(no subject)

memory 48
Frank explains schizophrenia, joining the legion, dinner (SON V-IX)
gingerbread witch
185
lollipop 3 uses

Picks up with Hazel introducing Percy and Nico. Except. Nico doesn’t seem to have lost his memory, just to not remember Percy? Weird!

Hazel forced herself to speak. “Um…Percy’s lost his memory.” She told her brother what had happened since Percy had arrived at the gates.

“This story about Gaea’s army,” Nico said. “You warned Reyna?”

Percy nodded. “Who is Gaea, anyway?” […]

“She’s the earth goddess.” Nico glanced at the ground as if it might be listening. “The oldest goddess of all. She’s in a deep sleep most of the time, but she hates the gods and their children.”

“Mother Earth…is evil?” Percy asked.

“Very,” Nico said gravely. “She convinced her son, the Titan Kronos—um, I mean, Saturn—to kill his dad, Uranus, and take over the world. The Titans ruled for a long time. Then the Titans’ children, the Olympian gods, overthrew them.”

“That story seems familiar,” Percy sounded surprised, like an old memory had partially surfaced. “But I don’t think I ever heard the part about Gaea.”

Nico shrugged. “She got mad when the gods took over. She took a new husband—Tartarus, the spirit of the abyss—and gave birth to a race of giants. They tried to destroy Mount Olympus, but the gods finally beat them. At least…the first time.”

“The first time?” Percy repeated. […]

“Last summer,” Nico continued, “Saturn tried to make a comeback. There was a second Titan war. The Romans at Camp Jupiter stormed his headquarters on Mount Othrys, across the bay, and destroyed his throne. Saturn disappeared—” He hesitated, watching Percy’s face. Hazel got the feeling her brother was nervous that more of Percy’s memory might come back. “Um, anyway,” Nico continued, “Saturn probably faded back to the abyss. We all thought the war was over. Now it looks like the Titans’ defeat stirred up Gaea. She’s starting to wake. I’ve heard reports of giants being reborn. If they mean to challenge the gods again, they’ll probably start by destroying the demigods.…”

“You’ve told Reyna this?” Percy asked.

“Of course.” Nico’s jaw tensed. “The Romans don’t trust me. That’s why I was hoping she’d listen to you. Children of Pluto…well, no offense, but they think we’re even worse than children of Neptune. We’re bad luck.”

“They let Hazel stay here,” Percy noted.

“That’s different,” Nico said.

“Why?”

“Percy,” Hazel cut in, “look, the giants aren’t the worst problem. Even ... even Gaea isn’t the worst problem. The thing you noticed about the gorgons, how they wouldn’t die, that’s our biggest worry.” […] “Nico and I,” she said carefully, “we think that what’s happening is…Death isn’t—”

Before she could finish, a shout came from down the hill.

o it’s frank zhang! Nico tells Frank to take Percy away to prep for evening muster (“Percy looked at Nico one more time, as though he was still trying to place a memory. ‘I’d like to talk with you some more. I can’t shake the feeling—’”). So they walk off and Percy asks lots of questions about Nico but Frank… has no answers (though Frank does have the great line “Jupiter got the sky, Neptune got the sea, and Pluto got the shaft”). Frank mentions that Pluto is more respectable than Hades.

Percy scratched his head. “How does a god become Roman? If he’s Greek, wouldn’t he stay Greek?” […]

“The way Romans saw it, they adopted the Greek stuff and perfected it.”

Percy made a sour face. “Perfected it? Like there was something wrong with it?” […]

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “Rome was more successful than Greece. They made this huge empire. The gods became a bigger deal in Roman times—more powerful and widely known. That’s why they’re still around today. So many civilizations base themselves on Rome. The gods changed to Roman because that’s where the center of power was. Jupiter was…well, more responsible as a Roman god than he had been when he was Zeus. Mars became a lot more important and disciplined.”

“And Juno became a hippie bag lady,” Percy noted. “So you’re saying the old Greek gods—they just changed permanently to Roman? There’s nothing left of the Greek?”

“Uh…” […] “That’s a sensitive topic. Some people say Greek influence is still around, like it’s still a part of the gods’ personalities. I’ve heard stories of demigods occasionally leaving Camp Jupiter. They reject Roman training and try to follow the older Greek style—like being solo heroes instead of working as a team the way the legion does. And back in the ancient days, when Rome fell, the eastern half of the empire survived—the Greek half.”

Percy stared at him. “I didn’t know that.”

“It was called Byzantium.” Frank liked saying that word. It sounded cool. “The eastern empire lasted another thousand years, but it was always more Greek than Roman. For those of us who follow the Roman way, it’s kind of a sore subject. That’s why, whatever country we settle in, Camp Jupiter is always in the west—the Roman part of the territory. The east is considered bad luck.”

