kelpheaded | get up and shake the glitter off your clothes now

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get up and shake the glitter off your clothes now

When she wakes up, she doesn't realize anything's wrong at first. She's in a bed, soft but supportive, tucked under a thick blanket. She's cuddled up against a warm body, her head pillowed against a firm chest that moves up and down steadily with even breaths. It's comfortable, and when she cracks her eyes open and sees she's in a (hotel?) room that's empty aside from her sleeping companion, no monsters (why would she be looking for monsters?) or anything else dangerous in sight, she almost shuts her eyes again to fall back asleep.

It's the thought that she doesn't quite remember how she got here that really wakes her up. Because: how did she get here? Where is here? It might be safe... ish... in that she might not be in immediate danger, but there's a lot of unknowns right now, including the question of who the frick is in bed with her.

It would probably make more sense to stay quiet and take in more of the situation, but the realization that she's in bed with a stranger causes her to flail backwards in a way that would absolutely have had her falling off the side of the bed if the mattress itself wasn't surprisingly large. Instead, she ends up tangled gracelessly in the sheets and slightly frozen in place, like the guy waking up won't see her if she's completely still.

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Jason is freaking out, too, he's just doing it... internally. Quietly. But his eyes are wide as he tries to get a better grip on Percy and not think too hard about the fact that there is nothing but thin air under his feet.

And yet, hanging here, buffeted by wind... somehow doesn't feel as terrifying or wrong as it should. Because it should. Right?

The horse rears and they shoot a little higher, to the side, a kneejerk reaction as Jason stares down at it. "Leave us alone!" he calls to it, as if it could actually understand. Hell, maybe it can, it seems to have come after them very specifically. His mind goes to the coin in his pocket, but he has no idea why. Either way, his arms are very occupied with Percy.

Seeing as how the whole situation has absolutely gotten to the point of Deeply Insane and there’s basically nothing else she could do that could possibly be more insane, Percy decides to talk to the horse.

“Oh my gods, he is not kidnapping me! He’s my husband! Chill out!”

Insanely, the horse does. Or starts to, anyway - there’s something still distinctly nervous about the way it moves, but it’s not rearing up to reach them, at least. You’re… okay?

“Kind of!” Percy calls back, because this is not a situation she would exactly call okay. But Jason’s not kidnapping her, so. “Calm down!”

Jason blinks, suddenly feeling like there is an actual conversation going on here, and he's missing half of it. Sure, Percy yelled down to the horse, just like he had. But then there's a pause, and the horse seems to calm a little, and Percy replies to something. Something Jason had definitely not heard.

He glances at her face even as they bob down a little, closer to the ground now that things are a little calmer. They're still six or seven feet up, but not climbing or sliding to the side anymore, as he glances between Percy and the horse and back again.

"I think it actually listened to you."

“I mean - the good news is that I might not be schizophrenic after all?”

Jason is causing them to fly. She thinks. And Percy can talk to horses. This is all Fine. Extremely normal. She’s having a great day.

She taps Jason’s shoulder. “Can you - put us down?”

"What? Oh."

Jason sort of glances down, like he'd managed to forget they were floating in the air. "I'm - " not doing it, he's about to say, but... that's not right.

He is doing this.

His face screws up with concentration and, slowly, the wind starts to die down and they sink back to the ground, Jason's sneakers touching down gently as the wind dissipates completely. He blinks, wide-eyed, at Percy, and tries to help her down from, you know, clinging to his torso.

"I guess I was doing that."

He sounds just as bewildered as he looks. And yet - not frightened. Just confused.

Edited 2024-04-24 15:45 (UTC)

“So you can fly. And I talk to horses.”

Gods, it would be nice if they had memories to contextualize these things. Once they’re on the ground again, the horse trots forward, still looking at Jason with what could only be distrust. Percy detaches herself from Jason and turns to face the horse, reaching a hand out cautiously to pat its neck. “Um, thanks for the concern, I guess. You don’t… happen to know who I am, do you?”

