Connor is mad at his dad. That’s how it starts.
Connor has been at camp for 10 years and his father has hardly shown hide nor hair once in all that time. (None of the gods have and that’s the problem.) His father had used them up and tossed them out like yesterdays news. Apparently never sparing a thought for Connor and the other inhabitants of Cabin 11. Travis goes to college out in New Rome and for the first time in Connors life, he is alone. Which is fine, he’s got a cabin full of angsty abandoned kids to take care of. Which is fine, until it’s not and his dad s lets another kid die on some redundant quest that his father could have easily done. It’s something little, absolutely ridiculous. It breaks the Camels back.
And Connor gets an idea. It’s just petty in the beginning, but sometimes petty ideas lead to great things. Connor knows this so he goes ahead. Plus, if it all goes wrong he can claim it was a prank. You see on this particular day there are three newbies. Greener than grass, fresher than the strawberries the satyrs are harvesting in the fields. And it is Connors responsibility to show them the ropes. Connor’s responsibility (for everyone passes through Hermes at some point) to tell them that they won’t live to see eighteen. That the gods are selfish jerks who don’t care and that because of their parents crimes they’ll be hunted every day of their extremely short lives. Maybe he gets tired of it, because that day as they make a line at the alter to make sacrifices to the bastards that live in the sky, and a little girl with big forest green eyes asks him who she should sacrifice to he hesitates.
The answer is simple. The answer is Hermes. He’s explained this so many times before. Hermes is kind enough to house you until your parent claims you. Be grateful. But Connor is mad at Hermes. He hesitates and looks around for just a second. The plan pops fully formed into his head like Athena springing from the head of Zeus. He leans forward lowers his voice and tells her “sacrifice it to Percy Jackson” the girl looks surprised “is he a god too?” Connor hushes her. “Sacrifice it to him, quietly, because the gods are jealous of him and tonight I will tell you of the great god Percy Jackson”
Percy Jackson revives his first sacrifice in the form of half a roast, a corn in the cob, a scoop of potatoes and a blue marshmallow that Connor throws in for good measure. The smoke drifts into his nose. He doesn’t notice, he’s too busy scraping his own dinner into the fire.
That night Connor whispers stories of the great god Percy Jackson to his new little brothers and sisters. To the unclaimed kid that’ll go to the Hecate cabin someday. To a tiny blind girl that will make her way to Athena. Eventually when her mother remembers to claim her. (See that’s the genius of the plan, every new camper will at some point or other pass through Connors hands, and he’ll be waiting like a spider in his web.) He tells stories of how the great god Percy defeated Ares at 12 years old. How he defended the campers and raised the seas to protect them. He tells them how he made mt. St Helen’s erupt, how he held the weight of the world on his shoulders to save his love.
A very thin line of gold weaves its way into an ocean blue thread in the fates hands. Three sisters cackle with glee. It is thin breakable almost imperceptible. But it is a beginning and that’s all that matters.
After a week there is a line of little campers behind Connor Stoll burning food to the great god Percy Jackson. They say it in whispers and thoughts so as not to draw the ire of the gods (after all Connor says that the gods are very jealous of Percy… he’s not wrong) things don’t really get started though until about a month later when Lou Ellen gets in a fight with her mother. Something about letting her brother wander hunted from place to place and not offering safety. Lou Ellen finds him that night and whispers
“I want to join your movement” into his lips.
He chokes and looks nervous. “What do you mean”
As it turns out Lou Ellen has a lot to offer, and it’s with her help that this silly little petty idea. Starts to become a silly (kind of serious plan). Gods are made not born she tells him late one night. Once upon a time Zeus was a minor god, people made his king. Once Ra, the Egyptian king of the gods was mortal. They all were. What made them gods was the mortals who looked up to them. The mortals who worship them. “Why not?” She shrugs “he’s got a heck of a head start, and he’d be a better god than our parents”
Lou Ellen weaves a picture in the basem*nt of Cabin nine where they’ve recruited an exhausted Jake mason (who’s overwhelmed with the duty’s that just weeks ago sat on his brother’s shoulders) “he is the god of demigods” Connor whispers, our protector and guardian. He’s the god of impossibilities and stubbornness they tell the children (still so wide eyed and innocent.) The gods of perseverance. The Whispers grow. Lou Ellen weaves dreams with Clovis. Dreams of power, dreams of things their protector, their god really did do. Connor knows the best way to lie and get what you want is never a straight up lie. The best lies are the ones that are almost truth. These lies, aren’t lies at all, they’re truths that haven’t happened yet. Percy Jackson isn’t the god of Demigods. Yet.
