room who wanted to be there, “I’m Miranda, I’m playing Aeolus in the school musical, and… I have three dogs at home!” She clapped her hands together then gestured to the girl next to her.

“Uhm… hi… My name is Nathalie, I’m- I’m playing Aphrodite and… err… I’m doing art as a course?” Nathalie whispered. Percy realised where he recognised her from, she always sat at the back in his art class, she didn’t say much but the few times he saw her paintings they were incredible, he wondered why she was doing the show if she was an artist.

“The name’s Marcus,” said the first of the two boys he saw earlier, he had the build of a football player and letterman jacket, “I’m Ares, and for my fact… err… Nathalie is my sister,” he lost the edge at that last bit, untensing slightly. Nathalie looked away, her shoulder hunched up to her ears.

“Okay, well, I’m Brandon and I’m playing Zeus, I guess,” Brandon huffed, crossing his legs “I’m on the football team,” he said curtly, Percy thought it was pretty obvious from the matching jacket he shared with Marcus. He had dirty blonde hair and a sharp jaw. The girl next to him perked up.

“Hey everyone, I’m Mina~” She sung “I’m playing Hera, the groovy queen of the gods!” Percy was fighting for his life trying not to emote, Mina could immediately be identified as a mortal with that description… groovy… he would be a pile of dust if he called her that, it was hilarious.

“My fun fact is that I got gold in a state-wide surfing competition once! I thrashed everyone there!… suckers,” she chuckled. Percy decided he liked her, he could get behind a surfing champion, and she seemed nice enough.

“My name is Emanuel,” Said the next kid, twirling a pretend moustache as he said his name in a fancy voice “But most people call me Manny, I’m playing Hephaestus and my fact is that I really like coding, so he’s kinda my favourite god!” Manny reminded Percy a lot of Leo, he had a sense of humour and a similar complexion, but his ears were rounder and his eyes much darker.

Percy was directly across from him but when he peeked over the table he saw that his right leg was covered in plastic and metal, a prosthetic. Nobody mentioned it but they probably all knew him by now, that’s the kind of thing everyone in the school knows about and Percy never really pays attention to, Paolo had thoroughly desensitised the whole camp to limb loss.

“Well, I’m Lucas, I’m playing Hermes and I’m on the running team, ironic right?” He said quickly, he was practically vibrating in his seat, maybe another ADHDer? Percy just hoped that the real Hermes never found out about him… Lucas, that might hit a nerve. Everyone looked at him for a minute, he was just really fast in everything apparently. The boy next to him coughed pointedly and all attention shifted to him.

“Hey, I’m Robert, but that’s an old person name so you guys can call me Rob or Robbie or something,” He said with a shrug, he had brunette hair tied in a wavy man bun at the back of his head “I’m doing Apollo and… I… oh yeah, I convinced my parents to let me get highlights ‘for the role’ hehe,” Percy just realised he recognised this guy too, he was the chill guy in the orchestra string section, he never tuned up properly so Ms. French had to constantly prompt him. Maybe he was too chill…

Suddenly all eyes were on Percy and he noticed that he hadn’t thought of anything to say! He was so busy taking in everyone else, damn it if he wasn’t such a social outcast he would know all these people and have time to think of a fact! He just wished he had Annabeth’s multitasking skills.

“So, err… My name is Percy…” his hand drifted to his pocket and he started fiddling with the lid on riptide, he should probably be careful to not impale himself but it was a more welcome idea than it should’ve been in that moment.

“I’m gonna be Poseidon in the school musical,” He tried not to wince saying the name, names had power and he would much prefer to tell his dad about this whole this in a controlled situation rather than have pop in on this little ‘gods club’.

“And a fun fact…” what was he supposed to say? He killed the Minotaur at twelve?! Poseidon was actually his dad?! He just blurted out the first thing he thought might be appropriate for mortals “I- I’m fluent in Ancient Greek!”

Blanks stares, all around. Yeah, he figured as much, who would believe that the high school dropout waiting to happen could speak a dead language? He turned to Stacy and nodded to her so she could introduce herself. She snapped up and turned to Miranda, perking her shoulders excitedly.

“So, my name is Stacy. I’m playing Athena,” she fidgeted, full of energy “I, uhm, I like-“ her eyes flicked to Percy for a split second and she flushed “I like to bake!” She was staring at her lap, the floral dress pattern was rather distracting so he understood.

Miranda clapped again, just once, with a taught smile. This was obviously way more awkward than she hoped, but she pushed on.

“Now that we’ve all introduced ourselves is there anything you guys want to ask each other? Questions about lyrics? Getting to know each other? Anything?” She almost begged, Percy felt a little bad for her.

Stacy leaned closer to him, staring up with a query behind her eyes. He leaned back, giving her more room, it was a little uncomfortable.

“Are you, like, actually Greek then?” She asked sheepishly, and, well Percy had never really thought about his heritage like that before. After a moment of his silent contemplation she backtracked.

“I mean, I figured with the whole language thing- and you mentioned before about Hellenism- but I guess if no-“

“Yeah, I’m half Greek, it’s from my dad’s side,” Percy interjected with a single-shoulder shrug.

“Wait so does that mean your name is actually ‘Perseus’? ‘Cus, I thought that was, like, a typo or something!” Mina exclaimed, she leaned forward on the table, fingers steepled.

“Uhm, yeah, but I prefer Percy. It’s less pretentious, you know?” He didn’t really know why they needed to be talking about this.

“I think your name is really cool, Perseus! It makes you sound like an ancient hero!” Said Stacy, getting closer again.

“Err… thanks, but really just call me-“

“Dude! I’m sorry but- I NEED ANSWERS!!!” Shouted Luk-Lucas, jumping up and slamming his hands down on the table, pinning Percy under his gaze. He was glad his eyes were green, he thought he’d freak out if Lucas had blue eyes too.

“Did you really blow up the St. Louis arch?!?” Okay, nope, Percy was not having this conversation. He looked around for an escape and…

“Nathalie,” he called out over the building volume “Can you tell about the next art coursework assignment? I forgot to write it down!” He tried not to yell but he still accidentally startled her.

“Oh- O-okay. uhm, well basically it’s an artist research project, and you need to…” Percy put his full attention on her and pointedly ignored all of Lucas, Robbie, Miranda and Stacy’s attempts to get answers out of him, anything he told them would likely paint him like some kind of delinquent kid in their eyes, if he had to come to these meetings he didn’t want to be met with raised crosses and salt circles.

Also he did need a reminder about the next assignment, he had zoned out that whole lesson debating the merits of dropping out and just starting an ocean clean up charity (Annabeth would kill him and he would get arrested for his illegitimate practices/using his powers) the answer was no.

Cabin 3 was Percy’s only reprieve at camp, ever since the betting pool a few weeks ago people just wouldn’t stop asking about the show. Even in sword practice, he’d have a kid put their had up just to ask what the deal was.

The only safe place to practice lines without getting distracted was his cabin, well, until Annabeth barged in.

He stopped singing and slammed his finger into the music player’s off button. Annabeth chuckled as she strode forward, she always had an air of confidence, he felt like he should be taking notes for his role from her.

“I don’t know why you’re so coy about the show, seaweed-brain,” she said, putting an easy hand on her hip “I mean, with Rachel’s budget for the venue you’ll be doing it in front of hundreds of people! It’s open to the public too, plus three nights of five performances, that number may even reach the thousands! What’s a few campers to that?”

Percy’s stomach rolled, like, a full on somersault. It must have been evident on his face as she chuckled again, slightly more awkward and disbelieving.

“Come on, Percy, you’ve delivered full war speeches to an army before a battle that would decide the fate of the world! What’s a few shows going to do to a drama scholar?” Annabeth asked, trying and failing to lift his confidence.

“Yeah, but that was different, I was improvising! It was more about the vibe then, now I have to learn actual lines!” He said, waving his chunky script, flipped open to six-hundred-strike and drowning in blue highlighter and pen ink.

“Please, you’ve been practicing this for over a month! You’ve got the whole thing down to a tee!” She placated, and while he knew she was factually correct he couldn’t help but feel wary. Still, he didn’t feel like dwelling on it, he tried to lighten the mood.

“I guess you’re right, but with this it’s just… one wrong move and you’re done for?” He said, grinning hesitantly and hoping she got the reference. To his elation she did, she cracked a smile and finally, properly, laughed. Just watching her be happy made him feel better, she was the best thing to ever happen to him.

“C’mon then, Mr. Mercy, it’s time for lunch, let’s go!” She grabbed his wrist and tugged him up, gentle but firm.

Percy had never been so glad for their new staggered lunch times, with the large influx of new campers over the years (thanks both to the oath to claim children and also the gods’ general frisky-ness) they had far more people to spread their equipment over, so they had devised a new routine to add some new slots and have people eat at different times. So far, it was working great! The veteran campers tended to eat after everyone else, meaning Percy wouldn’t have to deal with any greenhorns in these very trying times.

Just before they reached the tables though they were stopped by a frustrating, familiar gruff voice.

“Oi, Peter, over here,” Mr. D lamely gestured with his can of coke from the shade of a tree.

“Mr. D, can this wait? We were about to go eat and-“ Annabeth protested, Percy cut in with a hand on her shoulder.

“Hey, it’s fine, I’ll be there in a bit. And anyway, Malcolm looks like he wants to talk to you about something, go ahead, Ms. Warrior-of-the-Mind!” He nodded towards the tables where Malcolm stood waving, Annabeth snorted warily at the name.

“Okay, see you then, love you!” she jogged off slowly, turning back multiple time to check that Dionysus hadn’t whisked him away.

"Love you too!" he called back, waving.

“Cute.” The god said dryly. Percy turned to face him again.

“So… you’re doing a musical, huh?” He took a sip and Percy groaned, even Mr. D was asking?!

“Why do you care?” He side eyed him pointedly.

“I’m the god of theatre, aren’t I, Johnson?” He grumbled as he squinted, “I can’t very well have my campers running around and making fools of themselves when I’m in charge of them! It would disparage my very name!”

“Your campers?” Percy returned the squint, trying to spot any sarcasm and coming up with nothing.

“You’re all my punishment, I might as well own it,” Mr. D said, his can made a horrible tinkling noise as he swirled it like a fine wine.

Suddenly he reached forward and flicked Percy directly in the forehead. Percy flinched back and rubbed the point of impact.

"Wha-!?"

“Hmm… you have stage fright, as expected for a show such as this. You’re underestimating yourself too, ugh, what a noble insecurity, you’re just a little cherub aren’t you, Jonas?” He said unfazed, inspecting his grape-stained nails.

“What the Hades was that for?!” Percy demanded. Gods, Mr. D always managed to rub him up the wrong way, it was like he tried extra hard to be an asshole.

“Come now, our Uncle did nothing to deserve your ire, Penny. That was all me, give credit where it’s due,” He admonished.

“And didn’t I say I refused to let you make a fool of yourself?” Dionysus raised a brow.

“What? Are you going to magic my nervousness away?” Percy questioned, half curious, half skeptical.

“Of course not! That’s ridiculous, I don’t give out my blessings willy-nilly,” he rolled his eyes like Percy was the one acting weird here, “No, I’m going to advise you, I’ve always believed in the merits of human talent over magic in these matters,” Okay, this was seriously out of whack, what???

“So…?” He prompted.

“So! The answer to stage fright is routine and confidence! First of all, you need to have a feel for what you’re doing, that’s why you do dress rehearsals and such in front of smaller groups, to practice going through the motions and making it habit! It’s all about getting used to being on stage despite the crowd!“ he said, surprisingly helpful.

“Secondly, you need confidence. If you feel you’re not good enough at something practice it one hundred times! Then do that all again backwards until you feel like you truly know it, then you can’t go wrong, only right,” Mr. D waggled a finger in Percy’s astonished face.

“I can’t really do anything about that inferiority complex of yours,” He murmured, squinting at Percy like he was looking at a particularly resilient cockroach “that’s going to take much longer to tackle and I really don’t feel like it right now,”

“Just remember my words, Penelope, I can’t have Apollo’s side of the show outdo mine!” When Percy didn’t move he scowled “your little girlfriend is waiting, go on, Full Speed Ahead!”

