[ illuminati recruitment: victim one! ]
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Funnily enough, it hadn't been Octavian's broken nose that got her in trouble. Rather, it was the grapevines on the temple. The nose had solidified Reyna's suspicions of course, but it hadn't exactly been the smoking gun.
As punishment, Mabel was no longer allowed to participate in the war games that night. She wasn't too fussed, really. Usually, Hank just had the third cohort stand back and watch as the fifth failed, again. It was pathetic leadership, if you asked her. But there wasn't much she could do about it.
Though Reyna had never explicitly said Mabel wasn't to attend evening muster either, she took it as subtext and just decided to skip. She had neither the patience nor the grace for it tonight.
Instead, she headed into New Rome, on the lookout for a replacement for Percy's (now deceased, r.i.p) stuffed panda.
There was something . . . off about that guy. Aside from his already bizarre appearance, parentage, and off the charts power, he seemed to know way too much for a guy who was supposed to remember nothing.
The moment in the temple earlier, when Percy had reacted so viscerally to the Prophecy of Eight. Then, when he'd suggested an oracle instead of an augur. Every little comment he made was adding up to be more obscure, more chilling. Where did he come from?
More importantly, were the people from his home looking for him too?
Mabel hadn't dared voice the thought out loud, afraid that she really would stir up rumors again about Mad Mabel. She wasn't grasping at straws here either— obviously she was desperate to do anything to get Jason home. If she needed to kill a man to ensure his safe return, she had a hard time coming up with a good reason as to why she shouldn't.
But this, this wasn't absurd. Percy was gone from his home. With such great gaps in his memory— an amnesia that still hadn't been explained away, mind you— it wasn't a big stretch to assume the place he'd come from was filled with people that loved him. His desire to get his memory back could've been explained by a natural inclination to know his past. Or, he could've remembered something that he desperately wanted to get back to. Something that made his past his home.
She couldn't make too many assumptions about the guy, especially considering she'd only carried one conversation with him so far. But she figured getting to talk to him would be a good place to start. In order to want to talk to her, he needed to not hate her. Not that Mabel thought Percy disliked her— it's just that with the bone breaking incident earlier, she feared she'd been a bit off putting. Hence the panda.
It didn't take too long to obtain, actually. Well, in terms of the time it took for evening muster to occur in full, then for the games to start and end, it didn't take long. Matter of fact, she thought she was even back at the barracks before the games had officially drawn to a close.
Her master plan for getting information from Percy went as followed:
Step 1: Obtain replacement panda (accomplished!)
Step 2: Corner Percy in a way that ensures she gets to talk to him tonight, but doesn't make it look like she was waiting for him and/or stalking him. (This, she thought, would be the hardest step of them all— but she'd burn that bridge when she got to it).
Step 3: Figure out more about Percy's backstory— about what he knows
Step 4: Ask him about Jason
Step 5: When he inevitably knows nothing about Jason, try and see if there's any connection between the two on her own.
All in all, not too complicated! She already had one of five completed, so really her odds weren't that bad, right?
Wrong. Step 2 went horribly awry almost immediately. So much for waiting to burn bridges.
In hindsight, she thinks her greatest error was in over estimating how much time she had. In her brainstorming stage— the part where she tried to figure out how to naturally corner Percy— she ended up pacing right outside of his barracks. Unfortunately for her, that's where he found her. The only lucky part of the whole thing was that Percy had been the first to arrive, probably in favor of finding his bunk before he joined the rest of his cohort in the bathhouse.
Mabel had been on her way to eroding her own straight line into the cobblestone from all her pacing, when suddenly she jolted from the low baritone of his voice.
"Uh, Mabel? Is that you?"
She jumped nearly a foot in the air like a frightened cat. Percy's eyes widened at the reaction, as if he'd been just as startled. Mabel tried to compose herself. "Percy! Hi!"
". . . Hi? If you're looking for Frank or Hazel I think they went to the bathhouse with the others—" Ah, so she had been right, then.
"No, actually, uh I was looking for you." She tried for a smile, but it was definitely more of a grimace. Gods, this was not going the way she had hoped.
