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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"Yeah."

She's not sure if it helps, exactly, but it does feel nice to know he doesn't have much in the way of expectations with her, high or otherwise. They can just figure this thing out together.

"Thanks."

"It's just the truth." Because it really is.

"Besides, maybe we'll ace whatever test this is." Although, of course, to do that, they'd need to know the rules, and they definitely don't. But the gods are going to have to give them something to go off of, if there's something they want Jason and Percy to do. Until then, they'll just keep trying to figure out who they are and why they're here.

"Can you think of anything our parents would want?"

He... really can't, but maybe she's got some ideas.

"I mean... they want us to be married, I guess. That's like, the only thing we know for sure?" They were set up in a honeymoon suite. The place is paid for. They got a gift basket with sex supplies. There's lingerie in the dresser. If there's any clear message in that, it's that the gods want this marriage to happen.

She doesn't move away from him or anything, but something in her deflates a little when she finally says the quiet part out loud. "Do you think we even knew each other before today?"

Jason finds himself studying the ring on his finger, the one that matches the ring on Percy's finger.

"I don't know," he has to admit. He can't remember any more than she can. It's possible they didn't. Just like it is very clear, he has to admit, that the gods want them to be married.

Part of him doesn't want to do what the gods want. But part of him doesn't want to be alone - or to leave Percy alone.

"Maybe it doesn't matter. What we have is today." So, they start from here, because it's the only thing they know.

“I guess.” It’s not a bad way to approach this. They have each other, and she wants them to have each other, even if this might have been forced on them. Even if they’re strangers.

She absently plays with her own ring, twisting it around on her finger. It’s a nice ring, probably expensive. “It sucks to think we didn’t have any choice.”

"Yeah." Jason... gets the feeling that choice is rare, somehow - at least, for him. That he does what has to be done, and choice rarely figures into it.

But not today. Today, they can choose to stay together, and choose to figure this out together. Because that's what he'd choose.

"I guess everything we do right now is our choice, though," he decides. "They can't tell us what to do if we can't remember anything and they're clearly not talking to us. Hints don't count."

Because sure, they can hint. Obviously. But Percy and Jason can opt to ignore those hints.

"Why don't we go somewhere, then?" She straightens up a bit, turning so she can look him in the face instead of leaning against his arm. "Not check out and leave, we just decided we're staying. "But somewhere off the hotel grounds, somewhere they didn't pick for us to stay. So it feels more like a choice."

"Okay - yeah," he agrees, smiling a little and sitting up straighter when she does. "I like that idea. Let me just get my shoes."

He knows they were just outside not that long ago, but the idea of being out of the building again makes him feel better, too. Less trapped with no choice.

She stands as well, snagging one last chip from the bag before grabbing a bottle of water from the snack collection. “Start with the beach again and see where we can get from there? I won’t half-drown you this time.”

"Gee, thanks," he says with a laugh, but he nods, pulling on his socks and shoes and tucking the room key into his pocket, along with the gold coin from his jeans. For some reason, he just wants it with him. He doesn't like the thought of leaving it in the room.

Then he pulls open the door and holds it for her to precede him out. "Lead the way."

It’s not unlike the last time they did this; it’s not even that much later. Percy takes hold of his hand, lacing their fingers together, and leads them in the direction of the ocean and then in the direction on the beach that she thinks the map said was towards the public areas. She’s quiet this time, which feels a little weird and maybe out of character for herself, but she needs some time to process. To think.

As promised, she doesn’t throw any water at him, though while they’re still in the private area, she might be playing with it a little. Right now, there’s a wave following them horizontal to the sand.

Jason grins softly as she laces their fingers together - and again when he spots that wave that seems to be following them. He's happy to be out in the open air, himself; it just feels better to be outside, one hand in Percy's and the other turning the coin in his pocket over and over, like it's some well-worn habit. Maybe it is.

He almost doesn't want to break into her thoughts, but after a few minutes of quiet, he can't help but ask, "What're you thinking about?"

“How fucked up this all is, mostly.”

She’s pretty sure she has every right to have some very weird and complicated emotions right now. It does kind of feel out of place to be having them while walking in a beautiful beach with a cute boy, but. There it is.

“Also, that I feel like maybe this isn’t the first time our parents have fucked us over? I don’t know, the confusion and the anger feels familiar.”

Jason makes a sound that's maybe a snort, but it's clearly not dismissal.

"I don't know... I don't feel like I knew my parents at all." He shrugs one shoulder. "But yeah. The confusion's a little familiar. The not knowing."