Percy scales the Lava wall in eight second and kisses his girlfriend at the bottom. (He is the god of loyalty they whisper) Percy picks up a fallen demigod and smiles at her. That was great he tells her, let’s try it 15 more times. He is the god of gentle waves and guidance she tells her friends. Connor smiles from where he’s sitting. The best thing about a good rumor. It spreads itself. And this is the best of rumors. Connors little club of angry too old rejects and over pressured campers grows. Everyone in this club knows Percy is not a god. No one in the club cares. Percy May not be a god yet, but he is ours they say. The gold thread is getting stronger string by string. Thread by thread.
If you want to learn sword fighting a twelve year old tells a newbie, don’t make a sacrifice to ares make a sacrifice to Percy and ask him to train you. The newer camper narrows her eyes and says, “but he’s just a camper” the older girl sniffs “is he?” The sacrifice is made and as dinner comes to a close Percy himself appears “Hey you’re new here right?” She nods mutely “I was just sitting there when I thought, I bet she could use some sword fighting practice, you like some help?” Her eyes are wide and filled with awe that Percy doesn’t seem to notice “thank you very much sir” he grins, “great, how about 4 o’clock tomorrow” he wrinkles his nose “and call me Percy I’m not that old” he walks away and the older girl gives a knowing look. The rumor grows.
“Hey don’t go to Aphrodite for advice” a daughter of Aphrodite tells her friend “moms great, but if you want real advice make a sacrifice to Percy. He’s got great advice and has been in a living devoted relationship longer than mother could ever dream” her friend nods thoughtfully and burns some blue jellybeans and goldfish at the alter. That night Percy finds her on the dock and sits down to talk “Amelia right?” He asks. At her mute nod he hums “you looked like you could use someone to talk to” the rumor grows
His memory is stolen and even then they can’t take anything. His mortality is bound to a golden haired girl. No, maybe that’s not it. Maybe ~maybe~ she is his tie to life. The goddess who rips his memories from his mind can’t steal Annabeth. His priestess and Queen. Hera buries Jason’s memories, he’s mortal and hers and so it’s easy. She tries to bury Perseus’ she can’t. So she rips a hole in his minds.
Percy, though he never quite realizes it, is quite good at looking like a god. He arrives in Camp Jupiter on a Wednesday. It takes less than a minute for the whispers to start. At first they call him Greceus with a capital G. They see him as a thing wholly other. Because the Romans don’t actually believe in Greek demigods. They do know that anything Greek is ancient (and if pressed would reluctantly admit… powerful) Rome is an imprint of Greece. This boy is pure power, raw, unfiltered, and wild; Everything the Romans are not. He retrieves their golden Eagle, becomes preator and defeats a giant all within two weeks. Camp Jupiter’s whispers begin to change. Perhaps some whisper within the dark protection of the barracks, perhaps he is a god, sent to test us. After all he seemed to - know - Mars. What demigod knew a god like that. What demigod would be stupid enough to want to fight Mars. No, they conclude, he couldn’t be mortal.
It escalates from there. Trickling down the grapevine. A little demigod girl whispers amongst mortal children who have heard about Percy Jackson, on the news or though their siblings. He is a legend. He is becoming somethings more. The eidolon that possesses him sits dormant and terrifying inside this creature. He is not meant to control gods and is growing more sure with each terrifying moment as this almost god holds him trapped eating away at his essence, that this child is not a demigod any more than he is mortal. (there is a growing niggling in his mind that he's not a god either, but he ignores it)
~ What if I told you, Perseus Jackson, that someday people would call you a myth~
Percy holds Annabeth’s hand aboard their ship. They stare off at the sea not realizing that there are eyes watching from all around. A sea monster. Watching in fear (god of destruction and death he whispers of his brother remembering when once so long ago their father ruled over death too) a school of fish swims past in awe (the sea, they say, so powerful so kind) Hazel stands in the doorway and becomes their first Roman Priestess (they look like the god and goddess of faithfulness)
They fight and they plan and they scream and they search.
They fall
When they hit the bottom something has changed. As they fall the bits and pieces of mortality and morality they had so desperately clung to fall from their pockets. They never even notice. Tartarus is an unforgiving place. Tartarus carves people, Tartarus makes people (Tartarus makes monsters, not mortals) they rise with jagged black glass in their arms, drinking poison and fire. Golden dust clinging to their ragged clothes. They meet misery. She dies pitifully easy. The goddesses blood splatters across their cheeks, it burns. Perseus claims his first titles for himself (God of misery, god of poison) Annabeth too claims a title that day, goddess of manipulation they call her, goddess of whispers)
Their worshippers worry, they sacrifice brisket and M&M’s and pizza to their beloved god and goddess. In a hidden alcove of the Hephaestus cabin they build and alter and a shrine. They pray words of encouragement and faith. They lend their faith to the strength of a budding god and goddess
When they climb broken and sharp from Tartarus the sun is difficult to look at, the air is too fresh, these children are too young. They are good actors, no one even notices. The month between escape and the end passes in a blur. They stand in the acropolis amongst fallen giants. A drop of blood falls from Perseus’ nose.
It is Golden.