Taking the escape so graciously supplied to him he turned and dashed off to here Annabeth was loitering. He quickly got caught up explaining the strange interaction to her.

It took him far too long to realise that Mr. D’s final words to him were an EPIC reference.

“That,” Percy started, inhaling deeply “is a loincloth,” he tipped his hands to gesture to the sequin-y scarf in Piper’s hand, his lips pressed together in disbelief.

“Psh, no!” Piper said, denying the obvious “think of it more like… a sarong! Or a kilt!”

“Neither of those are better and- how much jewellery is in that box?!” He whipped to the jangling box she pulled out of her backpack.

“Enough for a king of the seas! Obviously,” she didn’t even try to hide her conniving grin.

“Is there anything I get to wear on my top half?!” He begged exasperatedly.

“Yeah, we have some body paint, it glows in the dark and everything! We thought it might look like, err… the glowing stuff in the water?” Her words tapered off as she put a finger to her chin.

“Bioluminescent algae?” He deadpanned.

“Yeah! That!” She chirped “Honestly, Perce, I don’t get why you’d want to hide your build like that! Imagine what Annabeth will think when she sees you, I’m being your

, Percy!” Percy did not need a wingman.

“I’m more concerned about what my mum will think…” he muttered. He stared down at two nets, one was closed at the bottom and actually functional, whereas the other was more like a tube. The ends of rope were all tied of with pearls, the pearls he had collected.

“And these…?” He pointed down dubiously at said nets.

“Well one of them goes with the trident, we figured you could swing it around while singing,” she reasoned. He hated the reason, it was just more choreography to remember “and the other one goes around your waist under the kilt! It will look awesome trust me!” He severely doubted that.

Percy opened the box on the table, inside were two silver armbands (one with a blue, silky sleeve attached), a dark laurel wreath, if it could be called that, the leaves were a dark seaweed colour with a pearl separating each one, on the back was a large aquamarine gem. Finally there were two leather sandals, a matching gem on each one to fasten the straps at the bottom and a small ring with a pearl in the centre, it looked vaguely familiar…

“WAIT, IS THAT QUEEN AMPHITRITE’S WEDDING RING?!” Percy yelled, snatching it up an examining it thoroughly.

“It’s not the real thing, obviously,” Piper said, far too casual, “It’s a replica! I thought you should probably honour your stepmother in some way, I’m helping you build familial and political relations!” Percy was still caught up on one thing though.

“Piper, how did you even see it? There’s no way you could have gone to Atlantis and she rarely comes up…”.

“Oh, I just iris messaged her,” she replied with a smug grin.

“YOU IRIS MESSAGED THE QUEEN OF ATLANTIS TO SEE HER WEDDING RING?!” He was so close to gripping her by the shoulders and just shaking her. A few heads turned at his yelling but he didn’t care.

“Well, not directly,” Piper finally had the decency to look sheepish “I pretended that I was trying to call my mum but sneezed and said it wrong,” Percy put his head in his hands, despairing.

“Oh my gods, you fake butt-dialled my queen and stepmother for a high school musical costume…” He said. Piper giggled at his disbelief, good to know one of them thought this was funny.

“Piper… shouldn’t I be wearing my dad’s wedding ring, seeing as I’m, y’know, pretending to be him?” He asked warily. Piper cursed.

“Gods, I hadn’t thought of that…” Piper whined, he honestly could really see how see missed something like that but he guessed the stress of running the costume department (again, why???) and keeping up with her own school’s work must’ve been catching up to her.

“Err, it’s to- its to pay our respects to her, right? So it’s more obvious if it’s her ring! Plus, she could’ve given it to him for, like, good luck? Or something…” she sighed, giving up “Whatever, I’m not changing it. Just go put the costume on please? I need your thoughts for final adjustments,” she shooed him out the classroom (repurposed to be a costume storage room) and he headed to the one next door (boy’s changing room).

Percy was very glad for the curtains they set up to section off the room, he picked a makeshift cubicle and plopped down his box jewellery and square of fabric on a chair.

Making sure the ‘curtain’ (more of a bedsheet scrap) was fully closed, he stripped down to his boxers. He slipped the net on first as it was apparently supposed to go underneath, then held out the sequinned square, uncomprehending.

After a minute he settled for tying it around his waist, the pearls on the net peeked out of the top and bottom. The knot was immaculate, he was pretty good at them, but it looked a little like a shimmery apron, he didn’t really get Piper’s vision.

He put the laurel wreath on (he was well practiced with that, he had been to a lot of quest afterparties), as well as the arm bands and the ring, the band with fabric was a little awkward but he thought he draped it right, and he put the ring on his right ring-finger.

The only things left were the sandals, to be honest he struggled a little trying to wrap the laces the right amount of times but he got there in the end.

He stepped out of the curtain with the box under his arm and made his way back to the storage room, he kicked around his sandals all the way, trying to soften them and get them to fit right.

When he came through the door Piper was glaring daggers at him.

“What? Did I break something?” He asked. She ignored his question in favour of a rant.

“Percy, you’re wearing it all wrong!!” She huffed, pulling up both sleeves and yanking him further into the room. She knelt down in front of him and started to tug on the fabric around his waist.

“This is low-waisted, Percy! It’s supposed to be around your hips and at and angle!” He felt significantly more exposed the more she ‘fixed’ the outfit “and the knot it’s supposed to be on the side so the net can show through! Not at the back!” She tugged the net lower too, so it mirrored the top layer.

With a final yank all the layers were tightly lodged and not going anywhere. Percy, later on, would outright refuse any claim that he had squeaked, squealed or otherwise exclaimed in a a high pitch voice, despite many, many claims.

Piper spun him to face a mirror.

“Take that in-” she said sternly, fire in her eyes “-and memorise it. You’re dressing yourself from now on and I refuse to have you disrespect all the work that went into this by wearing it wrong!” Her eyes flicked back down for a split second.

“Also, pick something smaller to wear underneath next time, that baby blue clashes, it'll ruin the whole thing,” she dealt the killing blow and Percy couldn’t eek out a single word, his face was burning. Piper either didn’t notice or didn’t care as she snatched his wrist back up and dragged him to a new corner of the room.

“Now that all sorted out I’ll show how to put on the extensions and do the stage make up!”

Percy could feel all is dignity vanish in that one moment, no one would let him live this down.

It was the final Monday before everything kicked off and the whole crew’s itineraries were chock full:

From Monday to Wednesday rehearsals were after school for a full two hours as they ran through the whole thing and made the final adjustments to everything. This was when the Orchestra would join in.

Next, on Thursday was the first solid run through. It was everything from the day before but with no pauses, breaks or corrections. Every song, set change and costume swap was going to be practiced to perfection for the first time in sequence, with no room for error (apart from the lack of an audience).

They would spend the morning on that and then the the rest of the school day the crew were going to get a break. They could do anything they wanted within reason, as long as they stayed on school property, didn’t interrupt classes and didn’t damage any property or people.

And on Friday… their first show… Percy was insanely nervous for it, but hopefully the week would give him enough practice to make him feel confident about it all, as per Mr. D’s logic.

He sat in the middle rows of the school theatre (they wouldn’t have the venue until Friday) plastic and foam trident in his lap, he had a small hand mirror and some make up wipes and he was trying to do the water-themed face markings Piper had showed him on costume day.

The make up thing wasn’t as nearly as bad as he thought it would be, he found that it was all very similar to what he had learned in art class. He found out that stage make up was more dramatic than your typical stuff so it was visible under the harsh lighting. Plus all the boys had to to do some so their expressions were obvious to the crowd and that made Percy feel a lot less embarrassed.

It was a useful skill too, for hiding bruises and obvious weaknesses (he had even heard that Achilles used it to disguise himself as a woman and try to dodge the draft, Percy almost found himself wishing that the world hadn’t been so progressive, it seemed like a good trick).

As the final notes of God Games trickled out Percy wiped all the eyeliner he’d been drawing the marks with off and snapped the mirror shut. He made room on the seats near him for his new little cohort of friends, the weekly meetings of their ‘god practice’ had become less tense over time as everyone opened up more and found they had more in common than they realised.

Percy was easy friends with Lucas and Robbie from the start, Mina, Miranda and Stacy were all very curious about his life and he turned into a game of what he could get away with telling them without breaking their brains.

(He was just glad he got Miranda to back off on the method acting idea, he was already playing a dangerous game pretending to be a god, he did not need the misunderstandings that being addressed like one offstage would cause!)

Manny was frustrated to no end at Percy’s ‘tech-illiteracy’ and had taken it upon himself to educate him, they started to get on from there. He had always had a mutual acquaintanceship with Nathalie but he had only got Marcus and Brandon to crack when he told them he was a ‘fencer’, it wasn’t exactly their kind of sport but it afforded him a respect he hadn’t received before.

As a result they hung out in rehearsals too, it was nice to have company when Rachel and Piper weren’t there and it was pretty cool to actually have mortal friends (who weren’t the Oracle or clearsighted).

The only other ‘gods’ who weren’t occupied right now were Lucas and Miranda, who were chatting lowly in the row in front him him. The others were still on stage, all taking notes in their scripts from Mrs. Godwin's advice.

While today wasn’t strictly a dress rehearsal they were still encouraged to wear the more restrictive parts of their outfits to get used to the movement, and so Percy finally got to see Manny’s ‘sick as hell new steampunk leg’. It was bronze with small golden accents and not very leg shaped, in all actuality it was more like a clump of attacked to a socket by three poles, a hinge and a spring. It really matched the whole Hephaestus vibe.

Stacy was practically in full armour, it was heavy and not nearly as flowy as her usual summer dress so she wanted all the practice. She opted to wear the helm too, it had a long train of feathers so she wanted to get used to the weight and swing of it.

Despite her weird behaviour around Percy never let it be said that she was a bad actor. Stacy was amazingly fierce, all pretences of shyness or embarrassment were thrown out the window on stage, her gait was strong, her voice commanding and her spear play was incredibly convincing. Stacy played the part of a goddess just right, as of late he had been asking her for tips, she just mastered the ‘above it all’ attitude of the gods to a tee.

Finally, they were released from the lecture, they filed down the stage’s staircases and made a beeline for where Percy’s trio was sitting.

Percy was glad for the end of the saga, that meant they had a small break to reconvene and rest, it also meant he could finally ask for some advice. He patted the seat next to him for Robbie to sit, he had some burning questions about body paint and he really needed answers, since Robbie was going to have a ginormous sun in his shoulder he seems fitting to ask.

He flipped to the note pages of his script (some lined paper he stapled to the back), levelled his (normal) pen and said his piece, to his credit Robbie was very helpful, he was surprisingly knowledgeable on brand, application, thickness and drying time, in a blink one of Percy’s pages was completely used up.

He thanked his friend who then turned to Lucas and pulled out a hidden phone to do… whatever people did on phones that wasn't calling people (maybe games? Manny mentioned something about games), he shuffled a few seats over, for monster safety.

Nathalie was elbows deep, rummaging in her bag for something.

“Nathalie, you were great up there! I might even compare you to Aphrodite herself with how well you played her, but, well, we all know how that goes!” He joked, of course the only person he would really risk comparing to Aphrodite was Annabeth, but he valued her life just a tad more than his urge to shout about her beauty.

She chuckled politely but seemed taken aback, she obviously didn’t think very highly of herself, it was a shame, she was a brilliant actor, it was like she lit up and became a happier person every time she stepped out there.

“Seriously,” her looked at her dead on, sincerity written across his face “You did great out there! You and Marcus worked really well and your singing was incredible!” Nathalie just stared at him, eyes wide… it was starting to get awkward.

“I- I… thank you, Percy. That’s a really sweet thing to say…” she said at last, she gazed back into her bag, pulled open by her shaking hands.

“This is, umm… This is for you!” She plunged a hand into the bag and and blindly snatched up a small object. She thrust it into his face and Percy was in shock as he picked it up, sure to be careful.

It was a small clay pin in the shape of a trident head, the glaze was a delicate blend from seas green at the top to a deep  cerulean at the bottom. It was attached to a proper pin back and clearly shaped meticulously.