"Oh." He said.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to corner you or anything— I just really really need to talk to you." She sighed, tone raw and strained, her exhaustion seeping into her speech, her accent thickening with it.
Thankfully, it seemed Percy was a sympathetic man. His stance became more open, relaxed— like her anguish had soothed his nerves— like it ensured she was only really here for help and not to try and duel him or something. "Is . . . everything ok?"
"Not really." She said, fiddling with the ears of the stuffed panda. "It, uh, hasn't really been ok for about 8 months now. But, I think you might be able to help me a little bit." She licked her lips to try and distract from the wavering of her voice.
"I'm really sorry, but if you're going to ask me if I've seen your missing praetor in my time out there, I haven't." He said.
It stung, really really stung, but she'd been expecting it. "That's . . . not great, I'll admit," she began, "but it's not really what I wanted to ask you about, anyway."
Before he could inquire further— or, gods forbid, deny her cry for help— Mabel thrusted the stuffed panda into his arms. "Here, I got a replacement for the one Octavian sent to Heaven earlier. Sorry about that, by the way. I figure y'all had traveled quite the distance together."
Miraculously, it didn't seem to weird him out. Actually, he seemed almost . . . touched. Running his fingers through the soft fur of the panda's head, Percy cleared his throat. "Thanks."
She nodded. "Of course."
An awkward silence lingered between them for a moment before Percy cleared his throat again. "So, what did you want to talk to me about?"
Sniffing, Mabel pushed her hair behind her ears. "Right! We may want to take a walk for this— so your bunk-mates don't come back in the middle of an odd conversation, that is. I'm sure we've both had enough of prying eyes to last us a lifetime."
"A walk? Won't you get in trouble for that?" He asked.
She shrugged. "What I need from you is much more important than whatever punishment I may receive later. 'Sides, if you're worried about your own fate, don't be— I've got seniority here." She showed him a glimpse of the 8 bars on her forearm before rolling the sleeve of Jason's sweater down. "I'll vouch for you, Jackson. No worries, this is worth cleaning the horse stables in the colosseum for."
He nodded slowly, clearing debating the ramifications of this in his head. Eventually, curiosity must have won out, because his last nod was assured— confident. "Ok, only if I get to ask you questions too, though."
"Done and done, sugar. Let's go." Turning on her heel, she began to start to follow the path that wound through the camp, but Percy stopped her.
"Wait," he whispered into the quiet of the night. "Can I drop off my bear first?"
Turning back, Mabel wordlessly took it from his hands. She opened the door to his barracks, pointedly ignoring Jason's old bunk as she walked over to Percy's. Quickly setting the panda bear down there, she rejoined him outside. "There. You'll recognize your bunk later by him sitting on it."
"Sweet." He murmured.
This time, as she started off, he fell into step by her side.
"Well do you want to ask a question first or can I?" Mabel began.
Percy shrugged. "You can go."
"Great." Taking a deep breath, she shoved her hands deep into the pockets of her shitty jorts. "Now, you don't have to get specific with me on this, but I just want to know. When you said you remembered nothing about your past, did you really mean nothing? Or is there something you remember that you've been holding back? You just have to say yes or no, you don't have to bear your soul to me, I promise."
He was quiet for about two minutes— though it felt like an eternity. Mabel remained quiet though, giving him the time he needed. If she was gonna keep him talking, she needed to do this on his terms, not hers.
Finally, he whispered. "Yeah. Yeah, I remember . . . something."
She heaved a great sigh of relief. Okay, good. Her theory hadn't been totally disproven, then. "Perfect. This something, is it good or bad? Like, is it something that makes you want to go back to where you came from?"
This time, he didn't hesitate. "More than anything."
Thank the gods, they were getting somewhere. "Alright then, so it's safe to assume you didn't run from home, then?"
Though she couldn't see his face, Mabel heard the frown in his voice. "No, I don't think that I did."
"Okay. Okay this is good. Would you go so far as to say that we could guess people are looking for you on your end, too?"
"Yeah, I think they might— wait, my end? What do you mean?"
It was Mabel's turn to go momentarily quiet now. Summoning all her courage, she stopped them both in their paths, this time facing Percy. The confusion that had been in his tone was now even more evident on his face.
"You have to promise you won't call me crazy for this."
