WHO: Billy and Jason WHAT: Two people involved with gods talk about lives involving them. WHEN: Afternoon WHERE: Hinkles WARNINGS: Mentions of deaths STATUS: Closed and Complete
Billy was sitting at one table with a plate piled high with burgers and fries, as well as a shake, and pouring over maps of the area. The maps all had his own added dome markings, delineating where the limits were, with modifications of the maps noted inside the dome as well. Not everything had remained the same in the four or so years since the dome appeared.
But he was trying to figure out how the populace was spread out, plus extra space. And maybe see if he could find a pattern of any kind. He was trying to learn more deductive reasoning as Billy, and not just as Cap.
He glanced up as someone passed and smiled, nodding to them as he reached for a burger. Mmmmm, burgers..
***
Jason was looking for a place to sit with his own tray of burgers and fries when he caught the eye of a young man about his age. He nodded warmly, indicating the seat that was open across from him.
“Mind if I sit? This place is kind of crazy busy in the afternoon.”
There were other people at single tables, but one was a mother with a baby she was feeding, and another was an old man who didn’t look like he’d have any interest talking to Jason.
“I’m Jason.”
***
Billy nodded and pulled some maps to the bench, chuckling as he realized how messy he had gotten.
“Come on. Seems a wilder time, now.” Billy lowered his voice. “I think they installed a pokestop here,and now all the idle Pokemon catchers are all coming here whenever they can.” He chuckled. He didn’t mind people who played the game, but he thought it funny.
“I’m Billy.” He offered his hand. “Nice to meet you, Jason.”
***
“What’s a pokestop?” Jason asked. Pop culture and Jason weren’t the best of friends. Camp Jupiter had been almost entirely isolated from the real world and technology dangerous for demigods because of it’s ability to attract monsters, he really was clueless about a lot of things.
He reached out his hand and shook the other boy’s, which gave him a good view of the tattoo on Jason’s arm. An eagle and twelve marks, that looked like talleys of something.
***
“Its part of the Pokemon mobile game. Some sort of place where people who play it can get certain things. I am not sure on the details, but apparently they are important to the game.” Or something.
Billy smiled, unsure of the details and downing a burger as he felt hunger hit him.
“That is one badass tattoo.”
***
Jason blinked, having forgot about it entirely. He’d had it since he was three, after all.
“Oh,” he said, yeah. That.”
He hesitated for a moment, but then decided it was okay to tell him the story behind it. After all, this wasn’t his world, there were no monsters, and everyone knew that there were demigods here.
“It identifies me at Camp Jupiter. The Eagle refers to Jupiter, my godly parent. And the tally marks mean that I’ve been at Camp Jupiter for twelve years. Since I was three. I should have gotten another one, but...well, things got a little weird after the Quest.”
***
Billy grinned, listening. That was cool! He nodded, then blinked. “You had quests? Cool!” He knew it was probably less cool in real life, since the gods could be asses, but still… A quest!
“I’ve never quite got a tattoo myself. Never could decide what I wanted to do, or where I would get it.’ He smiled. Too many voices in his head with differing opinions.
***
“Yeah, it sounds cool,” Jason said, but even his tone of voice said that it wasn’t. “A lot of people died. Yeah, I fought giants and titans and sea monsters and that sounds really cool in retrospect, but I lost a lot of friends while I was doing it. And when you’re in charge of a legion and your men die...you don’t get over that.”
He looked back at his arm.
“Yeah, I don’t know if I would have gotten this or not, but everyone at Camp Jupiter has them. The Greeks wear necklaces with beads. We Romans get tattoos.”
He was a little surprised the guy wasn’t a little more incredulous, but hey, Madison Valley was weird. That wasn’t anything new.
***
Billy winced. Damn. “Ouch. That sounds terrible. I’m sorry.” That really put it all in perspective, and it made him feel bad for ever being excited about the idea. “Why did you get sent on a deadly quest?”
He hated when people were hurt. “It sounds pretty rough. I’m glad you’re here now, instead.” That world sounded bad. Even worse than his, which was saying a lot.
***
“Because that’s how the gods work,” he said. “If you look at any of the myths, when they have problems they don’t fix them themselves. They send heroes. Achilles. Hercules. Who is my half-brother, by the way.”
That wasn’t something he usually bragged about much. The guy was a jerk.