“Oh my gods… this is gorgeous, Nathalie!” He inspected it closer and found some tiny silver decals around the base of the spikes “Thank you so much, I... wow... I just, that's so thoughtful!” He felt like it would break if he looked at it too hard!

“I’ve made one for everyone,” she explained quietly, ignoring his awe “you guys have been so nice to me that I thought everyone deserved a little keepsake, even if we go separate ways after the show is over,” Percy was determined to be her friend for as long as he could, she was so impossibly sweet.

“Do you have one for yourself?” Percy asked, at her quiet head shake “You should make one! You’re a part of this group too, then we can all be matching!” She looked at him, mystified, like she had never even considered it. Just before Percy could correct that Mrs. Godwin boomed from the front:

“ALRIGHT! PLACES EVERYONE! THE NEXT SONG IS ‘I’M NOT SORRY FOR LOVING YOU’! LETS GO!!” Percy flinched a little at the noise, they had learned just how much of a slave driver she could be under stress and she was under mountains of it at the moment.

Everyone went quiet as the lighting and orchestra opened the next saga, Percy reminded himself to tell Leo about it if he wanted Calypso to come, it didn’t paint her in a very good light.

“Okay, today’s going to be a bit different,” Mrs. Godwin announced from the stage. It was Tuesday, everyone’s costumes were done and there was an air of anticipation looming over them.

“We’re going to pre-record the start of Love in Paradise and project it on the wall at the back of the stage on the actual day! So we need it prepared for the run through on Thursday,” she pulled out her phone.

“Everyone not on this list can go to the drama music rooms a practice individually or in small groups, if you are, please stay and wait for further instructions…” Percy sort of zoned out from there, his mind drifted other stuff as people shifted and filed out.

“…Percy Jackson, Charlie Manners, Charles Fletcher-“ He jumped at his name. And again at the hand on his bicep

“C’mon, Perce let’s get to the front row! I wanna check out the camera set up, I heard it’s super fancy~” Miranda tugged him up and he hurriedly shouldered his bag as they surged forward.

Everything after that was an organisational blur, Mrs. Godwin sent all the people left to put on their costumes. Percy was so glad he practiced his make up skills, and that he was going second, he certainly needed the extra time. He put all the contouring, blush and foundation on more subtly though, it would probably look weird on camera if it was the usual dramatic stuff.

When he got dressed he made sure to carefully pocket his trident pin from Nathalie in the front of his book bag, it had previously been on his shirt but he didn’t want to risk it snapping in the fabric if the bag was jostled. He was definitely getting a Hecate camper to enchant it for him so it didn’t break in battle, he wouldn’t even complain about doing one of Lou Ellen’s strange errands in return!

He thanked the gods for Robbie’s advice on the body paint, it was so much less crusty and annoying when he spread it in the way he’d been told, the gill like strokes on his torso no longer rubbed off on his arms and his face could breathe a lot better with less paint all over it.

When he came back down Miranda was called onto stage, there was an expensive looking camera and a huge green sheet on up there. On Ms. French’s cue the orchestra played her bars of the song.

“Keep your friends close and your enemies closer!”

She sang, with her blustering, tasselled dress and her tinkling voice she was like a wind chime brought to life. The recording stopped and Mrs. Godwin gave her some adjustments he didn’t hear, they tried a few more times until they got it just right.

Then Percy was called up, he was a little wary as he stepped up onto the stage, he didn’t want the camera attracting any monsters, usually they were okay because they didn’t send signals like phones did but this monstrosity looked like it might beam his location to every monster in a ten mile radius!

Mrs. Godwin came up to him and leaned closer than she ever had before, she had this knowing smile on her face and Percy thought for a second she might be a monster in disguise.

“You may have noticed the tub?” She said in low tones and Percy’s gaze flicked to a small grey, plastic tub set before the green screen.

“Feel free to use your powers, the mist will hide them from mortals but I think those with Sight may appreciate the enhancements,” she finished coolly…

Percy stood there, frozen, mouth agape and processing what she just said… she couldn’t be a monster, she would have attacked him already. If she was a demigod he would have been dealing with twice the monster attacks, a legacy? Maybe she was a legionnaire, now that he thought about it he’d never seen her arm beneath her many vibrant cardigans…

“-ercy! Percy!” He jumped at Mrs. Godwin’s voice “Come on, we need to get started, in front of the green screen please!” He quickly scurried to his place with his trident and net.

The orchestra gave him a bar of introduction and in that time he felt for the water behind him, he didn’t really know what do do with it so he raised the trident and the water with it, he levelled his wolf stare at the camera and sang.

“Ruthlessness is mercy upon ourselves!”

As the light in the camera switched off he looked over to his teacher, her face was pinched contemplatively.

“Let’s try that again, Percy, I want a little more oomf! Imagine the camera is Odysseus and you’re about to attack!” She suggested, it was a good idea. He nodded.

He usually didn’t think about how his water attacks looked to the receiver, and he couldn’t exactly ask because they were usually dead. He didn’t have enough water for a tidal wave or a storm, maybe he could do some rain? But that wasn’t the godly kind of menacing.

The orchestra played him in again and he made up his mind. He made a thin film of rain in front of him to seem like it was pelting down, as he raised his trident balls of water spun around him to the beat. When he reached the end of the lyric they all settled behind him like a menacing halo. He slammed the trident down and they all formed into points, poised to strike the camera.

“That was great, Percy! Let’s use that one! You can go get changed now if you want,” She smiled at him and he hurried off “Charlie! We need our Circe, I hope you’re ready!” The a girl with thick hair stepped up as Percy made his way to the winding staircase leading to the changing rooms.

He was struck with a realisation; this may have been the first time he ever used his hydrokinesis for something other than fighting, and he usually just made waves or spouts of water, never anything like that, never anything so delicate (if floating balls of water could be called that) could he do other forms? Animals? Tendrils? Lock-picks?

He had never really trained his water powers specifically, he had trained with them, sure, but not for them. He kinda assumed that they were solely instinctual but what if he was just doing the basics this whole time? Was there more to unlock if he just experimented a little?

Then there was the matter of Mrs. Godwin, he was pretty sure she was a Roman legacy, he didn’t know if she’d served the legion or not but it was likely if she had ever been to Camp Jupiter, maybe he’d ask Frank or Reyna to check the files.

Percy had been so distracted on stage that he hadn’t seen Stacy’s red face poking through the theatre door, poised to ask a question but fixed on Percy behind the camera. He hadn’t noticed her clenched fist nor her determined expression as she abandoned her previous mission and ran off to plan.

Percy was knackered after the first run through and he was barely in two sagas! He reckoned it was mostly nerves and everyone else’s exhaustion rubbing off on him. Needless to say he was glad for the break, they had all been working hard all week so it was nice to have a small reprieve before the first show tomorrow.

He needed a break from people right then, he couldn’t help but think about the audience that would be there tomorrow, so many people… and hanging around the crew was making it worse, so he stepped out.

He was in a spare English room, very far away from the drama department and the show crew, he had felt enough of their eyes on him in the practice earlier, he couldn’t handle their rambunctious energy right now.

It had only been fifteen minutes of him trying and failing to get some coursework done for the silence to be disturbed. A swirl of sea foam and bubbles came into existence behind him, when he turned he was met with his father, Hawaiian shirt and all.

“Percy, my boy!” the corner of his eyes crinkled with a soft smile “How are you?” He asked.

“I’m good, just getting some coursework done, you?” Percy replied, not bothering to hide his suspicion, he did not have the time for any kind of godly shenanigans at the moment. His dad pulled up a plastic chair and sat on the other side pretty the desk.

“Yes, I am well. Times are peaceful back in Atlantis, we have made a full recovery from the war so not much is going on, I am the most relaxed I have been in centuries,” Poseidon answered cheerily. There seemed to be some sort of implication there but Percy wasn’t bothered to parse it.

“That’s good…” he didn’t really know what else to say.

They started at each other, both expecting something, it wasn’t tense but… yeah, it was just really awkward. Percy cracked first.

“Do you… do you need something? Because, I’m kinda busy this week, I don’t really have time for quest-“ his dad quickly interjected.

“No! Not at all, Percy!” He blurted, he quieted down, looking sheepish “I had just come to my attention that, I have not perhaps been the most… attentive parent… and, well, I suppose I thought I ought to check in, as a father should,” Percy was sort of flattered by the attempt, it seemed sincere but he was still on edge, his dad never checked in like this, there had to be something!

“Are you sure? Nothing stolen? No one kidnapped? There’s no quest?” He probed just one more time. Poseidon looked guilty for a second but nodded in affirmation, Percy guessed he would just have to believe him.

“Is there anything in specific you want to talk about? I have time,” this was so weird…

“As do I, as I said our kingdom is prospering! It is practically self-running at times like these, expect for the paper work,” he shuddered “…so much paperwork…” Percy was pretty sure he hadn’t meant it say the last part out loud. He also tried to ignore the use of the word ‘our’.

“So, uh, what do you guys do down there, for fun and stuff?” He was actually curious about this, he had only seen the city as a worn and torn wreck, sue him! His dad lit up.

“We have many festivities to keep ourselves occupied, we celebrate animal migrations; turtles, sharks, whales and more, as well as the kelp harvests and other events. There are always magnificent carnivals around those times, I’m sure you would love the games, maybe I shall take you to one someday,” he mused, tapping his chin.

“I myself often like to walk around the palace gardens. They’re ever changing, you know, the staff has relative freedom to groom them to their liking, it means for much novelty and innovation. It’s always best with company, I enjoy touring them with my wife or son…” his voice trailed off, something faraway and melancholic settled behind his eyes. He stared out the window while he talked

“I think Amphitrite and Triton would adore you if they really got to know you, you met them at a bad time, Percy, but I’m sure if the circumstances were different…” Poseidon jerked out of his thoughts and looked back to Percy.

“Ah, but here I am talking about myself! I’m here to check in on you! Have you been up to anything interesting as of late?” He chuckled, putting both hands in his lap and giving Percy his full attention. It was so weird, he knew his dad loved him, said he was his favourite son, but he had only really met him a few times in his life, usually on a death day timer, so this whole ‘checking in’ thing was kinda freaking him out.

But, he resolved, his dad was trying ,so it was only far that he did too, this is what he dad been fighting for, after all.

“Uhm, yeah, actually! I’m actually part of the school musical at the moment… it’s pretty long and we just finished our first proper run through but, it’s been really fun!” Percy admitted, because, despite his embarrassment and nervousness it had been fun. To be honest he’d never thought any party of school could be so enjoyable but he was proven wrong.

Poseidon blinked in minor bewilderment, before smiling once more and continuing on.

“What is this musical about then? I’m interested,” he asked as Percy tried to find the right words.

“Umm… have you ever read the Odyssey?”  He asked, already knowing the answer and dreading it.

“Why would I ever need to? I was there for the real thing!” His dad chuckled at the idea, Percy swore internally.

“Er, so, this musical is based on the Odyssey, but it’s not 100% accurate to the poem or the history?” He was not the best person to be explaining this all, his dad nodded along.

“As adaptations often are,” he agreed.

“Yeah, so it might even be best to think of it as a new story altogether!” Percy reasoned, he didn’t want his dad to think the show was mocking the real events, it didn’t paint anyone blocking Odysseus’ journey in a very good light, least of all his father.

Poseidon gave a one shoulder shrug, like he didn’t quite agree but he wasn’t going to refute it either way.

“So, when are you performing this musical?” His dad questioned.

“Well, the first showing is tomorrow, actually…” Percy felt a little guilty about putting off telling his dad for so long but at the same time he didn’t want an offended god on his case because of his part in the play. So far Poseidon was reacting well though, even with the subject of the play.

“I shall clear my schedule!” He exclaimed cheerily.

“HUH?! Wait- what?! Why…?” Percy was concerned about his dad’s reaction, sure, but he hadn’t expected him to actually want to come! “Aren’t you busy? Doing… god stuff?” He said eloquently.

“Not at all! We are in a time of piece! Moreover, I’m sure Delphin will happily take on some responsibilities for the day,” Percy somehow doubted that.