They talk about the vials of gorgon blood Percy saw Frank pick up at the river but totally misunderstands Frank’s intentions haha (“It would have looked sketch if I came in with poison! You were protecting me :D”). Frank offers them to Percy to fix his memory, but Percy goes nah we might need them more for someone dying.

“So you don’t remember anything?” Frank asked. “Family, friends?” Percy fingered the clay beads around his neck. “Only glimpses. Murky stuff. A girlfriend…I thought she’d be at camp.” He looked at Frank carefully, as if making a decision.

“Her name was Annabeth. You don’t know her, do you?”

Frank shook his head. “I know everybody at camp, but no Annabeth.”

:(

Frank tells Percy about his dead Canadian military mom. They take a bath and Frank takes Percy to muster with the other two-hundred kids in the legion. Octavian asks him for letters of reference to which Percy is like “bro I have amnesia and you just murdered my panda.” Frank tries to stand for him but can’t becaue he’s probatio; Hazel does it; Percy gets accepted to the Fifth Cohort of the Twelfth Legion.

Dinner time! The Fifth Cohort’s senior officer is a kool aid addict. Nico continues to be evasive! He met Hazel in New Orleans. Nico admits he had another sister who’s dead. Don the Faun figures out Percy has an empathy link with a faun and Nico makes a conspicuous distraction and drags Don away. Hazel has a Freudian slip and says “Back in my day.”

Uh change of subject, “Why is it so bad to be in the Fifth Cohort? You guys are great.” Hazel’s a reject because she wants to be cavalry but Romans look down on cavalry. Frank’s a reject because he’s an archer and Romans don’t like non-Apollo-kid archers, also he hasn’t been claimed :( And the Fifth is worst because the eagle is missing. Why is the eagle a big deal? “It’s the symbol of the whole camp … It’s supposed to protect us in battle and make our enemies afraid. Each legion’s eagle gave it all sorts of power, and ours came from Jupiter himself. Supposedly Julius Caesar nicknamed our legion ‘Fulminata’ – armed with lightning – because of what the eagle could do.” Legion lost the eagle once in ancient times, lost it again in Alaska.

“That prophecy you noticed in the temple,” Hazel continued, “the one about the seven demigods and the Doors of Death? Our senior praetor at the time was Michael Varus, from the Fifth Cohort. Back then the Fifth was the best in camp. He thought it would bring glory to the legion if he could figure out the prophecy and make it come true—save the world from storm and fire and all that. He talked to the augur, and the augur said the answer was in Alaska. But he warned Michael it wasn’t time yet. The prophecy wasn’t for him.”

“But he went anyway,” Percy guessed. “What happened?”

Frank lowered his voice. “Long, gruesome story. Almost the entire Fifth Cohort was wiped out. Most of legion’s Imperial gold weapons were lost, along with the eagle. The survivors went crazy or refused to talk about what had attacked them.” […] “Since the eagle was lost,” Frank continued, “the camp has been getting weaker. Quests are more dangerous. Monsters attack the borders more often. Morale is lower. The last month or so, things have been getting much worse, much faster.”

“And the Fifth Cohort took the blame,” Percy guessed. “So now everyone thinks we’re cursed.”

Hazel realized her gumbo was cold. She sipped a spoonful, but the comfort food didn’t taste very comforting. “We’ve been the outcasts of the legion since…well, since the Alaska disaster. Our reputation got better when Jason became praetor—”

“The kid who’s missing?” Percy asked.

“Yeah,” Frank said. “I never met him. Before my time. But I hear he was a good leader. He practically grew up in the Fifth Cohort. He didn’t care what people thought about us. He started to rebuild our reputation. Then he disappeared.”

“Which put us back at square one,” Hazel said bitterly. “Made us look cursed all over again. I’m sorry, Percy. Now you know what you’ve gotten yourself into.”

Percy sipped his blue soda and gazed thoughtfully across the dining hall. “I don’t even know where I come from…but I’ve got a feeling this isn’t the first time I’ve been an underdog.” He focused on Hazel and managed a smile. “Besides, joining the legion is better than being chased through the wilderness by monsters. I’ve got myself some new friends. Maybe together we can turn things around for the Fifth Cohort, huh?”

Anyway time for ELEPHANTS the end.

Key points:
- Wait maybe Nico doesn’t completely have amnesia. He only has Percy-specific amnesia? Nico is so sketch!
- Kronos disappeared???
- Earth goddess is evil
- Schizophrenic gods
- Joining the legion
- Fifth Cohort is losers

oh and

- annabeth defs my girlfriend