“So when the Titans attacked Olympus, or when Gaia started to awaken, they sent us.”
He sighed.
“I’m seventeen, and I’m already old for a demigod. Our lives are pretty dangerous. And usually pretty short.”
***
Billy squinted. “Really? He always seemed kind of nice to me. Must be a different world.” He shook his head. “I know heroes get sent, but why they didn’t send an army, I will never understand. Gods sometimes seem… slow.” And he didn’t mean speed-wise.
“Sounds like the life of being a superhero, but worse.”
***
“Gods can be...difficult,” he said, suddenly looking skyward as if he expected a bolt of lighting to appear and strike him dead. “But it wasn’t always bad. I mean, being at Camp Jupiter was fun. I can also fly, which I love. Practicing with my legion, just being in New Rome, which is the grandest city since the original…”
His eyes drifted off, obviously enamoured with his thoughts of home. Even though he no longer lived there, Jason had a Roman heart.
When he spoke again, he’d slipped into Latin without even realizing it. He was fluent in both, so it was a mistake that he made at times.
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<small><b>WHO:</b></small> Billy and Jason <small><b>WHAT:</b></small> Two people involved with gods talk about lives involving them. <small><b>WHEN:</b></small> Afternoon <small><b>WHERE:</b></small> Hinkles <small><b>WARNINGS:</b></small> Mentions of deaths <small><b>STATUS:</b></small> Closed and Complete
<center><lj-cut text="Duty, honor, life, friendship, joy, and hope..."></center>
Billy was sitting at one table with a plate piled high with burgers and fries, as well as a shake, and pouring over maps of the area. The maps all had his own added dome markings, delineating where the limits were, with modifications of the maps noted inside the dome as well. Not everything had remained the same in the four or so years since the dome appeared.
But he was trying to figure out how the populace was spread out, plus extra space. And maybe see if he could find a pattern of any kind. He was trying to learn more deductive reasoning as Billy, and not just as Cap.
He glanced up as someone passed and smiled, nodding to them as he reached for a burger. Mmmmm, burgers..
***
Jason was looking for a place to sit with his own tray of burgers and fries when he caught the eye of a young man about his age. He nodded warmly, indicating the seat that was open across from him.
“Mind if I sit? This place is kind of crazy busy in the afternoon.”
There were other people at single tables, but one was a mother with a baby she was feeding, and another was an old man who didn’t look like he’d have any interest talking to Jason.
“I’m Jason.”
***
Billy nodded and pulled some maps to the bench, chuckling as he realized how messy he had gotten.
“Come on. Seems a wilder time, now.” Billy lowered his voice. “I think they installed a pokestop here,and now all the idle Pokemon catchers are all coming here whenever they can.” He chuckled. He didn’t mind people who played the game, but he thought it funny.
“I’m Billy.” He offered his hand. “Nice to meet you, Jason.”
***
“What’s a pokestop?” Jason asked. Pop culture and Jason weren’t the best of friends. Camp Jupiter had been almost entirely isolated from the real world and technology dangerous for demigods because of it’s ability to attract monsters, he really was clueless about a lot of things.
He reached out his hand and shook the other boy’s, which gave him a good view of the tattoo on Jason’s arm. An eagle and twelve marks, that looked like talleys of something.
***
“Its part of the Pokemon mobile game. Some sort of place where people who play it can get certain things. I am not sure on the details, but apparently they are important to the game.” Or something.
Billy smiled, unsure of the details and downing a burger as he felt hunger hit him.
“That is one badass tattoo.”
***
Jason blinked, having forgot about it entirely. He’d had it since he was three, after all.
“Oh,” he said, yeah. That.”
He hesitated for a moment, but then decided it was okay to tell him the story behind it. After all, this wasn’t his world, there were no monsters, and everyone knew that there were demigods here.
“It identifies me at Camp Jupiter. The Eagle refers to Jupiter, my godly parent. And the tally marks mean that I’ve been at Camp Jupiter for twelve years. Since I was three. I should have gotten another one, but...well, things got a little weird after the Quest.”
***
Billy grinned, listening. That was cool! He nodded, then blinked. “You had quests? Cool!” He knew it was probably less cool in real life, since the gods could be asses, but still… A quest!
“I’ve never quite got a tattoo myself. Never could decide what I wanted to do, or where I would get it.’ He smiled. Too many voices in his head with differing opinions.
