vatheon | Monthly Mingle Log + Marks

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Monthly Mingle Log + Marks

Though things are certainly a bit busy, Station Master has decided to go ahead with the welcoming party for the new arrivals. Partially because he had decided to take this task upon himself and he certainly wasn't going to slack, and partially because making things appear as normal was as good a cover as they had right now.

However with how much has been going on, this party is not quite as extravagant as previous ones have been. The location is near to the elevator, on the beach. A large banner hung between two trees proclaims a cheerful 'Welcome to Vatheon'. The long food tables that normally take up most of the space are missing. There simply hadn't been the capability of whipping up the sort of food they normally served. What is there however is a lot of fruit. Fresh apples and pears. Bananas. A few bowls of strawberries and pièce de résistance several large and perfectly ripe water melons. One or two have already been split, the water melons pieces set out on small plates on one big table ready for any to take. Drinks are available too. Fresh water and fruit juices. The weather might not be entirely the best for this kinda thing (though occasionally the sun seems to peek out from between the clouds!) but at least it isn't raining.

But that is not all.

In the cover of the storage building turned bubble reparation headquarters sits C. She has been contacting the people who signed up for catching the fish, asking them to start bringing them to her today so she can start working on the marks. Similarly the people who have signed up for early mark change have been invited too to drop by today or in the next few days so the first step in making sure the coral is returned to proper working conditions can be taken.

[ooc: This month the monthly mingling log is combined with the log for the fish catching + early mark changing. Also, if your character is new but you want them to learn what is going on, please leave a small ooc note on your comment and we'll send a NPC your way. The mingling log part of this post is only on the first, in the afternoon. The fish catching and mark changing parts will serve as a collective point for threads of this nature for this whole week.]

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Annabeth fiddled with the little fan Leo had made. He was pretty clever that way. "Hmmm. Possibly. Unless Hera's up to her old tricks..." She said this more to herself than the others though, before shaking her head. Hera had rescued Percy once before and sent him to Calypso's island, but things were different now and this was nothing like that. It felt completely different from the other places they'd been.

"Hmm." Percy had his sword, so at least he could protect himself. "Sounds like a plan. Maybe we can find this Welcoming Committee while you check things out down there."

"Well, whoever it was, they clearly don't want us stopping Gaea. I'm sure the others can get to Greece somehow, but I think they're going to have to leave the Argo II behind. Unless one of them figures out all the controls."

Leo frowned. Once again he was reminded of the fortune cookie. "It's all my fault," he muttered under his breath.

Almost instantaneously his attitude changed, "Finding the welcoming committee might be our best way to get out of here. Good luck with the water, Percy."

"Hey," Percy said. "Coach Hedge can navigate it pretty well. They might be able to make it." He had to admit, the chances were pretty low. The ship had needed to be repaired several times throughout their journey, and he doubted the monsters were going to leave the Argo II alone as they headed to The Doors of Death.

And he and Annabeth were supposed to be on the other side. They must be closed from both sides. The moment Annabeth had started to slip from his fingers he'd known that they had to find the doors. To close them. And possibly be trapped inside forever.

He shook the thought out of his head and made himself focus on the present task.

"Where should I meet you?"

Annabeth nodded. "You know our friends Leo. They'll figure something out." They will because they have to, she didn't add. She knew they wouldn't give up with Leo's disappearance; they'd just set out to find him on their way to Greece. All she could hope was that they would still close the Doors of Death without finding sign of Percy and herself anywhere in the underworld.

But Leo's fault? How was he responsible for this? She filed that away and resolved to ask him about it later.

"Back here in half an hour. Be careful." She leaned up and kissed Percy on the cheek. "Not like Leo and I can dive down to help you out." She hadn't forgotten about the blue tunics they'd received on arrival, she just didn't trust them yet.

"Yeah," he agreed. He had to believe in his friends and their ability to do the rest of the quest without them, but it was hard to not worry about them.

Leo was about to correct Annabeth and mention the tunics, but he decided that it wasn't worth the risk of them not working unless Percy didn't return.

Percy nodded, hugging Annabeth tight for a moment before turning back toward the sea.

"Half an hour. I'll see what I can find out."

And he walked into the sea, diving in when it was deep enough, and surveying the waters below. As usual, Percy found that he could breathe underwater no problem, and the currents obeyed his commands as usual. He shot down, below the island, which wasn't connected to the sea floor, but to a huge bubble...no a series of bubbles. The shaft that connected the two had to be an elevator, and upon closer inspection, the bubble did indeed contain a city, though it seemed to be flooded due to a crack. There wasn't any particularly helpful aquatic life to be found - most fish don't have the intellect to carry on a decent conversation, and so Percy decided to head back to shore, to let the others know what he'd seen.

Percy emerged from the water completely dry, ten minutes early. He hoped that Annabeth and Leo had found out some more information. The part about the underwater city was making more sense now, but not how or why they had been brought here.

Annabeth watched him go, fascinated as always at how connected he seemed with the water. He'd be okay. And if she needed him, all it would take would be for her to throw her knife into the water and he'd come running. Like always.

Annabeth turned, noticing with a grin and a sigh that Leo had already run off to talk to people. At least he was a sociable one.

It didn't take her long to scope out the Welcoming Committee and talk with the station master. She didn't feel much more enlightened when she made her way back down to the beach but at least she knew more than when they had first arrived.

Approaching Percy she placed a hand on his shoulder, amazed as always at how dry he was. "Find out anything interesting?"

Percy touched Annabeth's face softly.

"Yeah, there's definitely an underwater city," he said. "It's inside this huge bubble, but the bubble is cracked and it's been flooded." He made gestures with his hand to indicate the enormity of the bubble and how big the crack was in comparison.

