The Coming of Nico di Angelo

Percy Discovers a New OTP

CHAPTER SUMMARY

  In the wake of the Winter Solstice, Percy has a dream . 

BEGINNING NOTES

There's some actual mythology in this chapter, or at least references to it. I'll have quick clarifications and sources in the end notes. But, as Percy Jackson put it in "Percy Jackson's Greek Gods",

"There's like forty bajillion different versions of the myths, so don't be all Well, I heard it a different way, so you're WRONG!"

I took a mythology course at my school last semester, and I got really close to the teacher. I literally went in and asked him about the myths I used for this chapter, and he gave me these sources. And yes, he knew it was for a fanfiction. He didn't care, because he's awesome. But, the reason I say this is because some of the versions I use are the ones I think fit best into the PJO universe, and the universe of the fic, but aren't the most well-known versions. So, you probably WILL think I'm wrong, but just wait to be angry until to you read the end notes. If you wanna correct me after that, be my guest.

And all the characters are owned by J.K. Rowling, or Rick Riordan.

____________________PERCY____________________

It was weird, being back in the Poseidon cabin. Percy had gotten used to sleeping in empty surroundings; he'd stopped noticing the lonely chill that hung in the air, the looming shadows of empty bunks, the constant silence. Even when Tyson popped in for those rare but awesome visits, Percy never got used to the liveliness of his living there. It was a nice side-effect of seeing his brother, but not normal. Never normal.

Hogwarts had changed that.

After the conversation with Nico at the campfire, Percy had gone back to his cabin to get some much-needed sleep. But, for the first time since he was twelve, the lonely aura kept him awake. He was a city boy, used cars honking and pedestrians shouting lulling him to sleep. He'd been able to shift into what he called "summer mode" at Camp Half-Blood, letting the silence and waves of the Sound relax him instead, but, as he found out that night, that didn't work anymore. Hogwarts felt more like camp than Manhattan; he'd started to associate the place with the godly side of his life, rather than the mortal. It made sense--the place was housing him for a demigod quest--but, the side effect was that his "summer mode" had aligned itself with Hogwarts dorm life.

Percy never realized how used he'd grown to the Weasley twins' mayhem until that night. He needed the crazy, magical experiments, the teasing and joking and sarcastic asides. He needed to tire himself out by staying up half the night, watching his friends attempt to charm his quill to write his Charms essay, then giving up and write a shit version of it himself, before peeling off his robe and crashing at three in the morning. The silence no longer calmed him. Instead, it felt ominous.

Lying in bed on December 20th--No, 21st, it was past 12:30 now--Percy couldn't get over the feeling that something wasn't right. No matter how many times he told himself it was just the dark, just the silence, the unexplainable dread washed over him and staved off any chance of sleep. He needed to rest; he had the Solstice meeting at noon, and then he was heading home to the city, where the evening with his mom and Paul was sure to be a whirlwind.

Maybe it's just how peaceful it's been. I'm not used to relaxing so much; I'm just not tired enough to sleep.

That seemed like a possibility. He'd spent most of the last few days just hanging out with his friends: trading stories, competing at various camp activities, competing at extra-camp activities (like snowball fights), and so on. Leo had even taken everyone to Bunker Nine to show off some new gadgets he'd made, like a pair of flying shoes, inspired by Grover's from their first quest.