caughtinanetwork | Quest ♆ oo1 [video]

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Quest ♆ oo1 [video]

[Percy looks tired. He's in his pajamas and drinking milk at the counter in his kitchen.]

Hey, people of Vatheon. I figure it's about time I introduced myself on here. So far I've met some really cool people, and it's helping me get my bearings in this strange new place.

[He takes a swig of the milk, then wipes away a milk mustache with his sleeve. So classy.]

So anyway. I'm Percy Jackson. Been here a couple weeks now.

[His smile fades.]

I haven't been sleeping well. Anyone have any tips?

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It's called basic deductive skill, you moron.

Can we leave the candy people out of this? Please? Just declare a whole moratorium on the subject of him, his kingdom, and any sucrose lifeforms both within and without the boundaries of imagination. But yes, life was different.

You don't know me, dude. Your "basic deductive skill" sounds more to me like snap judgments and general misanthropy. Give me a break, dude. This is the first time I've ever met an alien.

Fair enough. Just trying to make a joke. Well my life hasn't exactly been a cake walk either.

Er...sorry.

Misanthropy is a perfectly useful trait to have, thanks.

[His eyes narrow a bit. His question, however, comes out more genuine than the look might suggested.]

What's been so awful about your life?

Edited 2013-05-19 18:26 (UTC)

Not all the time. I really am trying to keep up, dude.

Demigods have complicated lives. We attract monsters, for one. We just make them really angry for some reason and they can smell us and try to kill us any chance they get. So just on that front it's impossible to live a normal life.

[Percy shrugs, like, this is just how it is, nbd.]

Then there's always some kind of trouble brewing. The Titans, who ruled before the gods tried to rise up and I was part of a prophecy that meant I was right in the thick of everything during the whole Second Titan War. The gods are powerful but they need demigod heroes to fight their battles for them a lot of the time. They're not allowed to interfere, or they have their own crap going on or whatever.

Then just a few months after the Second Titan War ended, Gaea, the Earth herself, began to awaken, throwing into motion this...whole even messier thing that I also am a part of a prophecy that dictates I have to help save civilization as we know it.

[Karkat is just defensive, a prickly ball of spikes protecting a core that isn't near so misanthropic as he'd like to claim he is. He has a whole handful of best friends, and others he appreciates beyond that.]

[But he listens, quiet and attentive as Percy gives his story, and his mouth pulls down at the corners.]

Well, fuck. If there's one thing that forms a black hole in the general quality of life, it's predestination. Prophecies for you, timeline fuckery for me - whatever it is, I have learned the hard way that it will hand your horns to you time and time again. Or whatever humans get handed to them when existence kicks them in the ass.

I think we'd just say we're getting our asses handed to us. But I've survived longer than anyone thought I could. I was offered immortality and I turned it down because I would rather live life as a demigod hero than live forever as the god of some lake or something.

Your ass? But that's not even close to the same location.

[Human lingo's weirdness is nothing new, though.]

What kind of immortality are you talking? Conditional or the absolute, nothing can kill you no matter what kind?

Well we don't have any horns, so we work with what we've got, I guess.

Absolute. Why?

[Karkat gives him a long, complicated look. The horn/ass subject is thoroughly pushed aside with this.]

Maybe I'll give a little credit to the god idea, but don't think I've bought it entirely yet.

But seriously. Full immortality, no catches, no surprise death waiting to catch you if you screw up, nothing, and you turned it down?

I'm not trying to prove it to you, I'm just telling you about my life.

Yeah. I asked for something else in return, though.

Shut up, I can make statements about my belief and things that affect it if I want.

[Huff.]

What did you ask for?

Yeah, go for it, I'm just not trying to convert you or anything.

Well. It's kind of a long story. But. To sum it up, the Titan Lord, Kronos, had been split into a million pieces and cast into the deepest pit of Tartarus, the lowest level of the underworld. But, like I said, this immortality is absolute, so he wasn't dead. The only way he could rise again was to use the body of a demigod hero and take it over. That demigod was a friend of mine, Luke. He offered to join Kronos because he felt abandoned by his godly parent, as many demigod children do, and so many of them joined the Titans' cause.

I asked that they recognize their children, basically.

Good, because it would be pointless to do it intentionally.

[All Gamzee's sincere belief couldn't convert him to his cult, after all. But with that summary, Karkat's gaze again turns to the sort of complication it held before. After a moment, he asks:]

Did they actually do it?

I get that.

The claimed them at least. Told the satyrs where they were so they could be brought to camp and trained properly. Let them know who their parents are. There were a lot of kids running away from home and having to fend for themselves against monsters so that hopefully won't happen anymore. Or at least not as often.

Right after that, though, they kind of completely cut off communication with us. We haven't talked to most of them in months. I think they're embarrassed that I called them out.

So they're a bunch of douchebags who half-ass their promises. Sounds like a crappy tradeoff for immortality if you ask me.

I mean, parents are supposed to be important in earth culture, aren't they?

Pretty much. But it's better than it was. Demigods have short life expectancies. This will help elongate them.

Yeah, they are. It's complicated. I've only met my dad a half a dozen times. And that's a lot more than some of my friends.

Then why even bother with them? If they don't care enough to actually do the whole parent thing even when you specifically ask them to recognize you in trade for an offer of unconditional immortality, what, pray tell, is the benefit of caring about them?

And I'm not saying better life expectancy isn't good thing, but helping to keep their kids alive is something custodians are supposed to do in the first place.

Because I don't have the option of ignoring them. They're doing better, they are. We have so many new campers, and they all know who their parents are. And that's a lot more than we had. And I didn't want immortality anyway, I thought I said that.

They're not our custodians. They just screwed our mortal parents and voila, here we are.

Would it kill you to stop and think through the full weight of the words I'm saying, or are you incapable of making the attempt? You did say that, but that doesn't automatically mean it's some paltry chip to bargain with. It is a big, weighty thing and demands a solid deal in return, or else you're losing out on value.

And yes, they are your custodians, idiot. That's what parents are for your species, just as lusii are for us. It's a classification spanning the both of them in a way not singly defined by one race or the other.

But I will make the whole of my point simple for you: just because they're doing better at it doesn't mean they're doing a good job yet.

I know that. I thought about it. All twelve Olympians offered me immortality. I didn't want it. I asked for something in return, and I at least got something.

For the record they were also voting on whether or not they should just kill me moments before.

I'm not an idiot. Gods aren't human. It doesn't work the same way. Gods sometimes visit their demigod children, but they don't raise them. Their human parent does that. It sucks but it's the way it is.

I didn't say they were doing a good job. But better is better than nothing.

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