Olympus - The Throne Room

The Parthenon of the gods was once again slowly filling up for the upcoming council meeting. Inside the marble and gold walls you could find numerous gods already lounging in their thrones waiting for the last few stragglers to catch up. At the head of the council table sat the king and queen of the gods, the former leaning forward in his platinum throne using the master bolt to pick a piece of steak out of his teeth while the later sat up straight sorting through a file of unknown contents with a wide grin on her face which unnerved the rest of the occupants slightly, not that that would be noticed from observing their positions.

Around the U shaped table there was most of the council waiting for the final few members to arrive. The table itself was a new concept introduced by Athena as a way to organise documents as well as look more intimidating when demigods were present, not that it was being used for either purposes at current acting more as an oversized footrest than anything else. To Zeus's right, Poseidon was leaning precariously back in his old fishing chair throne balancing on the back two legs with his sandals resting on the edge of the table. Besides him the empty throne of Apollo followed by the crouching figure of Ares who was absentmindedly sharpening his spear out of boredom. Next to him Hephaestus sat tinkering away with a small metallic bird releasing it briefly before summoning it back to his hand for him to tinker with once more. Then came Hermes who was lying parallel to the edgy of the table, legs dangling over the armrest of his throne looking at his phone scrolling through social media posts. It was obvious the throne was stolen due to the emblems that clearly show it used to belong to the British royal family, but who were they to complain? On the very end of the male side Hades sat on his stone guest seat looking through what appeared to be tax records but were actually those marking where each soul was in the underworld, being the god of the dead had a lot of paperwork.

On the other side of the table besides Hera sat Demeter who was glaring at Hades while sharpening her scythe, still not over persephone. To her left was Artemis who was leaning back into her throne with boots on top of the table resting her injured leg while absent munching on the apple Percy had given her upon exiting the arena supersized to accompany her godly form. Her throne unlike her brothers was not made of a solid precious metal but instead was made out of the roots of a mountain which had been trapped in the heart of an oak tree, while it sounded uncomfortable the goddess was rather fond of her unique design. Besides her Athena sat straight up in a business suit much like her fathers reading through a few phd papers she had to mark from her class at Harvard, however unlike her fathers her throne was not nearly as impressive being nothing more than a scaled up office chair, functional but dull. Next to her was the much more flamboyant Aphrodite who was doing her makeup in a rather revealing carnival dress, obviously having been celebrating a festival of some sort prior to the sudden non emergency meeting. And on the last remaining throne made of solid vines sat Dionysus reading a grape magazine looking like he wanted to be anywhere but here. In the centre sat Hestia within the hearth which was burning steadily as she telepathically communicated to bessy. This was about as formal as pre council meetings got.

Finally the sun god decided to grace the council with his presence, his previous occupation clear by the state he was in. Shirt untucked with buttons done up in the wrong order, jeans on back to front and with lipstick smeared all over the gods face, it was clear he had been getting lucky before being called back to his job by his stepmother. Rolling their eyes at the gods antics the rest of the gods put away their respective distractions as the council meeting began. Slamming the master bolt down on his reinforced armrest causing thunder to boom overhead signaling the start of another council meeting. Everyone turned to Zeus expecting him to begin a rant only for him to turn to his wife waiting for an explanation.

"Thank you all for coming here on such short notice," the queen of the heavens began only for a collective eye roll from the Olypians and a hurry up gesture from her husband who clearly hated these meetings as much as everyone else. "Well as you all clearly don't want to be here I'll get straight to the point. Can someone get Perseus Jackson here?"

"Did you really call an Olympic council meeting just to ask to talk to a single demigod?" Artemis responded incredulously, her opinion clearly shared by a number of her peers judging from the collective grumbling.

"Of course not dear, he is just subject to what we are to discuss. So is the apple which Artemis is eating." The queen replied obscurely not wanting to give anything away just yet.

Seeing as this wasn't going to get anywhere quickly without the demigod and to avoid an argument breaking out quickly called out to Hermes. "Son go get the brat so we can get this damned meeting over with."

"Sure thing, pops..." The messenger god said slightly confused why the boy was needed but he wanted to get this over as much as anyone else so did as he asked. Whipping his phone out he tapped in the demigod's number and hit call. Noticing the looks he was getting the god put his hands up in defence. "What? I can't be arsed to go pick him up."