The daughter of Poseidon, the horse responds, as if this was an odd question to ask. The Father of Horses.

“Uh, the horse says I’m Poseidon’s kid.”

"I... guess so?" Jason's still a little dazed, and he tenses again when the horse approaches, but this time it seems much calmer, so he lets Percy pull away even though his eyes are sharp as he watches them, like he's ready to snatch her away again if the horse missteps in the least.

He still can't hear anything in response when Percy asks the question, but when she turns to him to relay the answer -

"Poseidon? Like... like the Greek god of the ocean," he repeats. His eyes go from Percy to the horse and now to the shoreline stretching off in the distance. "But he's not - "

Well. She can talk to horses.

And he can fly.

Maybe Poseidon is real? It seems as logical as anything, all of a sudden.

"That's... sure something," is about all he can reasonably say to that.

“What about him?” Percy asks as she continues to pat the horse’s neck soothingly. See? No one’s being kidnapped, no one’s hurt. “Do you recognize Jason?”

Son of Zeus, the horse says with a snort, casting wary eyes on Jason.

“He says you’re Zeus’s kid. Wait, how come you get to be the kid of the king of the gods and I’m the ocean’s kid?”

The horse lets out a sound like bitter laughter. It’s good your father is not here to hear that, Lady.

"Zeus?"

There's something about that name that just feels wrong, in Jason's mouth.

"You mean Jupiter," is what comes out next, practically of its own volition. He doesn't know why, and the look on his face says as much even as he adds, "Besides, I don't think we, uh. Got a choice, Percy."

No, something about this very much feels like there have been a lot of choices lacking.

Which is why he frowns. "Do you think they arranged this?" He gestures around, mostly meaning this marriage but also everything that's happened to them, too. Even if he has no idea why.

“I don’t know. Maybe? The gods were always fucking around with people’s lives, right?”

She doesn’t remember a story where they took away someone’s memories on their wedding night, but it makes as much sense as anything. She bites her lip, looking at Jason like she’s trying to tell if there’s a godly resemblance there, before turning back to the horse. “Hey, we should get you back in your enclosure before anyone notices you’re out, bud.”

"From what I can remember, yeah," Jason agrees, because his memory's a little fuzzy but he does absolutely remember a lot of fucking with people's lives.

He doesn't like the idea - at all - that someone, anyone, arranged this. Arranged their marriage and made them forget it. But for the moment they don't know, and he still trusts Percy to be with him on this. Whatever this is.

She does also have a good point about the horse, he thinks, raising an eyebrow at said equine to hopefully back her up. "I promise, I won't let anything happen to her."

And he might be talking to a horse... but he really means it.

The horse just eyes Jason suspiciously. Apparently, his promise isn’t worth much, but when Percy sighs and says c’mon, he follows docilely enough.

“So, we’re… kids of gods. That’s a surprise.”

You’d think waking up with amnesia would be the weirdest thing that would happen to her today, and yet.

Jason just stands his ground against the horse, as best he can. It feels weird, but at least the animal seems to relent when Percy urges it back toward the stables.

Jason sticks to the other side of Percy, out of kicking distance of the horse, and can't help but cast his gaze up toward the sky as she speaks. He doesn't think he feels any particular connection... but maybe? He does feel more comfortable outside, under said sky.

"Yeah," he agrees, finally looking back at her. "That is... not what I expected to learn when I woke up this morning."

Of course, he can't help but laugh and admit, "I don't know what I expected when I woke up this morning, though, but it wasn't to not remember anything, including you."

This is definitely shaping up to be a really, really weird day.

"So, if Nep- Poseidon is your father, do you think you can... control water?" he adds. That makes more sense than talking to horses, after all.

“I don’t know. Maybe? How do you test that?”

There’s a lock on the gate to the enclosure, and the horse looks at Percy expectantly. “Don’t look at me, I don’t pick locks. If you can jump it to get out, you can jump it to get back in.”