“O-okay! Uhm… please buy the tickets then, it’s um, it’s a charity event… so, every little helps?” Percy requested, he thought it was a reasonable demand.

He bristled when his dad ruffled his hair, but relaxed when he told his body it wasn’t an attack.

“Of course, I will make sure to use the relevant mortal money,” Poseidon said, standing up and smiling warmly down at Percy “I am very excited and I am sure all your recent hard work will pay off, this is the perfect opportunity…” he had a scheming twinkle in his eye and Percy was suddenly very nervous again.

“I must be going now, court politics get very messy when I’m not there to mediate, there is so much petty conflict, especially when there are no large threats,” he smiled wryly “there is someone at the door for you,” he nodded to the entrance of the classroom where the door handle was being shake vigorously from the other side.

“Goodbye, son, and ‘break a leg’ as the mortals say,” then he was gone. Vanished in another swirl of bubbles.

Robbie burst through the door, tripping over himself and almost sprawling to the floor.

“Oh my God, dude!” He spluttered “you were like, trapped in there! Good thing I unjammed the door, you would have totally starved!” He seemed half joking and half freaked out, poor guy hadn’t dealt with godly magic before.

“Thanks bro, I appreciate it,” Percy said dryly, he got a sincere nod in return. Straight to the point Robbie said:

“Okay, do you know the lyrics to Suffering?”

Percy nodded tentatively.

“Yeah, it’s a good song, plus I’ve been listening to the soundtrack on loop,” he admitted. He really liked the song, it was pretty funny and it was far from accurate to real sirens so it didn’t even bring up trauma!

“Nice! So, we thought it would be funny if it was Poseidon instead of Penelope and we wanna film it, feel like joining in?” He asked, hope tinged on every word. He had to admit it would be really funny...

“Absolutely!” He agreed, matching Robbie’s mischievous grin.

He shoved his untouched essay into his bag, shouldered it and joined his friend in a sprint down the hall.

This was going to be so great.

Friday evening was finally here and Percy was sitting in front of a mirror in the boy’s changing room. It was one of those fancy actor mirrors with the lights all around the frame. They finally had the venue and had done a practice with the effects, entrances and exits earlier (no music or costumes just getting on an off stage).

Right now Percy was doing his face paint, he was using the proper stuff this time instead of eyeliner. Those tips from Robbie were really helpful, it was much easier to do the painting with a brush and liquid paint, if a bit cold.

His hands were only steady because of his righteous effort to not this about what he was about to do, though. He tried not to even think about the show, it wasn’t working well enough but luckily he was only in a few sagas, he couldn’t imagine the nerves going through Jorge right now.

And both sides of the family were here too. He was still in disbelief that his dad, an Olympian, was actually here at his high school show, one were he was an antagonist, no less!

But he had practiced so much he could probably recite the whole play on his own from memory, he would be fine; great, even!

“Hey, Perseus?” And there was Stacy, she had taken to calling him that and he had tried to get her to stop, but she really liked it.

“Yeah?” He turned to face her, putting him brush down.

“We’re just about to do the pre-show hurrah, want to join?” She shifted from foot to foot in her armour, not looking very Athena-like. He had never heard of that in his life.

“Err… sure, just let he finish my make up first?” He kind of wanted to find out, she nodded quickly and hurried to out of the changing room.

While she wasn’t strictly supposed to go in  the boy’s changing room, nobody ever bothered her when she did, that applied to the other girls too. He guessed that everyone was just so distracted by the show itself that they didn’t have time to fuss about that sort of thing, it’s not like anyone was naked out in the open either.

He thanked past Percy for deciding to do the marks on his torso first, they had already dried so that meant all he had to do was finish up his face before he could go join this ‘hurrah’ thing.

He slipped out into the hallway and was momentarily stunned by the giant circle of people blocking the length of it, he quickly spotted Stacy who gestured for him to stand next to her, he complied easily and shuffled over to her.

She have him a small smile in greeting and whispered.

“You’re just in time! We’re about to start,” she grabbed his hand and laced their fingers, Percy was about to pull out until he noticed everyone else doing the same and linked hands with Maria (the girl playing Calypso) on the other side of him.

The guy playing Tiresias, (Charles, if Percy remembered correctly) stepped forward into the circle and pulled up his blindfold, he raised his jangly staff.

“Alright guys, we’ve been practicing for months now, we’re gonna ace this thing!” He barked, very out of character “And! Even if you do mess up, you know who haven’t been practicing for months? The audience! As long as you play it off they’ll never know!” He grinned, and that was probably the best show advice Percy had received in this whole time.

“Isn’t Fletch just great? He does opera out of school so he knows a lot about this stuff, he’s like an actor veteran!” Stacy whispered, excitedly.

“Fletch?” He asked at an equally low volume.

“Oh, that’s what we all call Charles,” she nodded to the boy in the centre of the circle “He doesn’t like being called Charles very much, he reckons it’s too fancy,” Percy nodded but didn’t say anything else, he was reminded of a Charles he used to know…

“We’re gonna ace this!” He yelled again “What are we gonna do?”

“Ace this!” Everyone but Percy shouted.

“I can’t hear you~” Fletch goaded “What are we gonna do?”

“ACE THIS!” Everyone yelled back, Percy included this time.

“Good,” he concluded, then he tugged his blindfold back down with flourish “I foresee greatness!”

A wave of laughter went round the crowd before they dispersed. Percy let go of both the hands he was holding and ran off to go find a water station, he needed the energy.

Once he found the fountain and had taken a few really large gulps he noticed the little flutist girl from the orchestra, Aoi, making a beeline straight to him.

“Oh my God, Oh my God, Percy!” She yelped, almost running into him before abruptly stopping and opting to hop from foot to foot. “Oh my God, we really need your help!”

“Take a breath,” he laid both his hands on her shoulders and only continued when she had done what he said “what’s going on?” She took another gulp of air and then explained.

“It’s George! We’ve been waiting for him to show all day and he just called in sick! You two were only people on part 5 and the songs will sound weird without it, we need you to play!” Aoi gnawed on her lip and Percy peeled his hands back in shock, he hadn’t expected that but… he could probably manage that, there was only one problem though…

“Aoi, I don’t have my instrument! How can I play without one?” He questioned.

“Ms. French asked the venue staff and apparently they have one Tenor Horn spare, it’s in their storage room on the other side of the stage.” She said. It seemed too convenient… what kind of place apart from the Apollo cabin actually had a Tenor Horn? The answer was none.

Regardless, he nodded and she smiled in relief.

“You go hurry back to the pi- the orchestra pit and I’ll meet you there, okay?” Percy patted her on the back and she ran back, clutching her flute significantly looser.

He to start speeding through the halls in search of the storage room but was stopped by none other than Miranda.

“Percy, I heard the whole thing! You’re in costume, we can’t just have Poseidon waltz into the orchestra it’ll break the immersion!” She huffed, stance wide so as to block his way, it didn’t do much but he got the idea.

“I know, I know, but I can’t just leave them hanging!” He protested, dodging around her. She grabbed his wrist and he resisted the urge to yank out of her grip.

“Exactly, you need a disguise!” She suggested, Percy whipped back around, incredulous “And what better disguise is there than Odysseus’?” He a nearly choked, so shocked he didn’t even resist her dragging him away.

“But Jorge needs that!” Percy exclaimed.

“Not until the last saga,” she waggled a finger in his face “Plus, you can wear Tiresias’ then, it can be, like, opposite foreshadowing or something,” she tugged him into the changing room and rummaged for a minute.

Suddenly, Percy was whacked in the face by a flying cloak. He caught fabric as it fell and fiddled with the clasp. After a few seconds he successfully equipped the chlamys, could it he called that if it had a hood? It didn’t matter right then.

“Thanks, Miranda! You’re the greatest!” He smiled.

“Of course I am!” She snarked “now shoo! It’s three minutes to the first announcements!” At that Percy bolted, he was so glad for the dress rehearsals all that week, or else he would have never broken in his sandals enough to run.

The hallway around the back of the stage was one large curve that had never felt that long until now. He scanned the signs, cursing his dyslexia all the way until one door caught his eye, it had a small window but the walls were visible and stacked high with cases.

Barging in, he hurried over to the brass cases and quickly found the one in the size he needed. He unzipped it in a flash and jammed a mouthpiece into the instrument, which he then wiped with his cloak (sorry Jorge, he didn’t want to indirectly kiss anyone).

As he ran down to the side entrance he examined the horn. It was a standard make and it seemed new, it was a shiny gold with not a mark to be seen, he could even make out his warped reflection in the bell. When he tried to see what brand it was he noticed that there was no maker’s mark, just an innocently bare sun emblem etched into the side.

He didn’t have might time to think about it as he slowed down to a stop in front of the door, he did not want to barge in on a full audience.

Summoning his courage he creaked open the heavy door and tip-toed in, closing it with precision behind him. He hurried to the orchestra pit, hasty but quiet and refusing to look at the crowd.

He pulled the hood further over his black and blue curls, trying to hide his costume as much as he could, as he slipped into his seat between the baritones and French horns. Thankfully his music was on his stand already.

He fiddled with the smaller valves on his instrument, soundlessly blowing into it, trying to empty out the potential moisture (condensation not spit). He caught small parts of the announcements while he was at it.

“Hello my friends! Welcome t-“

“-martphones and other devices please be turned to silen-“

“-all proceeds will be donated to environmental ch-“

“-nks to anonymous donors we-“

Ms. French raised her arms in a large gesture and everyone lifted their instruments, ready to play.

“-please enjoy all their hard work!”

She silently counted to four and Percy checked the key signature just one more time. Then, on her mark, they all started to play.

Percy put down his horn at Ms. French’s motion to him and quickly darted out, thankful for the break for his buzzing lips but dreading what he was about to do next.

He’d left at the end of Luck Runs Out so he would have about three minutes to get everything sorted before he was on stage.

He lightly tapped his face to check his makeup but it had held fast, so to had his hair extensions and other adornments, he found as he carted a hand through his hair.

He dashed to the changing room and unlatched the chlamys, gently throwing it in the direction it had been before, it landed on Jorge’s book bag which was good enough.

He summoned his water bottle to his hand, to even caring at that point if anyone saw, he chugged almost the whole thing and chucked it back to his pile.

He dashed to the stage wings, every step he took amplified the roaring in his ears. He caught a glimpse of the stage screen, Aeolus’ part had already been and gone.

Pulling his trident from the stack of weapons he made his way to the centre of the stage behind the curtains went to climb the false rock. The floor behind the curtain was covered in blue fabric, some of which was being wafted by the backstage crew from either side.

It was dark so that Percy could not be blamed for stubbing his toe on the way there (damn sandals), and almost swearing straight into the mic, especially since he had never rehearsed with two large tubs… of…

Oh, he could kiss Mrs. Godwin right then and there.

He was a little nervous to even have the option of using his powers on stage (he might have to sacrifice a small animal to Hecate as thanks for the mist!) but for continuity’s sake… he could probably improvise!

He was lying, this made his nerves worsen tenfold, but, if he could use his powers to entertain instead of fight then, maybe the nerves would be worth it.

And if Annabeth saw then maybe… she would even forgive what happened with Akhl-

“-had to guess? You’re headed to the land of the giants!”

Percy snapped back to himself, and continued to climb the rock.

He waited as Odysseus and Eurylochus tussled with the bag and the instrumentals sung.

Then the lights dimmed, and out from the curtains stepped Poseidon.

Percy gulped a huge breath before he yelled.

“ODYSSEUS OF ITHACA!” He bellowed, slamming his trident down with a thud and fixing his cold stare onto the cowering man before him.

The silence roared, Percy’s voice the only thing to cleanly slice it, his quiet words echoed.

“Do you know who I am?”

The word reverberated around the room, lingering in every corner and it felt like time itself froze (Percy would know). Then, the piano’s twinkling notes started up as did the chanting.

He stood, stationary, on top of the rock and enshrouded in darkness. The only things peaking out would be his irises, both turned a toxic green by his contact lenses, and his pupils, small vertical slits swimming in the hate of his gaze.

