It's a Revolution ~Woah, Let's Go!

 

Percy licked his lips nervously, nibbling on his food. The three women were making him anxious, with Athena’s fake smile, Rachel’s outright scowling, and Annabeth’s plainly thunderous face. He tried making peace by talking, but it went over their heads and they continued to just have icy silence as all three females silently battled it out and glared at each other.

 

The worst part, Percy didn’t even know what was wrong.

 

“Why are you here, Rachel? Aren’t you supposed to be busy being the Oracle?” Annabeth gritted out, clearly implying something that Percy missed.

 

Rachel glared, “I’m here because Percy was taking just me out in a very chaste way. Why are you and your mother butting in?”

 

Percy stuffed a bread biscuit into his mouth and focused intently on the menu he just grabbed, even though he’d ordered already.

 

“Well, I can’t speak for my daughter, but I was having a splendid time with Perseus until Annabeth dear cut into my time with him and then you had to cut in with a dinner that you’re not supposed to have,” Athena hissed.

 

Rachel sat up in indignation. “It’s a chaste dinner! Nothing’s wrong with it, except for you two! And I had dibs first, so I’m entitled to the time I scheduled with him before the two of you decided to meet up with him!”

 

“Not when he was so clearly enjoying his time with me!” Athena was just as shrill.

 

“Damn it, we’re supposed to get together! It’s CANON!” Annabeth argued her point.

 

Percy stared wide-eyed at them as they got into a full-fledged argument, missing Chris appearing next to him.

 

“Woah, you got a bitchfest going on?”

 

Percy, though still in shock at what was going on in front of him, still had the presence of mind to sock Chris’ shoulder.

 

“Language and respect for women, Chris,” Percy’s face turned dangerous, staring at him unnervingly.

 

Chris held up his hands in peace. “Just an expression, just an expression. Anyway, come on. Clarisse needs to see you.”

 

Percy nodded absentmindedly, looking back at the women now standing up and heatedly caught up in shouting at each other.

 

“I gotta go,” he told them, though they weren’t really listening. “Clarisse needs me, so I’ll see you later.”

 

Since they were pretty much busy, Percy shrugged and followed Chris to Clarisse’s ‘mafia lair’. There the Daughter of Ares was looking miserable as she rifled through some papers.

 

“Clarisse, you look like shit,” Percy deadpanned.

 

“You are shit,” she retorted.

 

“Thank you.”

 

And then he snickered and grabbed a chair and sat next to her.

 

“Sup?” he asked and then she began ranting to him about what was going on. He raised his eyebrows, face darkening at some places and exasperated at others. Generally, his overall mood wasn’t happy.

 

“Really now? Geez, and I suppose you wanted to ask me to cooperate and play along?” he nearly snorted.

 

She shrugged. “Sure. Though, knowing you, you would probably give them all a real chance and be sincere about the whole thing. You’re too nice, goody-two-shoes”

 

Percy grinned sheepishly and scratched the back of his head.

 

“Eh, what can I say? I can’t help it. I dislike being mean.”

 

“I take it that you will be scandalously running around polyamorously,” Chris didn’t even blink as he asked for confirmation.

 

Clarisse and Percy exchanged a quick passing look, ghosts of mischievous grins flitting across their lips before disappearing. Chris would swear he thought it was just an illusion.

 

Suddenly, those two were in each other’s faces, close enough to kiss, with Percy smoothly gripping onto her chin and her leaning her head up and looking up adoringly and longingly.

 

“But you’ll always be my favorite,” Percy purred.

 

“Oh, Percy,” Clarisse swooned.

 

Then the two of them looked over to Chris, faces touching side by side intimately as she gave Chris a sultry look and Percy grinned lazily, half-lidded eyes staring at the other male demigod. Both of them gave him the ‘come hither’ motion.

 

“Chris, wouldn’t you like to join us?” Clarisse asked with a naughty smirk.

 

“It’ll be a real treat,” Percy then licked his lips invitingly, looking Chris up and down.

 

Chris turned red really fast, uncomfortably heating up and fingers clumsily moving to loosen up his tie. He tugged at his collar as he made his excuse.

 

“You know, I really have to make sure things are on schedule and check up on the ‘super twins’. I’ll be back later!” he high-tailed it out of there, where the two of them burst into uncontrollable laughter.

 

“Man, your boyfriend is so easy to fluster,” Percy chuckled.

 

She sighed in fondness. “I’m trying to teach him not to get so riled up, but it’s just so fun to tease him.”

 

“It is rather fun messing with him. If you want, I could always come around more often to harass him and get him used to it.”

 

“Doubt it’ll work, but I’ll still find it highly amusing.”

