Chapter Text
Percy found out that Jason was alive by accident. Considering it was the middle of the year, it wasn’t surprising that days at Camp-Half Blood had been very chill. Most of the kids had returned to see their parents after the war, and some older ones moved to New Rome. He tried and failed not to dwell on the thought of New Rome, and in the end a slow day combined with his recent worries led him to anxiously pace around the camp’s volleyball court late that night.
He was soon interrupted by the Stoll brothers. They both stood at the end of the court, with hands stuffed into their cargo pants and backpacks probably full of things Chiron wouldn’t approve of. Percy walked over to meet them.
“Hey man, what are you still doing out of the cabins?” Asked Travis, Conner raised his eyebrows then added,” Planning a prank without us?”
“How did you know!?” Percy responded sarcastically, then paused before answering that, "Nothing really, just—lost in thought I guess.”
Their expressions seemed to slightly twist into pity, an emotion he was never happy to see.
“You know there really isn’t anything wrong with you dropping out of New Rome, no one was expecting for life to just start right up again after the war, you don’t need to rush to move on.” Travis told him, with Connor nodding behind him.
Travis’s words hit him like a knife, because they didn’t feel true at all. He felt like a failure. He the proclaimed ‘Hero of Olympus’ had dropped out of college and had basically no idea where to go with his life. It seemed that life had started right up again, except for everyone but him. Annabeth was doing well in New Rome, she took to the learning like a fish to water. Jason was spending his time creating temples for the gods. Piper was in a school in Boston, finding a life beyond being a demi-god. Leo spent his time in the forges, creating products like the demi-god Iphone and getting sponsorships from gods. Hazel and Frank were the perfect praetors, commanding Camp Jupiter and keeping them in line. Even Nico—who used to be a scared and shy little kid—seemed to grow into his strength, finding a position to help his dad. It felt like Percy was the only one still stuck, unable to truly move on from the war that had passed.
Percy ended up saying,” I guess I’m just still processing everything that happened; I don’t really know where I want to go from here.”
To which Connor responded,” You don’t need to figure that out right now, don’t worry—but if you’re looking for a distraction, we have just the thing.
Travis smirked,” Connor and I need to do some shopping, we wouldn’t want to bore you with the details, but you should tag along.”
“It could be fun, plus a little sneaking out of camp is good for the soul,” Connor added.
Percy sighed, then thought about it—he really could use a distraction—so he nodded. The three snuck out of the camp before they could think about what might happen if someone thought they went missing.
Since Percy knew the Stoll brothers he had already resigned himself to the fate of having to listen to the brothers bicker and plot for the duration of the journey, however he had not prepared for all the walking. One of those quests some gods just give when they get bored, would have taken less energy. After the first hour of walking, Percy had suspicions that they weren’t actually going anywhere. By the second hour, he had accepted that they were just aimlessly wandering. After what he was sure must have been at least 3 hours of walking they had arrived, to what seemed like a halfway abandoned shopping center.
Percy wasn’t sure exactly what to think about the stores that they were about to enter, they all seemed to be a mix of welcoming, but suspicious. He was pleasantly surprised when they entered the first one because it just seemed like a cute market. Percy knew not to be deceived by appearances, and considering who he was hanging around with, he kept himself prepared to defend himself from an attack of paint balls or smoke bombs.
Travis seemed to sense where his thoughts were going though, because he interrupted them with, “Don’t look so worried yet, this is literally just a market, we need some nourishment if we want to stay awake to walk back before cabin inspection.”
Percy makes the conscious decision to ignore the “yet” in that sentence, which definitely should be a cause of concern. Instead, he looks around the store for a snack, and settles on grabbing a can of (decaffeinated) Arizona iced tea and a protein bar. He heads to the register where he meets Connor and Travis who seemed to have already checked out. Percy sends Connor a questioning glance when he notices that along with his drinks and snacks, Connor also bought one of what looked to be a random gossip magazine, which he didn’t peg Connor to be the type to like. He has definitely seen weirder things though, so, to each their own. Travis saw his look and just sighed saying,” He likes grabbing random magazines from like a year ago about whatever celebrity or pop star and reading them aloud in voices to annoy me.” Connor just winked and responded with a remark about how they,” both should be appreciative of the immaculate entertainment he’ll provide for their long, 2 and a half hour walk back.
They moved on to the next store, which was pretty much exactly what he expected it to be. It was a dim lit, warehouse style, shop; That was basically complete with every pranking tool—or more accurately: torture device—a child of Hermes could ever want. He doesn’t really have an interest in looking around the store. He’s happy enough to just watch the boys test out gadgets and kind of get lost in the chaos of seeing them in their element. After a bit, he makes his way to go talk to the girl at the register, who seems no older than 12.
He introduces himself, and he sees her eyes widen in shock and recognition, before she schools her expression. She replies by saying her name is Reagan and tells him about her dad: a demigod son of Hermes and her mom: a legacy of Hephaestus. Reagan says that her dad owns the shop and that she’s been helping out or working at the shop for as long as she remembers. She doesn’t sound bitter about it though, and It's obvious in her mannerisms and smile that she loves both the shop and her dad. They continue chatting, she mentions how close Travis and Connor are with her family because of how long they’ve been coming, and eventually the two finally come to check out. As they leave Reagan shouts an excited,” Bye Percy Jackson! Please come with Con and Trav next time too!!”
They then moved on to the final store, a sort of general store that also included a baffling selection of items like an “ Organ Harvesting Kit ,” or a “ Blueberry Peeler ?” What did that second one even mean? Weirdly enough though, In the midst of this…diversified store, he feels kind of content for the moment. He’s enjoying looking around the store with the Stoll brothers and commenting about each surprising item he sees. It’s fun trying to guess what use they have for each item they place in the cart.
It's not perfect, it's not exactly peaceful. There is still that voice whispering in the back of his head, You need to stop. Stop pushing all your thoughts away. If you don’t let go of everything you force yourself to forget, you’re going to implode. Who’s going to look up to you then. The younger campers won’t, not once they see how much of a failure the savior of Olympus real— He cuts it off though, no, everything might not be okay, but just for right now, he’d like to pretend that it is. He’ll have to deal with everything eventually, and he will. ‘Stop Lying.’ That voice speaks, for a moment he swears the voice is eerily familiar to R— to No One. That was Nothing. It can’t be anything, not anymore. That part of him should be long gone— is long gone, he mentally corrects.
Despite it all though, he feels happy playing a normal teenager engaging in normal teenage rebellion with some friends in the middle of the night. In the end he checks out of the final store with a “Rock Taming Masterclass,” because Connor claimed he needed to,” be friends with more than just one element.” The Stoll brothers walk out of that shopping center with heavier backpacks, but Percy walks out with a slightly lighter soul.
They begin their trek back to camp and the slowly rising sun lets them forgo the flashlights. By this point Percy has completely forgotten about the magazine Connor picked up at that market in the beginning of their night. If Percy was surprised by the dramatized acting out of the magazine’s contents, he has been put into Anaphylactic shock by the contents themselves. Because, while Travis sighs and Connor, in a dramatized schoolgirl accent, acts shocked about the news of some billionaire's son who had been thought to be dead for the last two years, Percy had stopped dead in his tracks. He could hardly even process Connor’s words.
“What?” Percy finally asks, shocked, the words leave him in barely a whisper, “Did you say that—that Jason Todd is… alive?”