ACHILLES + PATROCLUS [p. jackson]

1.7: WELCOME TO THE PERCY, PARTY

 Hey, y'all, word of warning, updates might get even more infrequent, as I just got my first job. I'm working weekends, but again, might make it a little harder to write.

     THE MESS HALL WAS LOUD AND CHEERFUL, though Rip's mind couldn't help but think back to that day oh so long ago. That seemed almost a lifetime ago, now. Wherever Jason was, he hoped they had good food.

Entering quietly, he glanced around the room, looking for a place to sit. Aurae moved silently among the table, carrying platters of every kind of food he could imagine, as they could make whatever the legionares wanted.

A few people at different tables tried waving him over to join them, among them being his old cohort-mates (though Octavian was not paying him any mind), but he locked eyes with Percy in the far back corner of the mess hall, and moved to join them.

He smiled as he saw Ollie and Nico in a furious debate over Mythomagic, with Frank dropping his own two cents from time to time. Honestly, when Rip first heard Nico bring up the card game, he was taken aback. It wasn't something he could picture such a stubborn and emo kid to play, but he was excellent at it, if the grumbling complaints from Ollie after a match were any indication.

Though Oleander belonged to the First, she tended to spend most of her free time with the Fifth. Oleander had a hard time finding friends among her fellow Legionares, despite being as headstrong as any other. Despite that, she was quite quiet, and her powers tended to creep those around her out.

She had a way with plants in a way Agrippa had never seen any child nor legacy of Ceres - or Demeter, in her case - match before. They answered her beck and call, and could strangle a monster in a second with just a flick of her wrist. She also had a way with any sort of animal - again, most likely due to her Pan heritage, the first of her kind that was not a boy - but the deadly combination of those two, relatively peaceful, deities, produced something incredibly powerful that nobody had any idea what to do with.

"Agrippa!" Dakota raised his cup at him, flashing a Kool-Aid stained smile. Despite Jason explaining the Centurian's addiction, it was still off putting just how drunk he seemed to get off of it. "Come to talk to us little people?" He winked in a way that not subtle, and gestured for him to take a seat.

Percy grinned at him, holding a violently blue drink that Rip might have mistaken for Gatorade if not for the fact he was chugging it back, which no sane person would do unless they had done extreme physical activity, or were as addicted as Dakota was.

Hazel already was digging into what was a delicious-smelling gumbo, and Percy had a large cheeseburger in front of him with almost any fixing he could imagine.

He didn't even need to order anything, seeing as the aurae knew him since he was five, and though his order changed from time to time, they tended to know what he needed. Today, they brought out a steaming plate of lasagna and fresh garlic bread, which was exactly what Rip was hoping for.

"That looks good," Frank commented over his plate of fish and chips as he kept glancing around the room, watching with an interested eye as the people and spirits shuffled around them, a habit Rip had witnessed him do a lot, as if analyzing for threats despite the fact he wasn't much of a fighter.

Perhaps it's a hint about his parent, Rip wondered as Dakota leaned dramatically on his couch like the paintings Rip had seen of Roman emporers and Gods. Dakota's dark curls were in his eyes, yet he didn't seem to notice as he piled more and more sugar into his mess of a drink.

"So," Dakota out out a loud, obnoxious burp that startled a few of the Legionares at the next table over, who sent rude glares in their direction. "Welcome to the Percy, party!" He proclaimed, swishing around the contents of his goblet, until he realized what he had said. "Party, Percy, whatever."