 

Percy, passing over her stack of unused cigars, reached out and grabbed a strawberry Pocky stick, putting it into his mouth and then lighting it up like a cigarette. Miraculously, it actually lit up and Percy pulled it away from his mouth to inhale the smell of melting sweet bread and strawberries.

 

Clarisse snorted.

 

Ignoring that, Percy hmmed happily around his “Pocky cig”, even as he bit a piece off.

 

“You know, I totally get the gods and the smell of food thing,” he nodded sagely, gesturing to his Pocky stick.

 

“Whatever. These cigars are way better.”

 

“Didn’t peg you as a smoker.”

 

“I’m not.”

 

Percy blinked, but she just smirked and waved one of the cigars in front of his nose. He smelled it right away.

 

“Chocolate cigars?”

 

Her smirk widened. “I don’t like to smoke, but gotta keep up the image and all.”

 

He grabbed a couple of the cigars haughtily, before hiding them on his person. He just sniffed at her, though her smirk wouldn’t go away.

 

“So…let the games begin?” she asked.

 

“Ready, steady, go,” he answered.

 

They mimicked clanging glasses into a toast and smirked at each other.

 

Sometime later, as they separated and went to “work”, Percy immediately ran into an odd scene. He blinked and it was still there.

 

“Yo, Nico. What the hell’s this?”

 

The Italian boy scowled at his surroundings before acknowledging Percy.

 

“I’m leading a strike.”

 

Percy blinked again. “A what?”

 

“A strike.”

 

“…I heard that, but why?”

 

Nico sniffed unhappily. “I don’t know why these…fangirls and fanboys insist on pairing me with anyone at all, and I especially hate OCs! This is a strike on behalf of all characters! Rise and rebel, my fellow fictional peeps!”

 

Percy looked at his friend oddly. “Right, sure…”

 

“I mean, I’m like 14 now, which is sort of okay for romance, but they started when I was 12. Come on, seriously! And what’s up with all these original characters? WHO THE HELL ARE THEY?”

 

Percy scooted away cautiously.

 

A couple of girls walked passed, giggling and winking at Nico.

 

Nico suavely leaned back in the air and gave them a wink, inciting more giggling as he ran a hand through his hair.

 

“Hey, Anita, Kasey, Maria,” he greeted, his voice oddly changing to have a slight Italian accent.

 

The side-wink he gave Percy told him that it was intentional. He shook his head and rolled his eyes. And Nico had just been complaining…

 

The girls shyly waved back, though Maria seemed to have lingered on Percy a bit. When they left, Percy snorted and looked at Nico.

 

“Who were they?”

 

Nico shrugged. “Dunno. Just a bunch of new girls in camp. Er, well, I think Maria’s mortal.”

 

They blinked at each other.

 

“What’s a mortal doing here?”

 

Shrugging that off as well, Percy’s grin turned teasing.

 

“Say, you’re not actually 14, old man.”

 

Nico twitched, glaring fiercely at him.

 

“What was that?”

 

Percy’s teasing grin looked more like a smirk and Nico growled.

 

“Technically, you’re over 70.”

 

 Instead of getting prissy and furious like Percy expected him to, Nico was suddenly in a corner of gloom, sulking as he hunched in on himself.

 

“Aaannd you still have the mind and body of a kid. Right. Okay,” Percy rolled his eyes again and grabbed Nico, hauling him over his shoulder as he headed to the front of the gathered people for a strike.

 

“W-will you help me with the strike?” Nico pathetically sniffled.

 

He sighed. “Yeah, sure. Whatever.”

 

Nico suddenly twisted over his back and landed upright, patting Percy’s back happily.

 

“That’s a good chap. Come along then, and we’ll get started.”

 

Nico started walking away and Percy got the feeling he had just been suckered. Narrowing his eyes at the younger boy, Percy frowned and strode closer, resisting the urge to twitch uncontrollably.

 

“…Nico, when did you recover and then thought of duping me?”

 

“…After you’d picked me up and we were in the middle of heading to the front of the group…”

 

“…At least you weren’t playing me from the beginning,” Percy gave into the urge for a second. Then he relaxed his muscles and put on a lazy smirk and laid-back posture, acting as if he had never been agitated in the first place.

 

Girls in the audience and even some boys started swooning.

 

“Show-off,” Nico muttered.

 

“Jealous?” Percy continued his teasing.

 

Almost déjà vu, Percy and Nico turned to each other at once, and Percy gave a sad look as Nico looked away bashfully, holding each other’s hands tenderly.

 

“You know you’ll always be my favorite.”

 

Nico sighed dramatically, “But that’s what you said to Clarisse. And to Annabeth. And Rachel. And Luuuukkkee!” he wailed in anguish at the end.

