Greeking Out and more

Greeking Out

AN: This fic's set before the Titan War ended and before Jason became a praetor. I've tried to write him the way I think he could have acted when he was slightly younger and a little less mature than we see him in The Lost Hero, and more confident with all his memories intact.

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It's going to be about this Spartan king who was exiled," Jason told his friends excitedly. "I just read about it in War Magazine Monthly, in their 'Must See Movies' section. We're going."

Most of his friends gave him tolerant smiles, used to his action movie obsession. Bobby, however, full out grinned. "I'm in."

Gwendolyn shook her head, looking rueful. "Are you sure this is a good idea? You remember what happened last time you got this excited about a war movie?"

"A Greek war movie," specified Dakota, simultaneously shuddering and smirking at the memory.

"Of course we remember," said Bobby, still grinning. "Why do you think I'm so excited about this new one?"

"Okay," said Gwen, "we all know for Bobby it's more about trying to make Octavian go off the deep end -"

"Literally," muttered Dakota.

"But for Jason . . . I still don't get why he gets so excited about these things."

"The Spartan king, Pleistonanax, is in exile because he was accused of taking bribes from the Athenians to retreat against them after a battle. But he didn't. He just wanted peace, and got suitable surrender terms so he took them, but you remember what Spartans are like from all those other movies I drug you to," said Jason. "So Pleistonanax went into exile. But then the Oracle of Delphi gave an augury saying they needed to bring him back or else they would all die, so he came -"

"You got all this just from a quarter page preview out of War Magazine Monthly?" asked Gwen.

Jason blinked at her. "No. They just wrote that the exiled Spartan king Pleistonanax was returning to save Sparta. I got all the background information from history books."

"But they don't teach Greek history in our courses," said Sampson, a relatively new member of the legion.

"Which is a mistake," said Jason. "I get that they don't like the Greeks, even though what happened at Troy is ancient history. But to completely ignore a civilization that had one of the greatest militaries of the ancient world, just because they don't like them is stupid."

"Jason's kind of a geek when it comes to Greek history," Gwen told Sampson.

"And Greek war movies."

"Or any sort of war movie."

"But the Greek ones are the most fun," said Bobby, smirking.

"Why?" asked Sampson. "If you don't like the Greeks -"

"I don't dislike the Greeks," said Jason. "Why should I? They've never done anything to me."

"But if the camp as a whole doesn't like them, why do you make such a big deal about liking them?" Sampson wanted to know.

Jason opened his mouth to speak, but Bobby cut him off.

"Jason's about to give his big spiel about letting bygones be bygones, and deciding for ourselves who our enemies are, rather than letting ancient traditions dictate them," he said. "And it's a good speech, full of valid points, it really is. But there's another reason to so loudly advocate and advertize Greek war movies, and that is because it annoys the crap out of Octavian.

Octavian stood with perfect posture, hands spread outwards, ready to make his declaration. "I have read the entrails. The auguries proclaim -"

"Tristan McLean was just cast as King Pleistonanax!"