madness and ecstasy // leo valdez

-looking for the pet at the function core-

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Leo got distracted on the second floor with the appliances. What a dork.

"Aw, no way," he said in awe. "Is that an armoured forge?"

Piper reached out to grab him, but he hopped off the escalator and eagerly ran over to a big oval oven that looked like a barbecue on steroids.

When they caught up with him, running his hands over all the buttons and gadgets, the princess nodded, "You have good taste. This is the H-2000, designed by Hephaestus himself. Hot enough to melt Celestial bronze or Imperial gold."

Teqi felt like she needed to sneeze, but the sneeze wasn't coming.

Her vision was filled with the colourful reflections from the stained glass roof, and there was something in the back of her mind she needed to think about but it was just so exhaustingly far away. She was too far away.

Jason flinched as if he recognized that term but didn't remember it. "Imperial gold?"

She was laying in the bathtub at a party, something bubbly in her glass, listening to the music pound through the walls while everything happened in the other room. The lights hurt her eyes.

The princess nodded quickly. "Yes, my Jason. Like that little weapon so cleverly concealed in your pocket. To be properly forged, Imperial gold had to be consecrated in the Temple of Jupiter on Capitoline Hill in Rome. Quite a powerful and rare metal, but like the Roman emperors, quite volatile. Be sure never to break that blade..." She smiled pleasantly. She sure could talk. At least when Leo yapped on and on, Teqi liked it. "Rome was after my time, of course, but I do hear stories. And now over here —this golden throne is one of my finest luxury items. Hephaestus made it as a punishment for his mother, Hera. Sit in it and you'll be immediately trapped."

Leo took this as an order. He began walking toward it in a trance. Teqi pulled herself out of the bathtub she was laying in in her brain and grabbed the back of his jacket as he walked past, pulling him back over to her.

She turned back to the saleswoman once she knew he wouldn't be sitting down on cursed chairs or huge barbecues.

He blinked, not seeming to mind the hold on him. "How much for both?"

She grinned, her face stretching. "Oh, the seat I could let you have for five great deeds. The forge, seven years of servitude. And for only a bit of your strength—"

Piper dragged Jason away. Teqi vaguely thought about a divide and conquer strategy, but then she remembered Piper wasn't going to betray them. She wasn't hiding any secrets.

The saleswoman showed them through rows of appliances that blurred together after a while. None of it really piqued her interest, but the lady wore these shiny diamond earrings that kept her in a trance. Leo nearly blew himself up with a specialised whoopee cushion and was now holding a bedazzled drill, that apparently fit any drill bit, in his arms like it was his newborn child.

Leo whined when they left behind the sparkling drill. "Hermosa, please! You can't separate us!"

He was still groaning about it when they took the escalator down to the base of the fountain. The tiles were placed out in big orange and gold circles, swirling lines of colour that made her dizzy.