the great wave | percy jackson

𝑥𝑥𝑖𝑖𝑖 - asphodel

Ash wished Jason would stop staring at her because if she was being honest, she wasn't feeling very sympathetic towards him right now. In fact, she was feeling rather like taking him by the shoulders and shaking that marble-sized brain around his skull and screaming SNAP OUT OF IT!

Plus, she was a little self-conscious about her outfit. The shoes, she was okay with. Very happy with, actually, the gods seemed to like giving her nice sneakers whenever they chose her outfits. Then a pair of knit legwarmers, which she'd never worn before but found delightful, but that's where the comfortability stopped, essentially. Because under the legwarmers were thigh-high lacy socks held up by leather straps under the short silk slip Aphrodite had deemed 'not her color.' She was right, it was Ash's, and she'd been right about one other thing too, 'cuz Percy would love this. At least she was wearing Spandex, and a baggy t-shirt over the whole enterprise, plus a familiar zip-up black hoodie, but that smelled so painfully of her boyfriend that she was almost tempted to take it off (almost).

Thankfully Piper seemed about as uncomfortable, even though Ash thought she looked drop-dead gorgeous (clearly so did Jason, because she wasn't the only one getting the googly eyes). She was wearing the lace-edged linen off-white dress Aphrodite had approved of in her dream, a comfy-looking ski jacket with a really cool pair of tall designer boots, and carved wooden jewelry. Her makeup was done very lightly, tastefully, but judging by the slightly heavy feeling on Ash's face hers wasn't the same. Godsdamnit.

The boys looked nice, though. Jason was dressed simply in jeans and a purple sweatshirt with some kind of SPQR logo on it, which was making Ash uncomfortable for some reason. And Leo looked like he should be working in a Vans store or something, while Coach was all decked out in an earth-toned three-piece suit.

They were all sitting around a tile table outside that one place in Walnut Creek that served the sparkling coffee. The other four were discussing the plan for the next 24-odd hours, for rescuing Piper's father and hopefully Hera, about Enceladus and the looming threat of the Earth Mother on the horizon. But Ash stayed silent, sipping her iced latte, looking around at the bustling shopping center, taking in the familiar feel of the area she'd grown up in. As she examined the peak of Mount Diablo in the distance, covered in that classic California golden grass, dotted with grey-green trees and surrounded by other rolling hills, Ash thought about Pan.

If none of this existed, she thought, if this land was never stolen, Pan would still be alive. Nature would run its course, the earth's balance would be restored, and the thick layer of death and decay that rested over modern society would once more thin, would once more represent regrowth instead of extinction, as it did now. The world could still heal and grow back better than before.

Aphrodite had told her to do her duty. But what did that mean? What responsibility did she really have to Olympus? What had they ever done for her, besides meager repayment for blind loyalty and service? No, she didn't owe them anything. Wasn't her real duty to the Underworld, to Death, to safeguarding the balance of life itself?

What would it be like, she wondered, looking out over the hills, imagining a sleepy face looking back at her from them, if this world returned to its Mother? Would it really be all that bad? She thought it might be rather peaceful, actually...

Then she remembered what else Aphrodite had told her. It'd do you good to remember, Asphodel, that our aunt is not kind. And she thought about all the people she loved, all the lives that would be lost if the giants took over, and then she thought about Percy. It may have been incredibly selfish, but that last one made her decision easy. If she didn't cooperate, she didn't find Percy. Simple as that.

She was broken out of her thoughts by a large belch from Gleeson. Absentmindedly handing him a napkin, which he promptly ate, Ash focused on zoning back into the conversation. It didn't exactly matter, though, because she'd already missed most of it, except for the only question she needed to answer, really, courtesy of Coach Hedge himself: