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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“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.

"Hmm."

She kicks up her shoes and rolls up the bottoms of her jeans a few inches because if she's going to try this, then something tells her she should probably be in the water. It feels nice, at least, when she steps in - maybe not her father's god of the ocean nice, but how are you supposed to judge that?

Jason had shut his eyes and looked like he was kind of centering himself, and while she doesn't think she's really a meditation kind of girl, she shuts her eyes and tries to. Find something. Some connection deep inside to the ocean that will let her do something with the water.

After a moment, she sighs. "I don't think this is working."

The water's gone completely still for a few feet in a circle around her. She hasn't opened her eyes yet to see.

"Actually, I think it is."

Jason's voice is soft; he'd opened his own eyes as soon as he'd heard her start moving, and has been watching her stand there - and watching the water start to sort of stand there, too. It's eerie, and ethereal, and kind of amazing, the way the water just around her is acting so strangely. But at least it leaves no doubt that it's because of her.

"You're definitely doing something."

"What?"

She opens her eyes and blinks down at the water, which manages to stay still only for a few seconds more before it starts moving again, like the rest of the ocean. If he hadn't confirmed something was happening, she would think she imagined it.

"I can, what, make water stop moving?" What a cool power.

Jason laughs - gently, just a little - at the expression on her face.

"I have a feeling you can do a lot more than that," he admits - because he does. He has no idea how he knows, other than it must be something he remembers, trying to break through. "I don't know what, but... I think you can do more."

He leans down and pulls off his own shoes and socks, wading into the water next to her. "Try again?"

She hadn't expected him to get in the water with her, but the water is very nice, so even if she can't manage anything impressive, it's not like it's a total loss, right? Right.

She tries to find that place she was in earlier, and the water stills once more, as if it's waiting for her to do something. When she opens her eyes this time, it stays where she put it. She reaches out a hand, and a stream of water bubbles up to meet it.

Jason grins, crouching down to get a better look, not minding if it gets his jeans wet. He keeps his hands to himself, not wanting to mess anything up by reaching out to touch, but really, it's fascinating to watch. "Hey, there you go. Look at that."

He grins up at her. "Looks like you can make it stop and make it go."

"I guess so."

After a moment of just moving her hand around a bit, watching the fountain of water follow it, she gets a mischievous look on her face and - with a little flick of her hand - splashes him with the water.

Jason is not expecting that - he splutters and goes over on his butt in the shallow water - and then it's on.

He's already wet, so why not try to splash her back?

She raises her hands instinctively, as if to block the splash of water, and it… works. The splash stops a couple inches from her body and falls back down into the ocean.

“Oh, wow.”

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