"Maybe... we go down to the beach and see?" is really the best suggestion Jason has, though at least there is a beach right here. A very nice, private beach. It does seem like the place to test that kind of that, whatever it ends up involving.

Plus, he's not ready to go back inside just yet.

He does glance at the horse and give it his best winning smile. "I could give you a lift, I bet."

He has no idea if he could actually follow through on that.

The ability to understand horses is not required to understand that the look the horse gives Jason is absolutely scathing. Instead, he backs away enough to give himself a running start before jumping majestically and clearing the top of the fence. Afterwards, he runs back up to Percy. Did you see that, Lady? I bet I could fly as high as a pegasus!

"Sure you could," she says, indulgently scratching his neck again while quietly adding are pegasus real? to the list of things she needs to incorporate into her understanding of the world. "Jason and I are going to go to the beach now, but thank you for helping. Even if Jason wasn't really kidnapping me. It was very brave of you."

With another suspicious stare at Jason, the horse finally heads off to rejoin the other horses. It is definitely already bragging about its adventure.

Jason just keeps the smile on his face, but he has to admit he's glad when the horse is safely(?) inside the fence once more.

It still feels odd to watch Percy reassure the animal like it can really, truly understand her, but it seems to do the trick, at least, because the horse eventually turns tail and Jason finally, finally relaxes just a little. After all, he supposes, he and the horse are kind of on the same side. They both want to keep Percy safe.

Which might be more complicated, it seems, if they're actual children of actual gods.

He reaches out for Percy's hand again, saying, "To the beach?"

"The beach," she agrees, taking his hand. The thought is actually kind of comforting, which maybe does point towards her actually being related to the god of the ocean.

She starts walking in the direction she's pretty sure she remembers the beach being, absently swinging their hands on the way. It's good to have something solid to hold onto after. Everything that just happened.

Jason's smile flickers back into place, gentler this time, as Percy swings their hands between them. Everything might be weird right now, but somehow, this isn't. This feels the most right of anything, even if he still wishes he remembered more. Even if there's a chance this isn't real at all.

Of course, he's got to go and ruin it by asking, "If our parents did orchestrate this... what do you think they want?"

“I don’t know.”

They’re not that far from the beach, really, and it’s not that long before Percy’s following the scent of salt air more than anything else.

“Maybe something happened to us that they want us to forget?”

"Must've been something big," Jason muses quietly, though he gets the feeling that big things have indeed happened. But he can't get the shape of them. It's frustrating.

He squeezes Percy's fingers at the thought. "You think this is a gift?" He doesn't know if he can see it that way, but - he could see how someone might think making people forget something terrible could be intended that way.

“Or maybe we knew something they didn’t want us to know.”

She has no idea for sure. But. She thinks she might be more suspicious of amnesia as a self-serving choice than a honeymoon gift.

"That... seems more likely," Jason admits quietly, eyes going a little darker as he glances at her and they step off the paved path and onto the sand. "At least, based on the stories."

Of course, "We're together, though. They left us together, so - that's something."

He's not sure what, really, but he's grateful for it, all the same.

"Through amnesia and double amnesia," she agrees.

The ocean's in sight now, and she picks up the pace, stopping only a couple feet away from where the ocean meets the sand. The sound of the water soothes her, though she's not sure that's a sign of anything special. "So, how would I control water?"

"Through amnesia and double amnesia," Jason can't help but repeat with a soft smile, following as she takes the lead again. Honestly, he can practically see her perk up as they near the shoreline.

"Oh, I - " Well, he has no idea. How had he controlled the wind? Mostly through fear and panic, he thinks, but it can't just be that.

He closes his eyes and breathes in through his nose, slowly. Then out again, just as slowly. He probably looks ridiculous for several seconds.

And then the breeze picks up a little, tugging at his hair gently, and his lips twitch again. "It's - I don't know. It's hard to explain. You just sort of... reach for it?"

It's definitely easier the second time around.

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