 

Percy blinked and looked at him confused, dropping his hands and breaking the act.

 

“Wait, I never said that to Annabeth or Rachel. And I am definitely sure I didn’t say that to Luke,” Percy frowned, trying to think if Nico was implying something.

 

The Italian coughed, trying to cover up and change the subject. “Ohhh, you didn’t say Clarisse.”

 

Percy hmmed. “Yeah, we were teasing Chris earlier and were doing somewhat of the same thing we just did.”

 

Nico ‘ohhhed’ again. “Sounds fun. Count me in sometimes.”

 

“Sure, sure.”

 

And they finally made it to the front.

 

To Percy, the strike seemed to also double like some kind of rehab for fictional rejects. He mentally shrugged it off of course, putting on a bright smile, but it was still rather weird. He played along, and plus it was Nico.

 

“So, I was just walking along (sob) when t-this fangirl saw me and screamed my name!” some guy with a jet-black motorcycle helmet, neon red-orange lights on a black cat suit thing started sobbing hysterically, grasping onto one of the fellows beside him, who was nodding in sympathy as he patted the guy’s back.

 

Percy mentally sweatdropped as Nico also nodded in sympathy. He decided to hesitantly nod as well.

 

“It was a massacre, a massacre,” the guy continued, voice going higher as he started to repeat that over and over again.

 

“Who…who was that?” Percy muttered to Nico.

 

“Rinzler, I think his name was,” Nico whispered back. “From Tron something or other.”

 

“Don’t cross fandoms,” Percy murmured absentmindedly, still watching in horrified fascination.

 

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Anyways, it really was horrible. The girl screamed his name, a mob of them suddenly appeared, and they chased after him en masse until they finally caught up and mobbed him. A fanboy actually grabbed the poor chap’s crotch, and I believe the neon lights on the guy are sensitive.”

 

Percy winced and started to actually feel some real sympathy for the guy.

 

“Alright, everyone! That’s good for today. We’ll start again tomorrow, with a group session in the morning, protest at lunch, and a sit-down during the afternoon, and then protest potluck/barbecue rally for dinner,” Nico announced.

 

There was agreeable murmuring before the crowd began to disperse and Percy just raised an eyebrow lazily, watching them leave in mild amusement.

 

“Free again tomorrow?” Nico asked.

 

Percy shrugged. “Sure, I’m all yours tomorrow. Well…maybe not all yours,” he backtracked.

 

Nico scrunched up his eyebrows in confusion. “What do you mean?”

 

Percy sighed and explained the situation, and Nico winced in sympathy. There seemed to be a lot of that going around…

 

“I guess that was why Athena was acting so weird around me,” he shrugged. “I was kinda hoping she was growing fond of me on her own and that she had decided to give me a chance.”

 

“Yeah, well…don’t count those arrows out, Perce. Say, does that mean you have feelings for Athena?” Nico asked curiously.

 

“Nah. I mean platonically. ‘Cause you know, there’s always this tension and animosity from her, it would be nice if we could get along and all. Especially since Annabeth’s one of my closest friends –kinda like a sister.”

 

Nico could see it now, if Annabeth heard Percy say those words. She would immediately go into shock, repeating ‘like a sister’ over and over with ‘sister’ becoming emphasized more and more…until ‘sister’ was all that was being said. Completely unreachable, while they were at it.

 

“Great. Good,” he muttered. Nico wondered if he should mention this to the girl to tease her, or save himself the headache and exasperation by keeping quiet. “So, you have any feelings for any of them? Or anyone at all?”

 

Percy frowned to himself. “Hm…I don’t think so. I didn’t really have time for that before and I haven’t thought about it now, not even after hearing about the whole Eros’ arrows bit.”

 

“What about Annabeth?” even though Percy had just said she was just like a sister, everyone really thought something was going on before.

 

“I suppose I kinda did for Annabeth there, but just no.”

 

Vague, but Percy was known for giving out information when he wanted, what he wanted, and how he wanted. He was very sly about that and wouldn’t mention where he learned to do so.

 

“I gotta go now. I’ll finish up my tour today so I can help you with your strike tomorrow,” Percy nodded to him.

 

Then he left and Nico started to get a calculating gaze on his face. He immediately searched out the bottom deck, below even the boiler room, glad to not have any trouble finding his father. He was somehow not surprised to see his father prowling around a holographic image of a smiling Percy on a black stoned pedestal, circling slowly around it like some kind of predator. He was gazing at the image intensely, with a similar calculating look on his face and mouth set in a frown.

 

But Nico almost raised an eyebrow at the strange image of the look of hunger in the Lord of the Underworld’s eyes.

 

“Father,” he greeted, bringing himself to attention to the god.

