Demigods and Dimensional Warps

Why Is Is There A 10 Foot Cheeto In The Big House?

Katie wasn't a big fan of the early morning meetings. Since she and Percy were the only people who lived in the Poseidon cabin on any sort of regular basis, she didn't get a choice on going to the counselor meetings. It also didn't help that Ariana was the one who woke her up.

All counselor meetings were held in the rec room of the Big House. Katie had propped herself up on her arm to try to keep herself from falling back asleep. Connor was trying to find the melting point of Advil, Clovis was asleep, and the Demeter counselor who's name she couldn't remember was feeding Seymour cheetos. On the other side, Isabel stood with the other-worlders along with two unfamiliar faces. Ari was fiddling with one of her knives, Sati was looking at one of the new girls.

"All right, Isabel. What was so import–?" There was a strange pressure in the room. Katie ducked and she heard someone scream. She grabbed at her bracelet as the pressure dissipated and stood up.

Her mouth dropped. Stretched across the length of the room was a 10-ft long Cheeto. One end had almost crushed Connor and the other was against the wall by Seymour's head. Of course, Chiron chose that moment to walk into the room.

"What on earth just happened in here?!"

———

It took a moment for Isabel to process Chiron's question. When she did she shook her head and said, "Your guess is as good as mine." Everyone looked up at a soft crunching sound coming from the direction of the Cheeto to see Seymour nibbling his new over-sized snack.
That was when Isabel noticed something else hanging from a branch(?) of the Cheeto. "Wait, what's that?"

"A giant Cheeto that almost killed me!" Conner yelled, unhelpfully— although he was probably still a little shaken from almost being flattened.

"I know that," Isabel said, rolling her eyes. "I mean, what's the thing hanging from it?" she clarified. It looked kind of like a headset, but definitely not one that she had ever seen before... and then she noticed Darravalgareovean trapped under one end of the Cheeto.

"Oh my gods! Are you okay?!"

———

There were grumbled, muffled, and upset noises from the High Elf pinned face first to the floor by the 10-foot-Cheeto. He had managed to get himself pinned with both his arms underneath him and face pressured into the floor so nobody could understand what he was trying to say. No one was quite sure how he got into that position or how to get him out for a while because, although it was just a Cheeto, it was heavier than anyone expected.

"Don't move." Ari instructed. She clapped her hands together and placed them on the ground. Two stone pillars lifted the Cheeto off the elf's body with only barely enough room to let him wiggle through. In the process, the headset thing fell off the Cheeto. "Are you alright?" She asked once the Cheeto danger was over.

Darravalgareovean bowed deeply towards Ari in thanks.

———

Sati walked over to the giant Cheeto and examined the headset that had fallen from it. It had looked familiar from a distance, but now that she was close, it was clear. "It's an Augma!" She said suddenly, turning it on and clipping it on her ear. Sure enough, the familiar filter was working. It felt like she was seeing everything around her but also looking through a computer screen. It was interesting to those who had never experienced it. She made a downward movement with her hand and the system window appeared. Battery: 80%, Wifi signal: weak, and user: Satrina. "It's my Augma."

"Sorry, what's an Augma?" Isabel asked.

"Oh, it's like a VR headset only instead of virtual reality it's AR, augmented reality. Basically NPCs and other digital creations are superimposed on reality. The benefits of AR is that you can experience a lot of the virtual world without being unconscious. I would offer to demonstrate but there isn't much Wifi here and the only program I have saved is Layla and you won't be able to see her unless you wear the Augma" Sati explained. She still got a lot of blank looks. "Actually, you know what..." Sati equipped Layla and watched the dragon appear on her shoulders. She passed the Augma to Kiara. "Can you see her?"