Anger, too, yes. But it feels more deeply buried for him, he thinks. Simmering. But contained.

"This is fucked up," he agrees. "Especially if it's not the first time. Which is why I think it's a good idea that we're not doing exactly what they want."

It’s not exactly that they’re doing something they wouldn’t want. If they really wanted to do that, they’d check out, maybe even part ways. But that’s not exactly smart, and it’s not necessarily what Percy wants, at this point.

“ - Hey, um. Do you see that?” is somehow what Percy ends up saying, because there’s some kind of - animal? In the distance? Moving towards them?

Jason figures it's a compromise: They're not doing exactly what the gods seem to want, and they are doing what he and Percy want. So, it works.

He glances at her, though, then back where she's looking, squinting into the distance. "See - ?"

It takes him a minute to make it out, but - "Oh. Yeah. What... is that?"

He can't tell, the outline is fuzzy, but it does not appear to be a human. His fingers tighten around hers, as every nerve starts to stand on end. He isn't sure that it's a good thing, whatever it is.

“I think - maybe we should move into the water,” she says, already tugging him in that direction. Working by instinct has gone pretty well so far, and her instincts say to meet whatever it is in a source of power.

Also, weirdly, instinct is pushing her to check that her pen is in her pocket with the hand that isn’t holding his.

Admittedly, Jason's instinct isn't to go for the water, but he can understand why she does, and he's not about to argue. The wind picks up a little - it may or may not be responding to his tension and anticipation - ruffling the waves and their hair as he lets her tug him toward the ocean without complaint. Wet shoes are not appealing but they're better than the alternative, he thinks.

Even if he's not sure what the alternative is.

He realizes he's pulled the coin out of his pocket, the worn metal pressing into the palm of his free hand. When did he do that?

"It's headed right for us." That much he can tell, and he doesn't like it at all.

The water stills around them, but this time there’s a sense of tension to it, anticipation. Like it’s readying itself for a fight.

“I want to say maybe it’s friendly, but I really don’t think it is.”

She finds herself pulling her pen out as well, totally unsure what that’s supposed to do to help, but. Again. Working on instinct.

"Neither do I."

He's watching it so intently that when his fingers curl to flip the coin, it's all happening in the back of his brain. He doesn't even realize he's doing it until it flashes in the air and -

When it comes back down and he catches it, still on autopilot, there's a -

That is a sword in his hand. A perfectly balanced, golden sword that should probably feel a lot more foreign in his grip, but instead just feels... right. He's held this sword before. He knows what to do with it.

Which means it comes up into guard position without his needing to think about it.

“What the - “

The thing is, with Jason’s coin sword thing distracting her, her hands are free to follow what they think is right, which is uncapping the stupid pen, which is suddenly no longer a stupid pen.

It’s a sword.

“What the-?!”

Jason doesn't really have an explanation; he glances at Percy out of the corner of his eye, mostly because he doesn't want to take his full gaze off whatever the thing is that's approaching them, but then her other hand moves and she's got a sword, and -

And that feels right, too? Or, at least, better than her not having a sword.

"I don't know," is all he's got to say to it, really. "But we must have - faced things like this before."

It's the only thing that makes sense to him, at least.

“I’m just going to hope we know how to use them.”

She does, though. The way he’s holding his speaks of practice and comfort, and the sword in her hands feels as natural as anything. Which is good, because the creature’s getting close enough to identify, and it looks like… Actually, she’s not sure what she’d call it, aside from giant terrifying hog thing. She’s pretty sure it could run right over them and barrel them over like they were nothing, which doesn’t sound great.

Jason's grip tightens on the sword and he has to admit, "I think I do."

Honestly, it doesn't sound unsure. He sounds very sure that he does.

He finds himself wishing in the back of his mind that he had a javelin, for some reason, as the beast comes tearing up the beach, putting on speed. Jason's stance widens and the wind starts to whip up again; there are dark clouds rolling in but he doesn't seem to notice them.

He squeezes her hand again, before moving to drop it. "I'll go left if you go right?" That puts Percy farther into the ocean, and that seems like the best idea.

She really doesn't like the idea of letting Jason go and separating, even as part of a battle stance, but she guesses she's going to have to trust that they both know what they're doing, and that the urge to protectively shove him behind her is probably counterproductive. "Okay."

The boar's not actually close enough to the edge of the water that it should be going in right now, but the ocean is abruptly changing its boundaries, gathering in front of the boar's path and creating resistance to slow it down.

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