So The competition that I'm doing (for details see Annabeth's Side chapter 5) inspired me to write a Paul Percy myself. We'll see how it goes ;)

August 25

Silence. Perhaps the occasional sound of someone chewing, but not a single word.

"So…. Percy…" Paul trailed off, trying to start a conversation. It was the first night they had had as a family since the war had ended, and although Paul knew about Percy's strange lifestyle, he hadn't truly believed in it until a few days ago. He couldn't seem to take his eyes off the boy now that he knew just how powerful he was. He didn't want to begin a conversation, but he knew he had to do it for Sally's sake. "So… Um… What's going on at camp?" he asked, dreading the answer.

Percy looked up, seeming just as awkward as Paul. "Well, it's been kind of hectic, actually. We've had demigods flooding in from everywhere, we're trying to build cabins and deal with traitor half-bloods. Annabeth is working on Olympus, I'm spending all of my time training newbies, and we have absolutely no idea where Nico is." Paul nodded, relaxed. So far, this conversation wasn't that bad. If you took it out of context and ignored the half-bloods and Olympus part, you could almost see it as a simple chat about a summer camp.

"Yeah… Unfortunately, we're having issues with this huge metal dragon that keeps terrorizing camp, setting tree nymphs on fire. We had a close call with Juniper, Grover's girlfriend. Not to mention that Nico's fancy fire on his cabin almost burned it all down… Would have, too, if it weren't made completely out of obsidian. I almost got stabbed in the foot yesterday since some idiot newbie dropped their sword in training and I was only protected by my curse," he said, shaking his head. "Not to mention the Drakon that keeps patrolling the outside of camp. It can't come in because of the barriers, but it is there, and it's making it difficult to let satyrs come and go with new demigods." He laughed, smiling. "Clarisse has got her work cut out for her. It seems she's in the bathroom dunking some poor kids head in a toilet every second of the day…" Percy stopped so he could continue eating. The awkward silence ruled again.

"Well that's… interesting. You said you're building new cabins?" Paul asked, twirling his food around his fork.

"Yep," Percy replied. "It's for all of the minor gods. Their being left out is what started this war in the first place. That was my wish instead of immortality; that the major gods would honor the minor ones, and their children."

Paul stared. "Instead of… what?"

"Oh, yeah," he said, "I don't think I ever did mention that to you, not that I would have any reason to. The gods granted me one wish, the obvious choice asking for godhood, but I declined." He continued eating as if this was perfectly normal.

Paul almost choked. "My step son… offered immortality?"

"Yeah," Percy said, "what's so weird about that?"

"Do you deal with this every day?" Paul asked Sally cautiously. She just grinned. "Well then."

Silence.

"The Giants are playing well, aren't they?"

So, I know Paul really liked the whole myth thing, but think about it, the first conversation is going to be a bit hard to work with. It was harder to write at least 500 words with this idea than I thought, most of my chapters I get over 1000 easily…