Olympian Games - HoO/PJO Story

The First Loss

~~JASON~~

"Why...?"  That is Piper, right?

~~PIPER~~

I made a face I was sure looked totally guilty.  I was sure he would be drawing tons of conclusions as to why I was a guy.

"Yeah."  I said.  Whatever he thinks is probably better than the truth.  My straight boyfriend didn't need to know I was transgender.

~~HAZEL~~

Leo's voice played in my head, and somehow I retained all of it.  I did as he asked as advised I do to make sure I was up-to-date.  I blame the 30's.

I blinked back to the virtual reality at the same time Leo put his voice back over the loudspeaker.  Frank seemed to materialize out of nothing in front of me.

~~NICO~~

Schist.  They're gonna see.

~~Frank~~

I wrapped Hazel in a hug, glad to see that none of the glitches or character rules had effected her.  Well, severely, at least.  She looked like a mild cross between herself and Annabeth.

~~PERCY~~

"Woah."  I moved my hand back and forth in front of my face and watched as the granulated pixels crawled across the air in front of me.  Something felt seriously more different than I expected a virtual reality game of this caliber to.  I opened my personal stats and glanced them over.  Everything I already knew; shocker.  Something did catch my attention, though.  A slightly translucent shaded blue in the corner of my stats that I was sure hadn't been there faded into existence.  "IRL Vs. In Game".  I tapped it, following the accessing directions Leo had given us.  The page read:

Differences In Character:  In Game Vs. Real Life

CATEGORY- - - - - - - - - - - - REAL - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -GAME
____________________________________________________________

Height: - - - - - - - - - - - - -  6' 2"- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 6' 5"
Weight: - - - - - - - - - - - - - 176 lbs - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 154 lbs
IQ: - - - - - - - - - - - - -64 (Mild Mental Retardation) - - - - - - - - - - - 156 (Genius)
Mental: - - - - - - - - - -  ADHD, Dyslexia - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  ADD, Schizophrenia
Eye Colour: - - - - - - - - - - Green - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Grey
Hair Colour: - - - - - - - - - - Black - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Brown
Ethnicity: - - - - - - - - - - - Caucasian - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  Caucasian
Sexuality: - - - - - - - - - - Heterosexual - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Asexual


Well, no wonder it felt so different.

~~ANNABETH~~

"Percy!"  I called as soon as I could see him.  He looked preoccupied in his menu, which was blurred out of my character's view.  He jolted his head away from the screen to look at me and it automatically closed behind him.

"Hey, Annabeth."  I'd expected him to be more excited to see me.

"It's not that I don't love seeing you," He said as if he'd just read my thoughts, "I was just... preoccupied."  He seemed to be shifting something foreign and uncomfortable around in his mind.

"What'd you read?"  I asked, not realizing he was already gazing off into the nothingness.  He snapped out of it and took a few seconds to register that I had spoken.

"Just..."  His voice trailed off and he opened his menu again.  I saw his finger touch the blur, toggling settings, no doubt.  Then suddenly I could see his screen.

"Look."  He said, stepping aside from his stats so I could read them:


CATEGORY- - - - - - - - - - - - REAL - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -GAME
____________________________________________________________

Height: - - - - - - - - - - - - -  6' 2"- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 6' 5"
Weight: - - - - - - - - - - - - - 176 lbs - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 126 lbs
IQ: - - - - - - - - - 64 (Mild Mental Retardation) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 156 (Genius)
Mental: - - - - - - - - - -  ADHD, Dyslexia - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  ADD, Schizophrenia
Eye Color: - - - - - - - - - - - Green - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Grey
Hair Color: - - - - - - - - - - Black - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Brown
Ethnicity: - - - - - - - - - - - Caucasian - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  Caucasian
Sexuality: - - - - - - - - - - Heterosexual - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Asexual


When I looked back to him, he had the beginnings of a grin, "I'm a genius.  I mean, I'm a retard, but right now I can be a genius.  I didn't know everything was going so slowly until it started to speed up."

"You're not-"

"Then what does 'Mild Mental Retardation' mean?"  He fired back before I had the chance to finish my sentence.

Subject changing time: "You lost 50 pounds and gained three inches."

"I know.  I can do math now."  He sighed.

"Just saying, it shows.  You're way too thin."

"And how do you propose we fix that in a game then?"  He waited rhetorically for an answer he knew would never come, then huffed and did a slow 360, running his hands over his gaunt face.  "We should find the others."

~~HAZEL~~

Frank and I went out to explore the area.  Sure, we could see everyone else by their spawn points, but neither of us saw a need in interrupting their personal initiation processes.  It was weird to only have three senses.  Sight (the most reliable), hearing (kind of echo-y), and touch (though I could barely feel anything).

I looked up at Frank, "Did you get shorter?"

"Probably," He didn't look at me, "Or maybe you got taller."

"Or both."  He snorted a laugh in response.  This had somehow become so awkward so quickly.

I started to talk but the world glitched out and everything froze and moved alternatively to the left and right in pixel form.  Lag.

When I finally got pulled into real-time, Frank had disappeared, and there was a world hole.  Actually...

I stuck my foot out toward the world hole and tried to cross it or enter it.  You can't do that to world holes.  And thus the conclusion was formed that this was not a world hole; just a regular ground hole.  And Frank had probably fallen through it.

The game mechanics let me lay on the ground and yell into the hole for Frank.

There was no answer.  Just silence.  Then a loud, echoing crunch, coming from the bottom of the pit...

~~LEO~~

I clicked rapidly trying to apply any legalized cheats I could to save Frank from falling out of the generated world.  Just my luck, though.  The ones that finally worked were useless.  

I generated a surface underneath him.  Splat.

I panicked and clicked add character.  Now some other poor, random demigod was getting sucked into this.  Gods.  Good job, Leo.

~~REYNA~~

"What is this place."  My hands built themselves up in microscopic squares of pigmentation.

A voice I recognized as Leo Valdez's poured into my head, "Welcome to the Olympian Games, sweetheart.  You have some listening to do."