Prodigiosum | PJO Genderbend - ✓

XVII - νιξο

Anything about Dionysus is already too bad a situation.

For the record, I don't have much against the dude, but I think he kinda hates me because of the whole "wine dude" thing when I was ten. But then again, he hasn't done much good other than be a little drunkie around camp.

This whole new thing about him turning into this whole Dion character and promptly destroying our story? Enough to make me hate Circe more than I already did.

The flashback of me chaining Circe down and pulling her underground like I did to Bryce was unsettling, partly because I'm still shocked that I could do that to the goddess of Magic herself. I shouldn't have done it at all — it caused the Hecate cabin a sister, and Hecate a daughter, though I'm not exactly sure if they even liked Circe.

As we made our way to the Big House and filed in one by one, I let everybody in first without going in myself. Though it wasn't me who personally went against Dion/ysus, I still felt a bit of anger towards them — they were the one remnant of Circe's curse that I couldn't stop and the  reminder that I had actually killed a goddess that I had almost all the time.

Once Hazel went in, I stayed outside for a moment, considering the option to stare inside. Sure, it'd been like two weeks since the grand finale and grand imprisonment, and in fact nothing about it was grand at all. Then arms grabbed me from behind — arms too big for a normal human's.

I looked behind and found Tyson's big brown eye blinking at me, his big grin too cute not to frown. Grover and Ella were right beside him, too. Both wore reassuring looks even though I needed practically no form of reassurance. Then Grover spoke. "Hey, Nico, lighten up. I have no idea why you're sad and frankly, I don't, but go inside with us."

Seeing as I had clearly missed them despite the minimal interactions with them, I couldn't not oblige. I twisted the doorknob and stepped inside.

It was about as normal as a whole gathering of gods plus demigods could go. Travis and Connor stood at the side, once again disturbing Clovis with a brand new collection of pencils. Annabeth and Percy stood at the other side, and, when they saw Grover, excitedly gestured for him to stand with them. Will, Hazel and Frank were in the center looking at me.

Zeus stood in front, long blonde locks cascading down in ringlets, blue highlights running through. They wore a light blue dress and nothing much else, wearing a cold stare on their face as the figure right beside them twitched madly.

Beside Zeus was Dion — despite Circe being gone now, it seemed that the enchantment hadn't worn off. Her purple eyes were fiery and mad, like the Circe inside of her. Black chains, seaweed bonds and lightning ropes bound her tightly, ichor flowing out of her chest and legs, and she screamed many obscenities at us.

I calmly stepped aside. Poseidon, thankfully as calm as a swimming pool in the early hours of the morning, said, "Dionysus! Get a hold of yourself!"

Dion turned around, glowered at her, and yelled. "Let me out!"

"How about... A no." Said Percy, crossing his arms. Ironically, he was the least uneasy, despite going against Dion twice and both times narrowly losing his life. Then again, he always narrowly loses his life.

"Why are you bothering to keep me chained up anyway?" Shouted Dion, raising a burning eyebrow. "Just turn me mortal now! I get turned mortal all the time, let me just devour you all again!"

"Reverse-psychological, hmm." Murmured Athena, their arms over a crisp white button-down. Then they nodded slightly.

"Then we'll turn Dionysus human then, all in the favour?" Asked Zeus, and every god in the room raised their hand. I was totally fine with that, but I heard small sniffles of tears beside me. I hadn't realized Pollux standing quietly, almost always silent and uninvolved in important things.