Finally the chanting stopped and the spotlights flickered to him, the blue and green melded nicely as they shifted and twitched, it was almost like the dappled light of the ocean.

Percy leaned uninterestedly on his weapon, a lazy arm looped through the space between prongs and swaying slightly to the beat.

“In all my years on living

It isn’t very often that I get pissed off

I try to chill with the waves…”

He smiled frustrated and cold down at Odysseus, he allowed himself to scan the audience quickly as his gaze fell. He felt like he was drawn to looking at his father, he broke away quickly though.

“But damn, you crossed the line~”

He straightened up and slowly adjusted the trident in his grip.

“I’ve been so gracious,” he sang, turning his head up regally with a hand to his chest.

“And yet, you hurt this son of mine!”

He swung his net like a whip and pointed the trident down at Jorge.

“That’s right, the cyclops you made blind…”

Percy raised the trident high over his left shoulder.

“… is mine!”

He brought it down with force, sweeping it over the crew and crowd and urging the water behind him to surge, like a seventh wave crashing into the rock.

“No…” Odysseus murmured in disbelief.

Percy summoned two blobs of water and, trying not to change the choreography too much, stepped down on them instead of the ladder behind him.

“I’m left without a choice-“

Step.

“-and with out a doubt!”

He jumped to the ground, swivelling to face the group, his net and trident following the motion in smooth arc.

“Guess the pack of wolves-“

He twisted the blobs and added more water, changing them into the shape of sandbar sharks and having them circle around the ensemble like they had smelled blood.

“-is swimming with the sharks now!”

The sharks bit down and exploded on some people at the clench of his fist, but they were left dry and unharmed, even in the terms of the story it was just for godly dramatics.

He quickly took hold of the dispersed water and formed it into small knives, they flew to Odysseus and Eurylochus, forming circles and spinning around their necks like cursed halos.

“I’ve got to make you bleed-“

Percy took a menacing step forward.

“-I need to see you drown,”

Then another, levelling the trident to join the knives at Jorge’s throat.

“But before you go, I need to make you learn how,”

At that line he summoned all the water he had used back into a swirling, floating platform that looked like a school of piranhas, and circled the stage on it. Which he would have done anyway on foot.

“Ruthlessness is mercy upon ourselves!”

His platform slowed and he drifted back to the rock, sliding onto it with as much grace as he could muster.

“Ruthlessness is mercy upon ourselves,”

He stared a straight down, pointing his trident and next in the same direction.

“Ourselves!”

He spun the trident and next then slammed then down. Percy then sat with force, sliding into a cross legged position with one dangling over the edge.

“You are the worst kind of good ‘cause you’re not even great…”

He lazily directed tendrils of water with his weapons, jerking them and making them writhe in the crew’s faces when a line seemed particularly angry.

“A Greek who reeks of self righteousness,”

He used the tendrils to heard the crew into groups.

“That’s what I hate!”

In snap he flicked his wrist and arm, the tendril dropped to the floor and bounced back up as spikes shooting from the floor.

“‘Cause you fight to save lives,

but won’t kill and don’t get the job done!”

He nimbly jumped up, before stomping a foot as he sang the last word. Then Percy turned around casually, resting his trident on his shoulders and both hands on top of that.

“I mean, you totally could have avoided all this had you just killed my son,”

He gestured with his fingers like he was lecturing a child, really trying to play up his absolute confidence in his power.

“But no~” he sneered, turning his face back to the audience just enough for his eyes to catch the light.

“You are far too nice,”

He spun around fulling and paced the rock, whipping his net and trident wildly each time he pivoted.

“mercy has a price

It’s the final crack, we’re bound to break the ice now,”

He faced the audience fully and opened his hand quickly as if to show off retractable claws, in response at the spikes of water shattered like Prince Rupert’s drops and the water circled the stage.

“You reveal your name, then you let him live

Unlike you, I’ve got no mercy left to give ‘cause,”

The water sped up and he gathered more out of the tubs behind him to create rain, it started slow but built up to a shower over the next lines.

“Ruthlessness is mercy upon ourselves!

Ruthlessness is MERCY UPON OURSELVES!”

He raised the trident, above the rigging and out of sight of the audience, two large slabs of water slammed into each other to create sound like thunder.

“OURSELVES!”

He slammed the hilt of the trident down with a boom and the room shook ever so slightly (was he was overdoing it?)

He straightened, all anger sliding off his face like water off a duck’s back and he went back to regarding the crew with cold disinterest.

“And now it is finally time to say goodbye, today you die!”

He recalled all the water not making rain back to him, it slowly dragged itself into the form of a throne, a down-sized replica of the one his father had on Olympus. Mrs. Godwin would appreciate the accuracy. He reclined and crossed his legs, feigning disinterest.

“Unless, of course, you apologise

For my son’s pain and all his cries,”

“Poseidon we mean to harm~…”

Percy used the opportunity of the monologue to sweep the crowd, he lowered his head so his fringe would hide his roaming eyes.

First he spotted Piper and Rachel, Jason was there next to Piper obviously and he was joined by Leo… who was sitting next to Frank… and there was Hazel and… okay, just, all of the Seven was there!

Then he saw Annabeth on the other side of Rachel, radiant as always and watching on like she was already picking apart the themes and motifs of the plot and songs (she probably was), they made eye contact for a brief moment until he flicked off her and found his mum.

She was sat with Paul, fingers laced with his and subconsciously stroking her pregnant belly, she was looking straight at him too, but also like she was looking through him. She didn’t seem to notice when their eyes locked.

Then he found his dad in the crowd, he had a dress shirt with some suit trousers and was sitting next to a nereid who wore a lovely turquoise evening gown… that was Amphitrite… by the gods, his dad brought his damn step-mother. She bore no expression. Only Poseidon looked on in interest.

Next to them was a bulky man with groomed white hair, his legs were bouncing up and down and he had an annoyed look on his face, it was his half-brother, Triton. He too was overdressed for a Highschool musical and Percy couldn’t help but marvel at how much this was going to haunt his nightmares, his dad apparently sucked at helping family relationships.

He took one last cursory glance over the crowd and… WAIT WAS THAT WILL AND NICO?! It was!! Will was beaming and Nico even had a larger than average smile on his face.

Percy was snapped out of his shock when his cue came up.

“-e only wanted to escape~!”

He stood and the water in the throne splashed to the floor like a river cascading over the rock (And had to hold himself back from saying ‘bro just say sorry!!’ (It was a tough one)).

“The line between Naïveté and hopefulness is almost invisible

So close your heart, the world is dark and

Ruthlessness is mercy,”

He thrust the trident down to point at Jorge.

“Die.”

The ensemble started the chanting back up and ran around like they were trying to get control of the ship again, this time with much less success.

Some of the ensemble fell and jumped into the wings, pretending to he killed.

Percy added his own ‘attacks’ to the mix, sending out large blades of water to cut through the rabble like misery whips.

Slowly the crowd thinned and the music met it’s crescendo, just for it to all fade out, he made the rain die down in accordance. The only sounds were the fake wind and the heavy breathing of everyone on stage but him.

“What have you done?”

Jorge sang shakily, Percy used all the water currently floating in anticipation like a halo behind him, he jumped off the rock and landed gracefully at the forefront of the stage.

“When does a ripple become a tidal wave?”

He stared out into the audience and thought for a second he saw a flash of purple eyes, he quickly shifted his gaze to the back wall, his back turned slightly away from Jorge.

“43 left under your command.”

He sang lowly.

“When does a man become a monster?”

He started to pace towards the small group of sailors left, it was off-putting to see his classmates cradle wounds, even if he knew they were fake.

“I am your darkest moment

The monster that always draws near!”

He made his way to stand behind Jorge, trident poised to strike and making note of the white tape on the floor in front of him.

“Any last words?”

“All I gotta do is open this bag!"

“What!?”

And with that the instrumentals came back into full swing and the white sheet curtain that signified the storm swept down directly in front of him, allowing the stage crew to take out the rock.

He made his way to the back of the stage to stand menacingly in the path of a light. It switched on and projected his shadow onto the sheet, he stood back straight with his trident firm on the ground and sang:

“Remember me…”

Finally all the lights dimmed, Percy dashed off stage, throwing his trident back onto the weapons rack and making a dash for the changing rooms to grab Odysseus’ chlamys again.

Hopefully he could get back to the orchestra for Wouldn’t you Like, he loved playing that song.

Percy snaked his way through the dawdling orchestra, twisting around bodies and trying hard to not give anyone a face full of brass.

Once they reached the junction he split off and when dashing to the storage room. He needed valve oil, the horn was pristine in every way expect for the fact that the last hour of rigorous playing turned into abrasion very quickly and if he wanted to meet up with his mum in the intermission he’d have to get to lubricating it stat!

He hoped the case the horn came in had some valve oil but if it didn’t he was sure the other owners of this venue’s instruments wouldn’t mind him borrowing some.

When he rounded into the room and got to the case he almost cried in relief when he saw the small clear bottle slotted in between the foam; he hated playing with sticking keys and hurriedly got to unscrewing the tops of the valves.

After he had done each valve, perched on his toes and fiddling like a crazed squirrel, he decided to clear it out of condensation. Percy brought the mouthpiece to his lips and at the same time lifted of the small cap on the bottom most tube, he took a deep breath and-

“Perseus! How goes th-“

Percy lurched forward in shock at the sudden voice behind him and his lips tightened against the metal, all his breath flew into the instrument and came out like a foghorn. He yanked his mouth away when he realised and his voice trailed of in a yelp.

In the same sudden motion he stood up and spun around, gripping his horn to his chest and heaving. He looked his ambushed up and down, it was his dad, beside him… damnit, beside him was his wife and son.

“A-ah, hey, dad! Sorry, you shocked me!” He chuckled awkwardly, pulling his hood down politely.

“Lady Amphitrite,” Percy nodded to her in greeting an respect, “Trit- Lord Triton,” he acknowledged his half brother with a weaker nod and a side-eye.

“My apologies Percy! We came to congratulate you on a job well done!” His dad smiled warmly down at him and Percy rubbed his neck, flushing under the attention (it was so weird!!).

“Little…” Triton mumbled something under his breath as he crossed his arms with the same petty energy as a three year old.

“Triton, dear, why don’t you go fetch us some refreshments for the next act? There’s an ROFL stand in the lobby,” Amphitrite offered, though there was clearly no room for questioning.

Triton grumbled “Yes, mother,” and vanished in that familiar swirl of bubbles.

“Does that mean Iris is here? Or is Fleecy running it…?” Percy wondered, mostly to himself.

“Oh, sorry! I got side-tracked! Uhm… you wanted to talk to me?” He rubbed the nape of his neck.

“Yes, I wanted to say that you are doing brilliantly, son,” Poseidon said as he put a tentative hand on Percy’s shoulder “I hadn’t realised you were playing myself in this, however, I think you are doing a wonderful job at portraying my wrath!” It was really nice to say and made Percy so much more scared for the vengeance saga…

“Well, apart from the… err… costume,” he admitted, pointedly staring at the wall next to him.

“I concur,” Amphitrite added “You were wearing much less in those times, husband,” both boys whipped to stare at her but she remained neutral.

“Amphitrite! I- I- in front of my son?!” Poseidon spluttered.

“Do not act ashamed, I remember you were quite prideful of the fact, where has that boldness gone now?” She asked, raising a single eyebrow and doing nothing else. Percy was trying so hard not to laugh, but he thought getting smited (smote?) might be worth it at that point.

“On the topic of your attire,” Amphitrite started, turning to him fully and fixing him with a blank stare “I have noticed you bear my wedding ring,” she didn’t elaborate how she felt about it tough.

“Uhm, yeah, you have my friend Piper to thank for that; she designed this whole thing and we both agreed that it would be a nice reference to you…” He was exaggerating his role in the discussion but he didn’t want to seem inconsiderate of his own step-mother, especially not in her face.

“Ah, yes, I do remember one of Aphrodite’s daughters Iris messaging me. She must have done it to see my ring…” she concluded. Thankfully she didn’t mention that it made no sense because Percy was, again, Poseidon. He nodded numbly at the reminder of her stunt.