***
“Yeah, it sounds cool,” Jason said, but even his tone of voice said that it wasn’t. “A lot of people died. Yeah, I fought giants and titans and sea monsters and that sounds really cool in retrospect, but I lost a lot of friends while I was doing it. And when you’re in charge of a legion and your men die...you don’t get over that.”
He looked back at his arm.
“Yeah, I don’t know if I would have gotten this or not, but everyone at Camp Jupiter has them. The Greeks wear necklaces with beads. We Romans get tattoos.”
He was a little surprised the guy wasn’t a little more incredulous, but hey, Madison Valley was weird. That wasn’t anything new.
***
Billy winced. Damn. “Ouch. That sounds terrible. I’m sorry.” That really put it all in perspective, and it made him feel bad for ever being excited about the idea. “Why did you get sent on a deadly quest?”
He hated when people were hurt. “It sounds pretty rough. I’m glad you’re here now, instead.” That world sounded bad. Even worse than his, which was saying a lot.
***
“Because that’s how the gods work,” he said. “If you look at any of the myths, when they have problems they don’t fix them themselves. They send heroes. Achilles. Hercules. Who is my half-brother, by the way.”
That wasn’t something he usually bragged about much. The guy was a jerk.
“So when the Titans attacked Olympus, or when Gaia started to awaken, they sent us.”
He sighed.
“I’m seventeen, and I’m already old for a demigod. Our lives are pretty dangerous. And usually pretty short.”
***
Billy squinted. “Really? He always seemed kind of nice to me. Must be a different world.” He shook his head. “I know heroes get sent, but why they didn’t send an army, I will never understand. Gods sometimes seem… slow.” And he didn’t mean speed-wise.
“Sounds like the life of being a superhero, but worse.”
***
“Gods can be...difficult,” he said, suddenly looking skyward as if he expected a bolt of lighting to appear and strike him dead. “But it wasn’t always bad. I mean, being at Camp Jupiter was fun. I can also fly, which I love. Practicing with my legion, just <I>being</I> in New Rome, which is the grandest city since the original…”
His eyes drifted off, obviously enamoured with his thoughts of home. Even though he no longer lived there, Jason had a Roman heart.
When he spoke again, he’d slipped into Latin without even realizing it. He was fluent in both, so it was a mistake that he made at times.
<a title=”It is the best of all cities. Rome is the best of all cultures. There's a reason the Empire nearly conquered the world thousands of years ago. The strength we hold is unmatched. It's hard to explain, but to a Roman, the Empire is everything.”>Melius est civitatem. Roma maxime omnium eiusmodi culturae formarum. Illic 'a ratione autem pene Imperii vici mundum milia annos. Tenemus singularis virtus. Hoc explicare difficile est, tamen ad Romanum, quod sit omne Imperii.</a>”
***
Billy listened, and smiled softly at the obvious love the other had for this world and place he had known. He was surprised a little at the shift into latin and missed the first few words as he concentrated and intoned a spell to translate for him.
“You really love that place a lot, huh?” His smile was warm and approving, not that this guy needed his approval of course, but still. That was cool.
“Would you go back if you could?”
***
Jason considered that question for a moment. Would he go back?
“Yes,” he said softly, in English again. “I think I would. I mean, it’s great here in its own ways. Thalia’s here, and I don’t get much of a chance to see my sister back home. But I was doing important things. For Greek and Roman demigods alike.”
He stopped, and smiled a bit sympathetically.
“But enough about me. You said you were a superhero?”
***
“That’s cool. I hope you get a chance to do so.” Billy nodded. He himself could live with living here, but… he wished people could have a choice.
“Yeah. Part time, anyway. Sort of. A wizard chose me to be the champion of magic. I chose to use the power to also help people and defeat bad guys. He forced a set of gods and powers to sign an eldritch contract granting me aspects of them and their powers. Each one lended one aspect and portion of power, and so I became able to transform into a being who could house such power, and could wield it.”
And so Jason became one of the few in town who knew Billy’s secret. Why was he telling him? Billy wasn’t sure, but he felt that it was right to do so.
***
Of all people he could have told, Jason was one of the most trustworthy. He truly had nothing to worry about. When it came to responsible and honorable, Jason topped the list anywhere. It was why he’d been made Praetor at Camp Jupiter, why he’d led a legion, and why he’d been chosen as one of the Seven on the quest to stop Gaia. If he was going to confess his secret to anyone, Jason was a good choice.