"Well at least put him on speakerphone then," the Lord of the Seas told the messenger god while rolling his eyes for the umpteenth time in the last 5 minutes. Doing as instructed Hermes tapped the speaker symbol before chucking his cadeus onto the ginormous mahogany table, leaning back in his throne as he did so. "Lazy messenger gods."

Ignoring his uncles scathing remark the god of thieves just listened to the phone vibrate for a fifth time before an actual response came. However what was unusual about it was the sound of metal clashing together and some background interference from another party who's words couldn't quite be made out. "Sup Herm'. What do you need?" Was the slightly out of breath greeting the Saviour of Olympus gave to his far older cousin. "I'm presuming this isn't a social call."

"Unfortunately not Perseus, your presence has been requested on Olympus." The messenger god announced though his tone made it sound as if he really couldn't care less if he came or not. "Her majesty, the Queen requests it."

What came as a reply was a low groan from their saviour which made Hera frown slightly at the reaction before instantly returning to a triumphant grin as she remembered the nature of this meeting. "What does that Bit- one second." Percy began before abruptly stopping with an immediate silence followed by an almighty crash coming from the other end of the line which caused many raised eyebrows from the council members, "As I was saying, what does her Majesty want now?"

"I have no idea she hasn't said," the god of lies replied truthfully, before asking the question that was on most of the gods minds, a couple of them not even paying attention to the conversation, "Though I am intrigued what could be more important than an Olympic council summons."

"Great more secrets," The demigod grumbled while the rhythmic tapping suggested that he had begun walking somewhere. "Oh, the crash you mean? That was just Thalia being kicked through a weapon rack, nothing of importance."

This caused many of the younger generation Olympians to snicker at their younger siblings pain, while Hera and Poseidon chuckled at the expense of their niece Artemis winced slightly having recently felt the damage one of Perseus's kicks could cause. Zeus on the other hand was fuming, "And why tell me, BOY, has my daughter been kicked across an Arena?"

"Is it me or did I just hear your father on the line?" The son of the sea asked with a bit of brief background interference coming through once more before he responded to it and by the sounds of it walked away from the daughter of Zeus judging from the distant screaming and steady foot fall.

"Oh, yeah. I forgot to mention you're on speakerphone." Hermes answered chuckling at the annoyed grumbles which followed. Sounded like a couple of choice words directed at the messenger god.

"Well if you must know Zeus , me and Thalia were having a spar when you lot called and you know how your children are, unable to not be the centre of attention. Yeah well she didn't like being ignored so she tried to rush me and thus was put across the arena at high velocity. Besides it's not the first time this happened today, am I right Mi'lady?" The demigod replied, voice dripping with sarcasm throughout his little monologue. Unfortunately this had struck a nerve with the few of the council members seeing the colour that Ares, Athena and Zeus had gone all clenching their teeth and trying to resist the urge to smite the insolent brat. They were drowned out however by the roaring laughter being emitted by the other two members of the big three who were clutching their stomachs and slamming their fists to the table repeatedly at the bold exclamation, even Artemis, Apollo and Hermes chuckled with the joke knowing the truth behind it. Mr D and Demeter weren't playing the blindest bit of attention instead reading their magazines in hope it would be over soon.

"Be that as it may Perseus, how is your arm doing? Still got a hole in it?" The goddess retorted knowing the answer from the knives she used to make the incision.

Despite her remark the demigod merely chuckled before responding likewise, "Yup still there, though it stitched up nicely, going to leave a nice scar. How's your leg by the way? Able to walk again?" Showing the boy could match her both with blades and words if need be. Unfortunately this brought her some unwanted attention from her twin who immediately began questioning her health while the boy's father was more concerned with the fact his son had a hole in him.

"What does she mean son?" Poseidon inquired glaring at the goddess in question for harming his son. Unfortunately she was too busy trying to fend off her fretting brother to notice her uncle's despise.

"Don't worry Dad it's just a flesh wound from the match, anyway I'm on my way. Blackjack, Olympus as soon as possible and no we can't get donuts on the way..." Was the response they got before the connection was cut leaving the demigods call details with a picture of the bird as the caller ID.

Summoning his symbol of power back to his pocket the god of thieves returned to his back pocket before returning his attention to his thoroughly pissed off father, "He's on his way."