“It is an excellent replica and I appreciate the recognition, it is not often I am remembered throughout my husbands exploits,” she explained, she had a small but grateful smile on her face now.

“I’ll make sure to pass the compliments on to our costume department, that’s high praise!” Percy smiled back at her, he was still quite tense though.

She nodded approvingly and they all stood for a minute. Most of Percy’s confrontations with gods happened directly before after or during some kind of climactic battle, which meant he was usually pumping with adrenaline and antagonising them purposely or otherwise. Now he had a filter and no doomsday clock, every interaction with his immortal family was just painfully awkward.

Percy looked down at his horn and fiddled with the valves, he tested each key, now loosened with oil they worked perfectly.

“I didn’t know you played any instruments, Percy,” Poseidon observed, extending an olive branch. Percy grinned sheepishly.

“Yeah… I picked up the horn for my music course,” He pulled out a slide halfway like he knew what it did, “the only reason I’m in the orchestra today is because the only other guy with a Tenor Horn flaked, so…” he shrugged, rambling.

“CURTAINS IN FIVE, EVERYONE!!” Someone yelled from down the hall, Percy jumped at the muffled cry.

“I suppose that is our cue, then,” his dad sighed “I shall see you after Perc-“

“Wait!” He all but shouted “Err, in Act 2 there’s this part where Odysseus has another final confrontation with… me? You?… show Poseidon! I just wanted to warn you… it’s… not that great…?” He tried to explain without outright telling him, mostly in an act of self preservation.

His dad seemed to sense his apprehension and put his hand back on his shoulder in an effort at comfort.

“I appreciate your forewarning, son, but I think it’ll be okay, this is just a story after all, and quite far removed from historical events,” Poseidon chuckled in a way that was far less reassuring than he meant it to be.

“Uhm, yeah, thanks…” Percy offered, wincing “e-enjoy!”.

He got two nods as both gods were whisked away by bubbles.

He couldn’t help but focus on how terribly this could go.

The pivotal moment was there and he couldn’t linger in the orchestra any longer, so he stood in the wings and flicked on the microphone in his ear (courtesy of the amazing budget). Still out of sight he started his lines:

“There you are,

coward.”

He sent some small slithers of water onto the stage from both sides, they went to circle the raft, arches and bumps formed and oscillated like sharks about to surface.

“I’ve been waiting’, for this moment, for the perfect time to strike

When your home’s so close, and you’ve reached your coast,”

Over the course of the verse Percy made his way to the centre of the stage behind the curtain, just like his last appearance, this time with a lower rock (the same one they used for the sirens).

“That’s when our paths collide,”

The stagehands either side yanked the curtains open on beat and Percy stamped his foot in sync, it looked like he had willed them apart with his mind.

“I’ve got a reputation,”

He took one step further into the light.

“I’ve got a name to uphold,”

Then he took another, he span the water quicker too, like the base of a miniature hurricane.

“So I can’t go lettin’ you walk or else the world forgets I’m-“

With a sharp, angry flick of his wrist all motion on stage ceased, every single droplet of water was frozen as if Kronos had worked his magic on them.

-cold.”

He fixed his stare on Jorge, cold and unmoving, he used everything he knew from Lupa’s lessons to be as frightening as he could.

“Now get in the water,”

The eerie silence made it so that Percy could hear his blood roaring in his ears.

“Get in the water,”

That pulsing sound effect started up again quietly.

“Or I’ll raise the tide so high

All of Ithaca will die,”

He started the twister up again, slowly but surely, he found he quite liked the tension is made when he slowly built up speed.

“Get in the water,”

Jorge’s eyes flicked to the streams and they widened. Percy faltered but tightened his grip on the water. Had he seen through the mist? He turned back to Percy slightly confused but continued the song.

“Wait!”

“Get in the water,”

“Stop this, please…”

He raised his hand as he was controlling waves, but didn’t actually move anything.

“I’ll make tidal waves so profound

Both your wife and your son will drown!”

“NO!”

At the exclamation Percy almost jumped, he fought hard not to emote. Jorge was a really good actor, he just sounded to devastated.

“Get in the water!”

He made a large sweeping motion with his trident on that line and the swirling water exploded upwards.

“Get in the water!”

He always liked how that repetition had other voices. He clumped the water together into four large blobs and they slowly took form.

They were horses, not just any horses though; they were the Mares of Diomedes. With fangs and their weird, horse-exclusive scowls. Percy thought they were fitting for the show and situation. They started to impatiently circle Jorge.

“Don’t mistakes my threats for bluff

You have lived more than enough!”

“Get in the water!”

“Get in the water!”

The horses looked great as they gnashed their teeth and scraped their hooves, he was just hoping that that thing earlier was a fluke, he didn’t feel like traumatising a nice guy like Jorge.

“I’ll take your son and gouge his eyes,”

Percy always thought that line was a nice call back to the whole Polyphemus thing, but to be honest he kinda got Odysseus when it came down to it, his half brother was an ass.

“That is, unless you choose to die!”

“Get in the water!”

“Aren’t you tired, Poseidon?

It’s been ten years, how long will this go?”

Percy may have ascended right then and there when he heard Jorge’s voice, it was no wonder he was in the chamber choir, every time they rehearsed this it tickled his ears in just the right way.

“We’re both hurtin’ from losses

So why not leave this here and just go home?”

The horses slowed to a stop, all shaking and tilting their heads contemplatively.

“I can’t,”

“Maybe you could learn to forgive…?”

And that was were Odysseus had made the pivotal (well, one of many) mistake, because as soon as you ask a god to admit they’re wrong or fix their flaws, that’s when they decide to be more contrarian than a toddler.

“No,”

The horses broke out into a gallop as if they were leaping on waves and blurred together like a zoetrope back into the hurricane.

“Ruthlessness is-“

He slashed down with the trident once and the raft titled as practiced, the stage hands from either side waved the fabric faux-water and Percy added the real deal for authenticity.

“-mercy upon-“

He repeated the previous action but mirrored it. Jorge gripped right to the mast, pretending to shake in fear.

-OURSELVES!”

It all calmed for a second before…

“DIE!!!”

Percy twirled his trident and net artistically for the next 30 seconds and the waves (fake and real) responded to his gestures.

The pace of the music slowed and almost went completely quiet, that’s when he stepped back into the shadow of the curtains and let the supportive ghost thing happen (he almost wished he had cool ghosts to give him pep talks on his quests, but all also didn’t want dead family or friends so that was a bust).

“You can relax, my friend

I can tell you’re gettin’ nervous,”

Micheal (who played Polites) sang from the wings, Percy swore he was practically glued to that microphone the whole play, he just had so many songs little snippets over the course of the musical.

“Look at all we’ve lost and all we’ve learne-“

“I’ll stay in your heart-“

“Oh, whoa, Odysseus

Waitin’, Waitin’, Waitin’, oh~”

The ensemble sang, they didn’t have a microphone like the other three, there were enough that their voices would carry.

The electric guitar of the next song started to play, he remembered how Robbie whined that he could play this part because he was in the show (a fat load of good that did Percy) and how much he loved it, but he was inclined to disagree.

This was the song that might just turn his school into a pile of embers.

“Six hundred men, six hundred…

As the chanting began Jorge fiddled with the string on the windbag and he stumbled around the rocking (the stagehands must be so tired from pulling those ropes back and forth with a guy on the thing).

“I don’t think you seem to get it!

I can’t afford to die!”

Percy took a pretend, wary step back. Once again he looked for the white tape and made sure he was solidly behind it. He slammed his trident down in defiance on the mark and received a tiny nod from Jorge.

“‘Cause I will get back to my son!”

He pulled out his fake blade (fashioned from the oyster shells of show-Calypso’s island!).

“AND I WILL GET BACK TO MY WIFE!!”

As Jorge bellowed the last word he slit open the velcro on the bag (great for fixing repairs and making tearing noises) with his knife and pushed off the raft, lunging for Percy.

He got to the rock from the raft and ran forward, deliberately passing the point where Percy’s trident was planted and forcing him to turn in indignation and face him. That was the cue for the white screen to fall over them.

All the lights dimmed and they hurried to their positions. When the lights came back on their silhouettes were projected on the screen, Percy wielding his net and trident against Jorge with his knife and windbag.

“For ev-ery comrade, everyone of my friends!”

He slashed forward with the knife and Percy easily dodged under the blow, in the same motion he lunged at Jorge’s shins with his trident and Jorge jumped back, he barely missed the strike.

“Almost all of whom were slaughtered by your hand!”

Percy swiped his net upwards from the floor (expertly catching it on the fishing line laid out for this scene) trying to catch the outstretched arm in its knots. Jorge aimed the windbag at it, and with a small puff of air, the net was yanked into the wings and out of Percy’s grip by the thin chord.

“Six hundred strike!”

“Six hundred men! Six hundred-“

They continued to fight, choreographed slashes and blocks aimed at vital-adjacent spots. Percy kept his powers out of it, for fear of hurting Jorge in such close combat, he only summoned climatic waves and streams to channel light through the screen.

Percy swung his trident down in one slash, Jorge blocked with his knife but was struggling under the force. In a desperate moment he released the last dregs of wind, disarming and flinging Percy back.

“-six hundred men!”

He ran to the dropped trident and heaved it up, awkwardly pointing it at Percy as the last of the chanting faded out.

“You idiot, can’t you see?”

Percy picked himself up, stretching and rolling his shoulders cockily.

“You released my storm when you opened that bag!

Blocked your one way home~”

He twirled some water around himself and tried to make it denser to allow for a darker shadow, it worked somewhat and now he was rocking some tentacles.

“Now you’ll never get back.”

Jorge strode casually towards him twisting the trident in his grip like he was trying to balance it.

“You’re going to call off that storm,”

Percy used the tentacles to raise himself off the ground, just enough that he was taller than Jorge and looking down at him.

“Or what? You can’t kill me,”

Jorge stood with the trident planted upright, it almost grazed Percy’s chest from how they were positioned.

“Exactly.”

He pulled the trident back at the swooshing noise and the two made eye contact, mutual understanding passing between them. Percy had to trust Jorge to not accidentally stab him because even if it was plastic it could really hurt him, Percy himself was more bothered about visible bruises as his costume was shirtless but all to their own.

“…wait…”

Jorge grabbed the back of his neck and yanked him down.

“…wait!”

He plunged the trident forward and…

“AH!”

The lights flashed red with the strike and Percy dropped all his water to the floor as he fell, Jorge planted a gentle foot on his chest, the trident parallel to his torso and in the floor behind him.

“How does it feel to be helpless?!”

With every line he stabbed down and Percy let out his best ‘I was just impaled’ scream, the lights flashed red each time.

“How does it feel to know pain?

I watched my friends die in horror!”

“HAAAGGHHHH!!”

“Crying as they were all slain!

I heard their final moments

Calling their captain in vain!

Look what you turned me into!

Look what we’ve become!”

“Enough!”

“All of the pain that I’ve been through!”

On that line Jorge stabbed with more force than previously and pretended to twist, Percy arched his back up screaming.

“Stop!”

“Haven’t I suffered enough?!”

“STOP!”

“You didn’t stop when I begged you!”

He aimed for the neck this time, not breaking the windpipe but slotting two spikes on either side to hold him down.

“Told me to close my heart!”

“You-“

“You said the world was DARK!!”

-monster!”

“Didn’t you say that ruthlessness is mercy upon our-“

“ALRIGHT!!”

Jorge stopped his advance and Percy deflated, he wheezed out the next line.

“Please…”

With the sound of a bell the trident was yanked out the 'stone' either side of Percy’s neck and Jorge backed off, glowering.

Percy sat up weakly and raised his hands to the heavens, calling off the storm, the projecting lights flashed off and he dashed off stage as the screen lifted. Offstage he sang:

“After everything you’ve done

How will you sleep at night?”

Jorge threw down the trident and faced the audience, his words rang through the theatre like a warm knife through butter.

“Next to my wife,”

Percy’s heart thudded in his chest, and he slumped to his knees, back against the wall. He could only hope that his father wouldn’t take the performance personally, he- he didn’t want anyone to get smited… he hadn’t had mortal friends in long and…

He stumbled through the halls to go find Fletcher, he needed Tiresias’ cloak this time.