"There's an elevator shaft connecting the bubble to the island, but I couldn't tell much more. There wasn't anyone down there I could talk to. At least that I could see. The water is deep and goes off in all directions for miles and miles."

Leo had been wandering around talking to people and getting what info he could about the place, but nearly everyone was as new as he was. As he made his way toward Percy and Annabeth he could see Percy gesticulating about something large, probably the city.

"I got some good news and some bad news," he said, stopping a few feet from the pair. "I was talking with this guy named Italy - not just like the country, he claims he is the country. Anyway, he says it's possible to leave this place. He's had friends from home - Germany and Japan - who lived here with him that managed to go back home. Bad news is he doesn't know how, they just suddenly disappeared and even worse is he's been here for two years already."

Leo looked back and forth between his two friends as he spoke, gauging their reactions. When he finished he added, "What did you two find out?"

"Some kind of minor god?" Percy asked, brow knitting in confusion. He couldn't remember there being a god of Italy, but it didn't seem completely impossible. "Was it him that brought us here?"

Percy went through what he'd seen below the island for Leo, his gesticulations even bigger this time around.

Percy had gone straight into his explanations of the underwater city before Leo could better explain about Italy. When he finished Leo so astutely summarized, "So the city is like an inverse aquarium with a leak?"

Only after the words came out of his mouth, Leo realized what he'd said. "Sorry man, didn't mean to remind you of Atlanta."

Percy winced. The aquarium.

"The Ichthyocentaurs said they would help," he said, reminding himself as well as Leo. But then the thought of the Ichthyocentaurs reminded him that he hadn't gotten to meet them.

"So this Italy guy," he said, changing the subject.

"Right." Leo was glad to be able to change the subject back to the safer topic of Italy.

"He's not a god and definitely not behind our winding up here. I don't really think he'd do something like that, he seems like a nice guy. He said he's like an avatar for the country and that everything the people there are good at, he is too. And then I asked him if he meant an Avatar like the movie with the blue dudes, but he just looked confused." He paused for a moment to take a breath.

"He said his brother is South Italy and his grandfather is Rome. As in the ancient empire and not Camp Jupiter. He did also say his friends are Japan and Germany, which are definitely not Greek or Roman gods."

Percy tried to take all of that in.

"So you're telling me that Rome, as in the ancient empire, is a person, and has nothing to do with the gods. We've either landed on an island full of insane people, or something is...I don't know. Wrong? Weird? Completely crazy?"

"Yes." Leo replied. "That about sums it up. It could be any and/or all of those things."

"Great. This is exactly what we needed right now," Percy said sarcastically. "What do we even do now?"

They couldn't just sit back and relax and forget about the quest, forget about the others.

Annabeth stood there taking all of this in. "An island full of insane people is making the most sense right now. Funnily enough."

She looked at Percy and rubbed his shoulder. "All we can do is the usual - keep vigilant. See what else we can find out. The more information we gather the more chance we have of getting home and helping the others." She sighed.

"My sources couldn't help much. They were all as new as we are, except one, and the only thing I found out from him was something about changing tattoos on the local fish." Annabeth's expression showed just how nutso she thought that was.

"Tattoos on fish?" That was a strange thing for fish to have and then a thought struck him like lightning. "Do they look anything like this?" he asked, pushing up his sleeve and showing the mark on his arm. It was in the same place on his right arm as Percy's SPQR tattoo. "I noticed it earlier when I arrived."

Percy checked his own wrist, but there was just the SPQR tattoo there.

"Whoa, man. Is there one on me too?"

He started searching his own body, and when he lifted his shirt he found it on his chest, right over his heart.

"What in Hades is going on here???"

Annabeth blinked at Leo, eyes going wide. "Holy Hephaestus how did you get--"

But then Percy's was right on his chest and-- "Whoa whoa whoa!"

She started checking herself as if a spider had just fallen down the front of her shirt, flapping her hands as she rolled back pieces of clothing. She finally found the mark on her left, unbroken ankle, sitting there happily like it'd been there for months.

She looked up at both of them, eyes still wide. "I don't know but we need to find that Station Master again."

Leo's mind started racing. There were too many things flying through his mind as he tried to put everything together. He'd met a country personified, a troll, a very weird looking girl who could float, and the three of them all had the same mark on their bodies which according to Annabeth the fish also had? Steam began to rise off his body like it would on a blacktop road in the hot Texas summer heat. He was so lost in thought he didn't notice nor did he hear anything said after Annabeth found her mark.

Percy studied his mark incredulously and then he moved to do the same to Annabeth's.

"Do you have any idea where he went?"

By the time he turned to inspect Leo's mark too, Leo was steaming and so hot Percy thought he might burn himself if he tried to touch him.

"Whoa, Leo. Cool down, buddy."

"I saw him talking to a few other people while I was talking to Saber over there." Annabeth gestured, hands still flapping slightly. "I can't see him anywhere now though." The music was getting louder and she had to raise her voice to be heard.

When Percy spoke, her eyes flicked to Leo and she immediately went into cool, calm and collected mode. "Leo, it's fine, we'll figure this out! Just... don't set anything on fire."

"Oh, uh... sorry," he said sheepishly, trying to cool down. At least this time he was on a solid beach and not on an ice bridge, putting himself and his friends in danger of falling hundreds of feet to the rocky terrain of a mountain.

He tried to clear his thoughts, but that was ineffective. They may as well have been asking him to sit on his hands for 10 minutes. The smell of steaming gym socks and hot leather began to fill the air.

"Percy, I could go for some plan sea right now."

"Just make a run for it," he said, pointing to the ocean, which was maybe a hundred feet away.

"I'll keep an eye on you. Just be aware that the'res a ridiculous drop-off after a few hundred feet."

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