 

Hades reluctantly tore his attention away from the image to look at his son.

 

“What is it, Nico?”

 

“Well…I have a venture I need help with…”

 

Hades frowned. “I’m a bit busy,” he said distractedly, eyes drawing back to the image.

 

Nico hid his smirk.

 

“…and a certain demigod Son of Poseidon will be helping out,” he finished.

 

Hades immediately turned his attention back to his son, a strange light in his eyes.

 

“But I suppose I can spare a moment for my son,” he purred.

 

“Excellent…Now, Father…I know about the…‘Eros incident’, as I’m sure it’s being called now,” Nico continued on. Hades returned to frowning. “But it’s a known fact that you’re not allowed in on council meetings, unless called for. It’s not a known fact that you are now.”

 

A slow smile spread across the dark god’s lips.

 

“Just vaguely imply that you were never in the meeting, and you can be sure Percy will be more open to you and you can win him over on your own. He has a problem with the whole Eros’ arrows thing, but since you were ‘supposedly’ not there, then you’re not affected by an arrow, are you? He won’t think your interest in him was cast from a simple little arrow.”

 

“You are most definitely my son,” Hades said approvingly.

 

Nico beamed happily.

 

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Thalia was…virginal, an eternal maiden, a Huntress of Artemis swearing off all men and all that…

 

…But this was just going too far.

 

“What’s up with the nun outfit?” Percy deadpanned, nearly face palming at Thalia’s cheery visage kneeling at the altar.

 

“Fangirls and fanboys seem to not get that I. Do. Not. Date. They don’t seem to understand I am very serious in my commitment to my vow to Lady Artemis. So I took it another step further,” she declared. She cheerily hummed as the light shone on her from above, casting her in a holy and envisioning sight.

 

She then pounced on him, wearing a smirk, and letting the nun outfit rise up her legs as she straddled him, leaning over him seductively.

 

“But vows are meant to be broken, if you know what I mean?” her smirk widened and he compared it a cat after eating a canary.

 

The blank look on his face gave way into confusion and then into enlightenment. Thalia nearly crowed in triumph.

 

That is, until he started laughing.

 

“Ahaha, I get it! Nice one, Thals. Real funny. Joke’s on me, huh?” he started laughing again.

 

She sat up on him, still straddling him, and stared at him incredulously, sweatdropping.

 

‘Why is it always the oblivious ones?’

 

She sighed and mentally rolled her eyes, getting off of him and helping him up.

 

“Shut up, Seaweed Brain. Just tell me what’s up,” she huffed inwardly, sitting on a pew and letting him sit next to her.

 

She threw her legs up and planted her feet on his lap, looking at him challengingly and smirk back on her face. He just yawned and took off her shoes, leaning back comfortably as he started to massage them.

 

“Mm, very nice,” she hummed contentedly. “Anyways, so? I’ve been out of the loop, kind of hiding out here.”

 

He reiterated all that had happened since he’d step foot on the ship, and she whistled afterwards.

 

“Even nicer. Can’t wait to see the drama and outrageousness. I might have half a mind to find Lady Artemis and shake her, but I don’t think that’ll do any good. Too bad I can’t push her off a cliff and kidnap you.”

 

“Wait, what was that?” Percy cut in, thinking he misheard.

 

Thalia laughed uneasily. “I said, ‘Too bad I can’t just push you off a cliff and kidnap her’ –you know, so I can to try to reprogram her back to the way she was.”

 

Percy snorted and mockingly pouted.

 

“Haha, fine. Just try to get rid of me. You never will!”

 

Thalia only nodded indulgently, yelping when Percy squeezed a little too hard as he gave her a warning mock-glare.

 

“You really want to become a nun, huh.”

 

She chuckled. “Eh, it was looking serious about my vows…but mostly to fend off the vultures. Plus, have you seen the way I’m being written off? They have me going into the whole romance thing way too unrealistically and I’m out of character most of the time. It’s enough to put me off forever and really contemplate nun-hood.”

 

‘Actually, I got into the whole nun thing to ward off overzealous fans, but then the looking serious about my vows became a secondary reason, what with my repeated ‘vow-breaking scenarios’ everywhere. Now I am being truthful about serioulys thinking about nun-hood, with the way things are. Though…’ she started to eye Percy, who was again oblivious to her.

 

“Tell you what, I’ll be your back up for now on,” she said reassuringly. “I can’t be with you tomorrow much, but I’ll meet up with you near the end. You know, help give you advice, fend off some people, etc…”

 

“Ah, thanks, Thalia!”

 

And as they continued to talk, she kept a smile on her face.

 

Another good reason for the whole nun thing. It kept her under the radar and Percy’s wariness off of her.