It was all over.

Percy didn’t know how to feel as he filed onto the stage, hand in hand with Stacy and Lucas. But still he couldn’t help but beam, he was so happy and dare he say proud; they had actually done it! The first show, concluded, and without a single hitch (onstage, that is)!

He was happy enough to ignore the possibility of his impending doom, and he just revelled in the joy that seeing his friends and family happy brought.

When the ‘gods’ finally came to the front for bows the roaring of the crowd almost doubled. He saw his friends jumping up and down, waving, shouting and clapping. His mum and step-dad looking up in pride. And when he dared to take a glance, Poseidon’s family were clapping politely, with the exception of his dad who seemed on the brink of causing an earthquake with the force of his hands coming together…

…that was probably a good sign.

Percy stood to one side of a Stacy and Lucas to the other, they were at the front of the stage as the ‘most significant gods in the story’, he personally disagreed but he didn’t refute it. The rest of the ‘gods’ stood next to them, slightly staggered behind but perfectly visible.

In unison they swung their interlinked hands all the way up before coming back down and bowing at the waist. He grinned at the crowd one more time and was ready to step back for the next group when he was grabbed by the face.

In the next instant his lips were smothered by something cold and we- a kiss?!

His eyes blew wide and his brain went blank, all he knew in that moment that those lips weren’t Annabeth’s and he needed to escape. He brought the shaft of his trident parallel to his aggressor’s shoulders and thrust with both hands.

They went stumbling backwards and Percy quickly brought the tips of the trident up to their neck. His knuckles were white and he was breathing hard, his eyes slowly focussed back in as he noticed the lack of music or clapping.

He finally saw Stacy the business end of his weapon, eyes pricking with tears and shaking. He yanked the trident back and tipped the point to the floor.

He wished he could feel bad about it but he was just uncomfortable. He felt a hand slip into his and almost crushed it in shock, he turned to find Nathalie tugging him back. Taking the hint he furiously rubbed off the excess saliva and followed her with the rest to the ‘gods’ back stage.

He didn’t want to think about the audience who all saw what happened, nor about the fact that Annabeth was in said audience and bound to have witnessed to it too. Did that count as cheating?!

He sent Nathalie a weak but grateful look when they finally parted ways and slinked to their respective changing rooms. Percy slumped down on the sofa with his bag and just sat there for a minute.

So much had happened this evening, what with his filling in for the orchestra, playing his dad, talking with his dad and… getting kissed just now by someone who wasn’t his girlfriend. He was in a daze.

Reaching for his bag he decided he really didn’t want to be shirtless anymore and slipped on his hoodie, he bunched up his arm fabric awkwardly in one of the sleeve and left the hood down. He was a lot more comfortable.

“Hey,” he heard in quiet greeting, paired with the bounce of the the cushions that came from someone slumping next to him.

“You okay, bro?” Lucas asked, his caduceus nowhere to be seen and turning his winged cap absentmindedly in his lap.

“Yeah, just… tired…” Percy answered “You?” Lucas squinted at him, clearly sniffing out the withheld information but relented.

“Yeah, same,” he said smoothly “I’ve never had to twerk so much in my life!” Percy whipped to stare, but upon noticing his joking smirk punched him in the arm.

“Hah! Got you! Mrs. Godwin wouldn’t let me do anything ‘provocative’ because it wasn’t ‘appropriate for the subject matter or the school’ but I snuck in a few hip thrusts, she probably didn’t notice…” Lucas snickered as he mocked her words, Percy was going to have to buy that woman flowers, he did not need the image of a twerking Hermes in his head. He was so glad he didn’t have to watch.

Suddenly, Robbie’s head poked in.

“Hey! Percy! There’s someone here to see you! Long blonde hair, you might know ‘em?” He called. Ah, that must be Annabeth, he really hoped she enjoyed the show.

“Yup!” He stood up, stretching, before he turned to Lucas “Thanks, man, I mean it. Get some rest, okay?” He received a small nod before heading out, patting Robbie’s shoulder in thanks as he passed him.

Percy stuck a hand in his pocket, he fiddled with the trident pin Nathalie had given him, riptide was hanging on the net under his kilt, just in case so he want caught off guard.

It was then that he realised he actually had no idea where Annabeth was waiting for him. He glanced around to look for someone to point him in her direction, the only person in the hallway with him at that moment was… Stacy…

“Uhm… hey, Stacy…” hey probed like he was prodding a landmine with a twig “Have you seen… are you alright?” He decided to check on her first, he already knew the answer though.

She was curled up on the floor outside the girls changing room, sniffing and hiccupping, but not crying. She slowly turned glistening eyes to him before putting her face it her arms and letting out a sob.

“I’m sorry for pushing you earlier,” He tried “In that moment, I didn’t really recognise you. So, I’m sorry…” he felt like such an idiot, he hadn’t picked up on the obvious signs of her crush and then he’d rejected her by shoving her and holding her at trident-point in front of a captive audience! She must feel terribly embarrassed, he certainly was.

“No,” She said her first word of the conversation “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have kissed you, not- not without your permission or- or-“ she hiccupped, tears now barrelling down her face. Percy subtly dried off her himation where they fell.

“Why are you even apologising?! I just a- assaulted you!” She shoved her head back into her knees as Percy flailed for a response. He’d hardly call it an assault, by the letter of the law it probably was, but she didn't deserve to have her life ruined over this; the kiss was one sided and kinda unexpected but it was clearly a something she hadn't really thought through, let alone malicious.

“Oh my God! I just assaulted you! On camera! Your family are gonna press charges for sure- I’M GONNA GO TO JAIL!!” She balled. Percy slapped both hands on her shoulders and forced her to look at him.

“Stacy, you are not going to jail, I’m not pressing charges and I’ll stop my family if they try to,” Percy stated, calm and stern “I’m fine, there’s no harm done, I forgive you. But I should probably tell you that I already have a girlfriend, so I’ll have to reject you, I’m sorry,” he winced at how hard his voice sounded but he already felt guilty enough for accidentally leading her on, it was best to get everything out in the open.

She stared up at him in sorrow, her tears were silent and slowing but she still looked distraught. She inched up the wall and Percy pulled his hands away.

“I-…” Stacy tried, looking up at him through her hair “I think I need to time to think…” she fiddle with the changing room door handle but Percy stopped her.

“Wait!” He felt a little bit bad for asking but… “Have you seen a blonde girl anywhere around her? She’s not a part of the crew but I heard she was looking for me… we’re friends,” she bit her lip, eyes squinting in a wince mixed with a scowl.

“I saw a blonde stranger headed towards the music section, I thought they were a guy but… I guess not…” she answered quietly. Remembering her wish to be alone, Percy muttered his thanks and sped off in the direction she’d pointed.

When he rounded the corner he made the jarring realisation that he had been thinking of the wrong blonde this whole time, as he was met with the lithe but muscular form of the god of the sun.

“You’re not Annabeth,” Percy said astutely.

“No, I’m not,” Apollo grinned down at him “but I’m flattered you could mistake me for you girlfriend,” he fluttered his eyelashes and Percy had to resist the urge to gag.

“Anyway, Percy, I can’t believe you didn’t tell me you played an instrument!” Apollo put a hand to his chest, acting hurt “I could’ve taught you myself, you could’ve been a prodigy the like of which haven’t been seen since those Mozart siblings!” He wiped a fake tear as Percy stared on, bewildered.

“That’s exactly why I didn’t tell you,” he snarked under his breath.

“What are you doing here?” Percy asked, significantly louder.

“Why to reap the rewards of my investment, of course!” He chirped like Percy had any idea what he was talking about.

“That investment being…?”

“I donated some money to the show production!” Apollo grinned.

“Wait that was you?! Wh-why??” Percy yelled through his teeth in disbelief.

“Well, when my dear Oracle mentioned that the Hero of Olympus himself was putting on a musical I just had place a stake in her betting pool,” his grin turned more predatory as he explained, like the cat that ate the canary.

“I suppose my prophetic qualities may have swayed my odds just a little bit, and when I won it was my duty as a god of the arts to help my niece put on the best show possible! So I contributed my winnings to the budget, it wasn’t like I needed the money,” he shrugged with an obnoxiously knowing look in his eye and Percy couldn’t decided it he was angry or happy for the interference.

“Wait wait wait-“ Percy waved his hands frantically “-did you say niece?? Who’s that?”

“Beryl! Ah- that’s Mrs. Godwin to you, she’s a legacy of Erato, so I guess we’re not strictly related, per se, but the muses and I are pretty tight, we’re basically sisters so it totally counts,” He said cheerily, then his smile tightened “I much prefer her as a legacy than that Octavian kid anyhow…” Percy was pretty sure he hadn’t mean to say that but out loud.

“Hang on, so who was the other donor then?” He asked.

“I don’t actually know, but if I had to guess my money would be on Iris,” Apollo mused “She does have her ROFL stand set up in the lobby, she probably overheard someone talking about the show over IM and decided to help. Heck! she might even be the reason this is a charity event!”

“By the way, how’d you find the Tenor Horn I sent? No issues?” He queried. Percy whipped around to stare, well, stare harder.

“You put that there?!” He exclaimed “Why??”. The sun god scoffed.

“Come on now, Percy, why wouldn’t I? I couldn’t just leave your Orchestra unfinished, not after all that went into this! Plus, it gave you more time to shine- and on the night you’re recording it too! That’s real lucky!” He clapped his hands together in joy. Suspicious.

“You didn’t make George sick on purpose, right?” Percy accused.

“What? Tha- that’s preposterous! Why would you ever- I PLEAD THE FIFTH!” Apollo’s reply reminded Percy why he was the god of truth, not lies “Anyway, you didn’t answer my question; how was the horn?” He changed the subject.

“Hmm, yeah it was nice, the case is kinda gaudy though,” he teased, thinking back to the bright yellow case in contrast to all the black ones, combined with the sun engraving Percy probably should have guessed who it was from.

“Excuse you! I made sure it was a very tasteful sunflower yellow!” Apollo sniffed indignantly, hands on his hips.

“You can keep if you want, I don’t need it and there’s a zero percent chance whatever you had before was better,” he added flippantly.

“Thanks…” Percy was a little out of sorts from that, he wasn’t usually one to look a gift horse in the mouth but Apollo was not gift horse- more like a ‘present ass’, in every meaning of the phrase.

“Is this a bribe? Because, I’ve sworn off questing,” He had no qualms about glaring up at the god as he asked.

“Wow, Perce-“

“Don’t call me that.”

“-can’t a guy just give his friend something nice?”

Percy raised a pointed eyebrow and crossed his arms, he just needed to be sure.

“Okay, fine, but if this really is no strings attached then you better not tell me I owe you later on, or you can take it all back right now!” He froze for a second before tagging on “and the donation doesn’t count since that was for Mrs. Godwin!” Apollos gaze seemed to soften for a second, was he… fond??

“Relax, guy, this was all just out of the kindness of my heart and passion for the arts,” Apollo perked up and his eyes twinkled (no, seriously, they actually did) “Ooh! That rhymed! Makes me want to compose a limerick…” Percy winced, if his haikus were that bad then his limericks must be terrible.

“Ah- no you really don’t have t-“

“There once was a Hero of Olympus,

Who-“

And then, like his knight in shining armour, the Odysseus to his Penelope, Annabeth swept in and saved him.

“PERCY!! What are you doing?! It’s almost been ten minutes and everyone wants to see you!” She yelled down the hall, waving a hand for his attention with the same vigour as if she were shaking a fist.

“Damn, that- that sucks so bad I’ve gottogobye!” Percy sincerely apologised as he dashed away from Apollo and his limericks at top speed to his girlfriend.

Upon catching up with her, Annabeth gave him a quick peck on the check and a small cuff on the back of his head. In return he just beamed.

“So, mini-Poseidon, how was that?” She asked, smirking, she just exuded the sentiment of ‘I told you so’.

“Ugh, it was fun and I didn’t mess up,” Percy put on his biggest pout, like the good news has just swiped his ice cream off its cone.