Percy shrugged carelessly, like this had been her easiest request yet. "Sure, okay."
Shifting her weight, Mabel checked their surroundings again to ensure no one was near by. Satisfied, she leaned forward conspiratorially, lowering her voice. "I think that— I think your arrival here and Jason's disappearance may be related."
Not even bothering to mimic her attempt at discretion, Percy knit his eyebrows together, loudly commenting. "How? There's a pretty big time gap between the two, isn't there?"
Resisting the urge to violently shush him, Mabel huffed— mildly annoyed that he had found the biggest inexplicable component of her theory first. Regardless, she explained her reasoning to him. "I'm not so sure about that part either, I'll admit. But everything about . . . this has been far too bizarre to sweep under the rug as a coincidence, don't you think?"
There was a small bout of silence. Then, "Sorry, but you lost me."
Running a hand through her curls, Mabel looked over his shoulder to find that, ironically enough, the two had stopped right in front of Bombilo's shop. Motioning for him to follow, Mabel led Percy over to a table on the open patio of the store. It had long since closed, a strict curfew being maintained on camp grounds. Mabel settled into a chair, and Percy followed suite, slipping into the one across from her.
"Think about it. Jason, a son of Jupiter— one of the Big Three gods disappears. Then— yes, admittedly some great amount of time later, you show up. But you're a son of Neptune— another Big Three god. Now, I don't think either of us can vouch for your importance in your home. But I sure as hell know that Jason is mighty important 'round here, and his disappearance changed a lot of things for us.
"You come, with no memory, but with a goddess on your back. A goddess who drops you off right before mentioning that some big fight is supposed to happen during the feast later this week. Pretty timely, no? Suddenly, you're here now, and you're recognizing centuries old prophecies and commenting about oracles instead of augurs." She stops to breathe, not having realized how fast she had been talking. She probably did sound like Mad Mabel again. But this time she couldn't be bothered to care. For the first time in months, she finally felt like she was making headway on Jason's disappearance— like she wasn't stuck in the mud anymore.
"What I'm trying to say is, you remember a whole lot of weird shit for an amnesiac. Besides, don't think I haven't noticed this whole trend of the lares and Gods calling you graecus. There's something off about you being here, Percy, and I don't think it's on accident."
He's silent again, but only for a moment. Leaning back thoughtfully in his chair, he breathes, "Woah."
Mabel huffs. "Yeah. Woah."
"So, what, you think I may be able to summon Jason back here or something with our weird, uh, connection?"
She scoffed. "No, not at all. My bare bones goal here is to find out as much as I can about your circumstances. My hope is that I can reverse engineer my way from there to figure out where the fuck my boyfriend is."
He nodded, leaning forward again to rest his clasped hands on the table. His words came out soft, somewhat hesitant. "Do you think, with all that, you may be able to figure out how to get . . . me home?"
She sighed heavily, leg bouncing under the table. "I don't want to make you any promises I can't keep, Jackson." Despite her words, the beginnings of a smile were pulling at the corners of her mouth. "With that said, I sure do feel a hell of a lot more hopeful now than I did yesterday."
Silence lingers between the two for a moment as Percy mulled over her words. Though Mabel wasn't done with her own interrogation, she had made a promise. "I do believe you requested to ask me a few questions of your own?"
Percy nodded. "Yeah." Mabel motioned with her hand for him to continue. Shifting in his seat a little, Percy jutted his chin out, gesturing to her tattooed forearm. "Your tattoo, the grapes. That makes your parent Dionysus, right?"
She did her best to conceal her expression as she took note of his word choice. Dionysus. The Greek version— she tucked that away in her mind for later. "Bacchus, yes. God of fertility, wine, theater, and madness." She recited her list manually, having done it thousands of times through out her childhood.
"Do you have any cool powers?" He asked. Mabel nearly felt like laughing. Here she was grilling him about his past, and this was really the extent of his questions? She almost felt bad.
"Uh, somewhat. They're not much though." Scratching her temple lightly, Mabel rested her chin on her palm. "I can crank the fertility of any organism up way high or lessen it a lot. Helps with unicorn population control here at camp. Occasionally, on my weekends, I'll head into New Rome and kinda act as some people's birth control. Way less expensive and painful than getting your tubes tied or a vasectomy. Can grow grapevines like crazy, too. Happened at the temple, earlier. Not sure if you saw it before we left, though."
