Third Floor Common Room | Afternoon | Monday | September 6

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

One of the benefits of being a demigod was that Percy wasn't showing any effects of his fight with Luke yesterday. He'd gone down to the beach and done some swimming which had taken care of the cut on the back of his shoulder and the bruises on his hand. Even if Luke had beaten him, Percy was glad that he wasn't going to show obvious signs of that which would bring questions which would mean he'd have to tell people what happened.

And he really didn't want to tell people he'd gotten beaten.

There was a bad action movie on the television that had gotten Percy's attention almost immediately. He spent so much time training and running from monsters that getting to just chill out and watch movies had become a rare thing. He was taking advantage of it while he could.

Even the action movie couldn't completely hold his attention so if it looked like Percy wasn't paying attention, he probably wasn't. His thoughts were pinballing around every so often. If some of those thoughts included his cousins, well, oh well.

[It's a common room so it's open, dontcha know]

Comments

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

"It's short for Perseus," he snapped, not even bothering to hold it back. It sounded like a slight against his mom and he wasn't going to let that slide.

He finally glanced up and saw...his face again and glowered. He knew this was coming (thank you, Kate) but it didn't help since this kid had just insulted his name.

"You know, Perseus, the Greek hero," he added, still scowling but it was more at the face than the comment. "The guy who killed Medusa and found Mycenae?"

[notlikejack.livejournal.com]

"I know the story," Bobby replied defensively. "I just didn't know anyone still used the name. Killing Medusa is cool though."

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

"My mom liked the name," he said, settling down a little. Bobby wasn't Jason. Bobby was a lot younger than Jason and hadn't started cursing at him immediately.

"What makes it girly?" Percy asked, curious despite himself. "I haven't heard that before."

[notlikejack.livejournal.com]

"Not the Perseus part," he said quickly. "But Percy? It's - like - I don't know, calling a guy Lindsay or something."

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

"You know, you're getting dangerously close to insulting my mom because that's what she shortened my name to," Percy pointed out irritably. "You often make fun of people's names?"

[notlikejack.livejournal.com]

Bobby looked upset. Maybe Jack was on to something with that whole 'he didn't know how to talk to people thing.' "I didn't insult your mom! I wouldn't ever insult your mom! I was just asking!"

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

Percy winced at that look and shook his head. He really did wonder if fighting monsters would be easier than dealing with all the stuff this place was throwing at him.

"Perseus is a mouthful," he said, holding up a hand to try and stop Bobby from getting upset. "I don't know why she shortened it but Percy's a lot easier to say, isn't it?"

[notlikejack.livejournal.com]

"Yeah but then you don't get to pretend you're like a Greek hero or something," the little dork replied.

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

Percy...had to admit that was some good reasoning. "How do you know I'm not? Just because of my name? Maybe I'm related to Perseus."

[notlikejack.livejournal.com]

Bobby looked up eagerly. "Are you?"

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

Bobby was so eager, Percy almost wanted to tell him the truth. He snickered though and shook his head.

"Nah, I'm just named after one," he answered. "I think my mom was a fan of the story, though. I like Greek stuff though."

[notlikejack.livejournal.com]

"That doesn't mean you can't be a hero," he pointed out. "I think it just means it's harder than if you were related to heroes. I like Greek stuff too. I used to read the myths all the time when I was a kid."

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

"Yeah? What's your favorite?" Percy wondered curiously. If Mr. Brunner hadn't ended up being a centaur, he was sure he would have loved Bobby.

[notlikejack.livejournal.com]

"I like Theseus and the Minotaur," Bobby decided after a long moment's thought. "And Ariadne helping him find his way out of the Labyrinth and then he became King of Athens."

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, I know that one." He lived that one. "The Labyrinth that Daedalus built, right?"

[notlikejack.livejournal.com]

"Yeah. I kinda feel bad for the Minotaur though," he admitted. "I mean, he was just sleeping there and Theseus showed up and killed him."

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

Percy had a few issues with the good ole Minotaur so he was going to disagree with Bobby here.

"You don't think the Minotaur was completely innocent, do you?" Percy wondered.

[notlikejack.livejournal.com]

"I don't know," Bobby admitted with a little shrug. "I mean, he didn't ask to be born a monster, you know? And if no one ever loved him or taught him better maybe that's why he was like that. I wouldn't want him to run around killing people all the time, but I just kinda feel bad for him."

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

"Huh." Percy disagreed but he'd never really heard a point of view like that so he didn't immediately jump to telling Bobby he was wrong. "What about Medusa? She was a monster, turned a lot of people to stone. Should Athena be punished because she made Medusa a monster?"

[notlikejack.livejournal.com]

"I guess it depends, you know?" Bobby said. "Athena should have punished both Poseidon and Medusa for the whole defiling her temple thing. It's totally unfair and typical of the patriarchy for her just to punish the woman. Plus? In some of the stories, Medusa was raped. So she got turned into a monster because she was forced to have sex. That's totally wrong."

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

Oh, Annabeth would both love and hate Bobby. She'd be happy to hear that Bobby thought Poseidon should have been punished but annoyed to her her mother spoken about like that.

Percy...wasn't going to believe the whole 'rape' thing about his dad and that was more because his mom had trusted Poseidon and not because Poseidon was his dad. The anger roiled briefly though. It burned but he tamped it down.

"So, what about the choices Medusa made after she was a monster?" Percy asked, proud that he kept the anger out of his voice. It wasn't Bobby's fault. "She didn't have to turn people to stone just because she was a monster. Not all monsters gotta be bad."

[notlikejack.livejournal.com]

"She really could have used some anger management skills," Bobby agreed. If he'd had any idea of Percy's heritage, he probably wouldn't have called Poseidon a rapist.

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

Bobby was just lucky that he was slowly starting to realize that not everyone knew what he did and didn't believe what he did. A few days earlier and he might have popped Bobby in the chin.

"Yeah, that's putting it lightly." Bobby would probably love to know that he'd had the head of Medusa once before. "Where'd your interest in Greek stuff come from?"

[notlikejack.livejournal.com]

Bobby would geek out beyond all imagining if he knew such things about Percy. He shrugged. "I don't know. I've always been interested. Mom didn't let us have a tv, and we weren't allowed to read non-educational books. I found a bunch of Greek myth books at the library when I was really little."

[seaweed-demigod.livejournal.com]

"You sound like you like the heroes of Greek myths but not the Olympians," Percy remarked, curious if he was right.