The Helot Manifesto (a Jasper AU)

If You Want Love, Get a Dog

"Leo, are you alright?" Jason asked.

It was a month after Calypso had left and Leo still seemed different. It was hard to describe. He still joked and laughed, but his eyes looked hollow. He was trying to put on a brave face and make others happy, but both Piper and Jason were worried about him.

Piper stepped forward and gave Leo his bowl of dinner. She kneeled down and placed one hand on his left shoulder. "We're worried about you."

"What is there to worry about?" Leo asked. "I'm the same Bad Boy Supreme as always."

Jason and Piper exchanged glances. "You've been mumbling in your sleep about navigating to Argos," Piper said.

Leo's face heated up like metal under the influence of fire. "Who are you, my mom? Cause last time I checked, you were not. I appreciate your concern, but it's unnecessary."

"Talking about it might help," Jason said.

Leo raised his eyebrows dramatically, waving his hands in a flourish as if he was an actor in a tragedy. "I see it, now. The stoic who never speaks of his past wants me to share my emotions."

Jason groaned. "I am not a stoic."

"No, you kind of are," Piper said.

"Pipes," Jason said, "you're not helping."

      "Pipes?" Leo said. "That's new."

Jason turned to Leo. "How about this? If you open up, then I'll tell you about my past."

Leo looked at him for several moments and then nodded. "Well, I'm listening, Clio, so recite your history."

    Jason sighed and took a sip of wine. "I suppose it begins with my birth," he said. "My father, Zeus, was a powerful man in Athens. He  was a general when I was born. He was married, but like many Athenian men, he took lovers. My mother was one of them."

"Why don't Athenians just marry who they like?" Piper asked.

Jason sighed. "Marriage is political currency in Athens. Women have little say in it."

     "And they call themselves the enlightened ones of Greece," Leo said.

    Jason threw him a look. "That's enough of your social commentary."

     "I'll only be quiet if you continue the tale," Leo said.

     "My mother is an educated courtesan," Jason said. "She can speak multiple languages, sing like a Muse, and play the lyre like Apollo. I was her second child with Zeus. Her first was my older sister Thalia, who was seven when I was born. Hera has not given Zeus any sons, so he recognized my sister and I as his children. I always knew, growing up though, that if Hera ever gave him a son, I'd be shoved aside."

Jason turned to look at Leo. "Is that enough of my life story for you?"

Leo shook his head. "If you want me to tell some melodramatic tale of my unrequited love for Calypso, then you'd better add more emotion to your story."

Jason looked down at his hands. Thinking of the past was painful because it had all been snatched away from him so swiftly. He took a shuddering breath and continued, "My father gained more and more power. He essentially became a tyrant, but he was popular with the people. He used his own money up to build a navy, sponsor the Dionysia, and repair temples. It wasn't enough, though. At the Dionysia last year, my father was attacked by assassins and killed."

His voice shook and Piper put a hand gently on his shoulder. He swallowed down the weighty stone of grief that had built up in his throat. "I only survived because they thought I wasn't worth killing."

That painful admission finally drew tears from him. He often wished they had slain him instead of leaving him to live with the shame. Deep shuddering gasps left his throat and convulses of grief wracked his body. Piper put both arms around him, rocking him steadily and singing like a nurse might do to her charge. Her voice was soothing, but it took awhile for Jason to stop crying — so long had he been stoic in the face of hardship that the release was not instantaneous.

"Well," Leo said. "Maybe my woeful tale will soothe your heart or at least distract you."

Leo stood up and plucked the strings of an imaginary lure. "Oh Muses," he began. "Sing the tale of godlike Leo who endured much for the love of a slender-ankled maiden."

Piper laughed and even Jason smiled, though his face was still wet with tears. Leo went on to tell, in Homeric terms, of how he and Calypso had grown close during the time they spent building the ship together. "It was like Cypris herself ordained the task," he sang at one point.

Leo concluded the tale by expressing lamentations at Calypso's absence. "I wish I could be her husband."

"You two would have cute kids," Piper agreed.

Leo sighed. "Alas, it seems that Aphrodite does not favor me."

"I wouldn't say that," Jason said. "You can find love."

Leo raised both eyebrows. "And how is that?"

Jason smiled slowly. "Simple: we'll get you a dog."