“Exactly,” She nudged his shoulder with hers as they walked “So, water horses, eh? Wherever did you come up with those?”

“Hmm, I think I prefer the term seahorses, actually ,” Percy scratched is chin faux thoughtfulness “And it depends, I remembered them on the spot but I know them from Geyron’s ranch,” Annabeth perked up at the information.

“Oh? That’s… actually relevant! Have you been paying attention to my mythology lectures?!” She asked, Percy was almost hurt at the statement, but her teasing tone didn’t go over his head. He huffed and over-exaggeratedly turned away.

“Of course I do! I just get distracted, plus, I met these horses, the wanted to ‘rend the flesh from my bone and relish in devouring the lord’s own blood’ they were kinda hard to forget,” He all but whined. Annabeth didn’t reply, just chuckled at the absurdity of their lives.

The air grew tenser, as did her expression, and it was clear to Percy that Annabeth had something weighing on her mind. Just as he was about to ask, she answered.

“Percy, are you okay?” She stared deep into his eyes, poised to sniff out his inevitable untruths at the question, then she elaborated “Just- at the bows, you know? When you- er- that girl she-“ she was getting flustered now and that made Percy really nervous.

“When Stacy kissed me?” He asked as calmly as possible, slipping his hand into hers and squeezing.

“Yeah, you seemed… out of it? You had a weapon pointing at her neck! So I just…” Annabeth trailed off, squeezing back and visibly trying not to worry her lip.

“Hey, hey, I’m fine, Wise Girl. She just startled me and my brain went blank for a second, I’m fine, seriously,” He reassured. “She was just experimenting…”

“I guess you’d know all about that, huh, Guinea Pig?” Annabeth snarked. They both laughed and she seemed like she accepted the answer.

“I’m gonna punch her for it though, what kind of person goes after someone else’s boyfriend like that?! And on the night it was being filmed; brutal,” She shook her head in disapproval.

“Don’t punch her, I’ve already forgiven her and- WAIT! You got that on tape?! Gods damnit,” Percy groaned as he pulled one hand out of her grip and buried his face in both.

“I’m pretty sure they’ve been doing the opposite, actually,” Annabeth chuckled at Percy’s reaction, he was pretty sure his face was making the same expression as if he had been stabbed in the gut.

“Ugh, don’t remind me…” He tugged on his hair, mindfully avoiding the extensions.

“I won’t then, just watch out for Mr. D and the Muses, they’re having a very heated discussion about the importance of historical accuracy vs. narrative themes,” she winked at him, he just groaned again.

“Let’s just go, if my dad wants to smite me I’d rather get it over with quickly,” he grumbled. Percy felt a tug as he tried to keep moving; Annabeth was stock still, gaping at him, their hands still interlinked.

“What?” He asked, wilting under her hard gaze.

“Percy you think your father is going to smite you because you played him in a school musical??” She whisper-yelled in incredulity.

“I think he’s going to smite me because I played him loosing- and to a mortal that he hates at that!” Percy explained, she still looked at him like he was being ridiculous “This whole thing is about how he’s trying to kill Odysseus to defend his reputation!”

“Wasn’t it because of Odysseus blinding the Cyclopes though?” She mused, distracted for a split second.

“By the end of the show it’s more about him than his son,” Percy was pretty proud of decongest that one, it probably helped that he knew the exact lyric it was stated off by heart.

“How can you be so media literate and illiterate at the same time??” Annabeth seethed in exasperation “Percy, that’s not the point! Your source for this is a musical, which is loosely based on a poem, which was written centuries after the events it depicted were already over!!” She was clearly not happy with the oversight.

“So you think your dad, who called you his favourite son and let you sit on his throne in Olympus without killing you, that dad, will turn to ashes or sea foam for the treacherous crime of… making him look bad in a play you didn’t write?“ she finished.

Now it was Percy’s turn to gape. With everything laid out in front of him like that he realised he may have been kind of stupid in his assumptions.

“Man,”  he sighed in defeat but not sadness “I knew I called you Wise Girl for a reason, thanks for knocking some sense into me” he scratched his head awkwardly.

“As do I,” Annabeth said.

“What? Thank me?” He questioned, confused.

“No, you idiot! Call you Seaweed Brain-“ she leaned in as if for a kiss, then flicked his forehead and left him reeling “-nothing between those ears but kelp! I bet if I got close I could hear it sloshing!” She laughed as he grumbled, nursing his now sore forehead.

“Okay, let’s go, I wanna hear what my mum thought of the show,” Percy pulled her along and they finally made their way to the stage door into the lobby.

True to her words he was met with the sight of way too many mythological beings; there was a gaggle of nymphs in the corner making goo goo eyes at any and every male in the cast, he even saw a few trying to chat up Leo, who looked like he was trying to explain the concept of monogamy to them and failing.

Percy also spotted Mr. D, he looked about a decade younger and had his thyrus out for some reason, he was deep in conversation with two ladies - who he assumed were Calliope and Erato - and steadfastly ignoring the other woman frothing at the mouth and throwing textbooks at him, and final woman holding her back by the neck with an ivory flute (Clio and Euterpe, probably).

He smiled when he noticed Nathalie talking quietly with Marcus and two adults, probably her parents. She was wearing a cream hoodie over her own skimpy costume (really, they were alike in so many ways) and on it was a heart shaped badge with a small arrow going into one side and exiting the other. His smile widened when he saw it and she subtly grinned back.

He spotted Frank and Hazel making small talk with Iris and Fleecy, Piper excitedly fussing over Scylla’s dragon-torso ball gown and Jason standing like a lemon nearby. Finally he saw them, his mum talking amicably with Lady Amphitrite next to Poseidon and Triton looking tense and lost next to them.

He and Annabeth jogged up to them, waving in greeting.

“Ah! Percy! Oh, you did wonderfully,” his mum gasped and pulled him into a hug “I don’t understand why you were so shy about your singing before this, your voice was amazing!” He rocked back on his heels, he didn’t want to disagree but…

“Quite,” his dad agreed “I never realised you were so musically gifted! The final sagas only cemented that, also, did you switch cloaks at the end?” He took a long sip from his coffee.

“Yeah, it was way comfier than Odysseus'" Percy was very jealous Fletch got to wear something so and warm.

“Ah, yes, I thought the use of the seer’s cloak in the final saga was quite ingenious, it was as if he had seen the future of the play by being part of the music, a clever hark back to his song,” Amphitrite complimented.

“Thanks m’lady- really it was Miranda’s idea, so I’ll pass on the message!” He gave her a thumbs up, he wasn’t going to be the one to admit that it was purely accidental.

“It’s clear that much thought, effort and talent went into this production, I’m proud of you, son” his dad smiled and ruffled his hair, when he pulled away Percy tried to pat it down to how it was before, for fear of the costume department, he still had to reuse everything he was wearing for two more nights!

“So, you’re, err, not in a mood to me or smite the crew?” He nervously asked, he could smack himself for putting the idea out there, his big mouth…

“What?!” His dad blinked in mild shock “No! Son, I would never ‘smite’ you! And your crew have done nothing to anger me to the point of violence,” he looked at Percy with an unreadable expression, but if he had to guess it was something similar to concern.

“Okay, phew!” Percy felt a lot lighter all of a sudden “‘cus, I thought you’d be mad after watching the second act at least, I'm glad that's cleared up!” He chuckled in relief, Annabeth was always right.

“Of course not, have you never read The Frogs? Despite, the… copious historical inaccuracy in the ‘Vengance Saga’, I can make a solid distinction between fiction and hubris,” Poseidon reassured, with a sincere but slightly wry smile.

“I will admit, little-Odysseus did an incredible job of frustrating me at all turns, but I have decided to attribute that to his brilliant acting skills,” They all (barring Triton, the stuffy ass) shared some low laughter. Percy was filled with an unexpected swell of pride, it was so nice to  have did dad congratulating him for things other than slaying the biggest monster of the week. This was what he fought for, for everyone.

“Man, imagine if we didn’t have the mist; I’d get to tell Jorge that Poseidon himself said he was a brilliant actor. Either way, I’ll pass on the compliment, guy deserves it for all the effort he put in,” Percy grinned in half musing and half mirth.

“Well I’m glad I only have to imagine, I don’t want to think about a world where people knew I was a demigod publicly,” Annabeth shuddered “The news alone would make our lives a living hell, and that’s not even mentioning the government,” Percy joined her in wincing.

“On that cheerful note,” Sally said “I think we should talk about something else, like… Percy, you know, you like just like your father did when I first met him,” he grimaced sceptically.

“Well, minus all the…” she waved a hand, gesturing to all of him, which made him think that the first statement was a lie.

“Blue hair, face paint, random nets?” Percy filled in.

“No, no- he had the nets… mostly just the nets, actually,” surprisingly she wasn’t even a little red in the face with the statement, the same couldn’t be said for his dad. Percy turned his mildly accusing gaze on his dad.

“Okay, I don’t want to hear about this anymore, I’ll just pass on the compliment to Piper,” He deadpanned, Annabeth chuckled.

He slipped his hands into his pocket, fiddling with the pin again. He was just now realising that he was really tired, he felt like all his energy had been sapped, he hadn’t realised how draining it was, performing in front of a crowd… he supposed multitasking in the orchestra probably had some bearing on that.

He blinked the sudden haze away and scrubbed his eyes away a little, Annabeth nudged him, giving him a light look of concern. Percy just shrugged.

“Hey, what do you all feel about getting something to eat?” She asked the group. The Atlanteans all stared at her in bewilderment but Sally just looked at her fondly.

“What were you thinking? I have some pizzas in the fridge back home but maybe it would be nice to go out to celebrate!” She chimed in.

“I found this nice Vietnamese place a few blocks down when I got rid of the Lastrygonian infestation last summer, the Phở there is delicious!” She beamed straight at Percy like she expected him to know what that was.

“Fuh…?” He squinted at her incredulously. Annabeth gasped in mock offence.

“Only one of the nicest noodle dishes in the northern hemisphere! Well, now we’ve got to go! I can’t leave you uneducated!” She teased.

“Can we even afford that? Sounds kinda fancy…” Percy was happy for the suggestion but, again, his mortal parents weren’t exactly billionaires.

“It’s a rather common dish, Percy, it’s not too expensive depending on were you get it,” Poseidon, to Percy’s surprise, added “Although, I wouldn’t mind funding it… if you’ll have us?” He down looked at Annabeth, hope glistening in his eyes. She shot Percy an evaluating look but he just shrugged again.

“I won’t say no to free food,” she smiled genuinely at him. It struck Percy how much she’d changed too, he felt like it was yesterday that she was rejecting his friendship just because of their parents’ feud.

“Great!” His mum exclaimed “I’ll go grab Paul, and you go grab your bag, Percy, then we can meet outside?” She received a Mexican wave of nods and walked off to go extract Paul from his place fixated on… Clio? The muse was raving, shoving scrolls in his face as he nodded along almost so seriously that it was funny. Percy decided that was something else he didn’t want think about.

He gave his group a curt, tired nod and jogged off back to the stage door, pin still firmly in his grip. He was tired, but for once it wasn’t this bone deep exhaustion he usually felt, every thing was… lighter.

He was in such a great place and it only just struck him; he had nine new mortal friends, a fully intact scholarship and his dad seemed to be trying to reconnect. It was all very weird and average, but not unwelcome. He felt like he’d come out of this a lot better than he went in and… he’d actually enjoyed it all a lot.

As long as he ignored the fact that the show was recorded and the whole camp would likely have watched the whole thing by the end of the weekend (including that kiss- damnit).

It was nice to not fight for once, to use his powers for something purely fun and feel like a success!

He wound down the halls absentmindedly, grabbing his stuff on autopilot and u-turning back to the lobby. As he met back up with everyone (his family! (Apart from Tyson, the show was too mature for him)) he found himself thinking that everything might be alright…

That maybe everything; his life, might finally… mellow out…

It all felt so far fetched but... he couldn’t help but wonder.

Here's percy's costume and all of his new frineds! (extra art is on my Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/cloudsthefluffykindsartblog/806085498606141440/new-pjo-x-epic-fanfic?source=share)