“So...you have godly powers? Which gods? Greek ones? Roman ones? Norse ones?”
That was a fascinating sort of power, and Jason wanted to know more.
***
“A mix of Greek, Roman, and even a Hebrew one. I only have that when I change into the other form, though. I have some basic magic in this form, but not like that. I’ve got Solomon’s wisdom, Hercules's’ strength, Atlas’s stamina, Zeus’ power, Achilles’ courage, and Mercury’s speed. In my world, they all are powers, even the ones who are not gods.” He nodded.
He didn’t mind talking about it, now that he had breached the subject.
‘Well, I can always call the lightning.” He showed his hand where flickers of white blue lightnings arced between fingers, then faded.
***
“Atlas,” Jason said, scowling a little. He couldn’t help but feel a surge of anger towards the Titan, who had been part of the plot to overthrow Olympus and had hurt many good demigods, Greek and Roman alike.
“How does that work?” He asked. “Obviously you can’t be a child of all of them? How did you get their powers?”
At the lightning, Jason blinked, then grinned.
“I can call lightning. Bolts of lightning. Straight from Jupiter. It totally exhausts me, though. My sister’s better at it than I am.”
***
“The wizard, he forged a contract with them, forcing them to give up a portion of their aspects and powers to him and thus, when I use the right magic, to me.” Billy wasn’t entirely sure how, for the wizard had always been a little cagey about that. But he knew that the power was his to command, for now.
“Yeah? Cool. Sucks that it exhausts you, though.”
Billy smiled wryly.
“Who’s your sister?”
***
“Wow. That’s pretty hard core.” They didn’t have wizards in Jason’s world, but with all the things they <I>did</I> have, it wasn’t that hard for him to believe in.
“Her name’s Thalia. We have the same mom, and...mostly the same dad. He visited my mom in his Greek aspect to have Thalia, and in his Roman aspect to have me.”
***
Billy flushed, then grinned. “It was pretty scary, first time I met him, but he turned out to be a pretty nice guy, most of the time.” He nodded. Without the Wizard, a lot of his life would have been far worse.
“Thalia? Cool! So, they are the same people in your world? In mine, they used to be, but somehow got separated long ago. No one knows how, but they don’t like each other these days.” Which made for some odd days.
***
“Well, that’s kind of complicated,” he said. “See, they are and they aren’t. The Greek and Roman aspects of gods <I>are</I> different, but they’re also the same. They started the same, anyway? And they’re both housed in the same being. But well, like I said, it’s complicated.”
It was hard for him to explain the duality of the gods when he didn’t really understand it that well himself. But hopefully they had all that solved back home now, and things would start going back to normal.
***
“Huhn. That’s kind of wild. In my universe, they were always different beings. Wow.” Billy ginned. The differences between universes were fascinating. Absolutely so.
He kind of loved it, really.
“How are things for you, here?”
***
“Okay, I guess,” Jason shrugged. “I mean, it’s nice to be here with my sister, and it’s nice to just be a kid without having to risk my life everyday, you know? But in a lot of ways I’m NOT a kid, so that’s really weird too. I feel like because of the things I’ve been through, I’m a lot more mature than a lot of the other kids.”
He looked up at the other boy.
“But it’s not bad, though. And we get excitement sometimes.”
***
Billy nodded. “I can understand that. Being a kid and not one, at the same time, and having some people here that I know. Those things are odd, but good sometimes.” He grinned at the other guy.
He nodded in turn, listening. “Yeah? So I’ve heard. I’m oh so excited to see if up close.” Just a little sarcasm there.
***
“Yeah, well, it’s been normal for a few weeks now, so I think we can probably expect something pretty soon. There’s usually something about every month.”
At least since he’d been there, there had been.
Looking at his plate, Jason realized that all of his food was gone. He must have inhaled it as he was talking to the other boy. Well, at least he wasn’t hungry anymore?
“Anyway, I should get going. I’m supposed to meet some people for training.”
He stood and held out his hand.
“But I’ll see you around, yeah?”
***
“Absolutely!” Billy met his hand, rising, as well. “I’m sure we’ll see each other along the way. Be good to yourself, okay?” He nodded, feeling happy that he had met another person who understood, even different as they were. A new friend was a very good thing.