Though the information clearly took him by surprise, it became apparent that wasn't what he was prodding for. "Cool." A pause. "Do you have anything tied to the whole madness part of your dad's gig?"
She took great care in mentally wording her response. Finally, she answered. "It depends on what you mean. If you're asking if I can drive people crazy, then the answer is complicated." She paused for a moment, thinking again. "That said, I can detect if someone's brain is neurologically . . . different. Prone to seizures, afflicted with bipolar disorder, depression, or any sort of mental illness, and I can tell if I reach out and try and look. I don't ever look unless someone grants me permission, so I couldn't give you a comprehensive list of anyone who has those things. But there's that, too."
Percy nodded, confirming to Mabel that that had been the information he was looking for. "So," he began slowly, "if I asked you to look into my brain," he paused, licking his lips anxiously. "and try and see whats up with my memories, could you do that?"
Mabel blinked in surprise, a little taken aback by the request. Of course, it had crossed her mind to ask Percy to let her do it, but she'd never considered the idea seriously. It was a personal rule of hers, not to ask people for permission into their minds, that is. She always worried she would be unintentionally pressuring them into it, so she typically abstained altogether.
But for Percy to ask first, now that was an opportunity she was ready to seize. Though it had a rocky start, this conversation was going way better than she'd anticipated.
"Yeah, yes, of course. I'd be happy to try."
"Great. Wha— What do I need to do?"
"Just sit tight, sugar. I do all the work, you just get to sit there and look pretty."
Though she had closed her eyes in preparation, the silence from Percy's end of the table told her all she needed to know. Cracking one eye open, she saw him wearing his trademark bewildered expression again.
"Yes?"
"That's it? I just . . . sit here? You don't need to poke my head or anything?"
Mabel rose a brow. She had to give him credit where credit was due— that boy never hesitated to ask his questions. "Well, I'm not giving you a lobotomy. Just having a little looksie."
When she still hadn't yielded a response from him, Mabel tried again. "Think of this like an MRI scan. You don't feel anything. You just sit."
"Cool, okay. Just sit. No problem."
It turned out to be a problem.
For about two minutes, Mabel did her best to delve into his head. Unfortunately, it seemed his mind was incredibly tense. It took another two minutes for Mabel to realize that it was because he was literally putting all of his focus into sitting still.
Right. Demigods and ADHD. How could she forget.
Keeping her eyes closed, Mabel murmured. "Percy?"
"Yeah?" Came the whispered reply.
"It's not too vital to this operation that you actually sit still. Just try and relax. The tenser you are, the bigger the headache that I get."
"So, I can move?"
"Yes."
"But, I need to relax?"
"Yes."
"Right. Easy peasy."
This time, thankfully, he wasn't lying. With Percy free to fidget as much as necessary, things went much smoother.
Normally, when Mabel did things like this, she had to first peer through the fog of a person's short term memories before she could get to the more important ones. At the beginning, Mabel was fooled into thinking it would go the same way. Percy's short term memories were there— the specific directions to get to Jupiter's temple, Hazel's order from Bomblino's, the names of Reyna's dogs, for example.
But once she'd successfully navigated the fog, she hit a wall.
Literally.
In the space where larger memories were normally stored, a large obstacle stood in her way. Mabel subconsciously frowned. As carefully as possible, she teased the areas around the wall, trying to find weak spots or a smaller, more hidden way in. She couldn't tell how much time had passed since she started, but distantly, she could feel sweat beading her forehead.
She kept prodding, but it wouldn't give. Clearly, this wall had been set with the express intent that no one get through.
The only thing of value she'd been able to find had revealed itself to her within 30 seconds of her investigation. A name, and with it, memories.
Annabeth. A beautiful blonde girl with grey eyes and soft lips. In Percy's mind, she was laughing, planting small kisses on his face every time he said something stupid.
The phantom in his mind made her heart ache, causing her yearning for Jason to only grow more desperate.
Unable to continue any longer, she left from his mind hastily.