Perseus’s vision went from black to color as a picture formed. It was Percy, sitting upon a metal throne in blue regal looking clothes. He looked much older than he does now. “This again?” Percy thought. Percy has had this crappy dream regularly. “Is this really something I fear so much? Coming into power and that power corrupting me. Somehow without seeing him act, I know this other me is a tyrant.” The dream will shift and fade soon. It never lasts long. … Wait… he’s sitting up. He’s been expecting someone, it seems they are here. This room seems different somehow. Is that septer a Trident now?” The trident in his hand is blue, and bladed. As much a war ax as a trident.
A woman walks in cloaked in a purple hood. A golden serpent around her right arm, leading to finger blades. Her hair is white, with a slightly violet tint. Her skin is fair, her eyes a brilliant hazel. The older Percy speaks out to the woman. “I’ve been expecting you, Hacate. You left me waiting far too long.” “Hacate?” the observer Percy thought. “Like the goddess of magic? Great, the day’s craziness has seeped into my dream. The woman, Hacate, then responded. “I’ll end your tyranny today, Lord Yates. The world will be free of you.” He simply smiled a wicked smile and said “Yes, it will. And after today, this world will truly be godless.”
Everything faded to black, time for this dream was up. Eventually morning came and Percy slowly got out of bed, wearing pajamas. He grabs clean clothes, and heads to the bathroom. After a quick shower, he changes into his clean clothes putting the pajamas in a hamper. He then brushes his teeth and washes his mouth with mouthwash then with water before making breakfast. Bacon; spiced with ‘steak seasoning’. Eggs; scrambled, cooked in the seasoned grease, and topped with a bit of sriracha sauce. He eats his meal in peace, and just as he has finished… Neptuna appears before him before he has even had a chance to put away dishes. “Hello Perseus. Wasn't sure when I should speak up.” Percy sighs before responding. “I was really hoping that yesterday was one of my wacky dreams.”
“About that.” She starts “What the hell was that even about?” Percy puts his dish in the sink. “Nothing, just my weird brain doing weird shit in my sleep.” There is a long pause in conversation as Percy does the dishes. “So now what?” he asks “Where do we go from here?” Neptuna thinks for a bit, she has had to explain this a number of times. It doesn't get easier.
“Uhh….” she clears her throat “Long ago at the end of the Age of Gods, worship started to decline. We knew our power would fade and in time we would either become mortal or simply fade from existence. In the end, the four great pathions all decided to take drastic measures. Each god took their divine essence, and put them into weapons. These weapons would then bind to a mortal. If we find one compatible enough we can ascend back into godhood.” Neptuna took a brief pause. Percy takes this time to talk and pitch in. “You brought up the weapon before. A trident right? Makes sense. So where is it?” Neptuna was somewhat surprised that was Percy’s focus and not the ‘become a god’ stuff. She only hesitated a bit before responding. “It's a part of you, you should be able to just bring it out whenever you want.”
Percy took some time to process this before putting his shoes on. “Where are you going?” Neptuna asked Percy. “I’m going for a walk. Going to find a nice secluded place and figure out what we can do together.” Neptuna’s mind races for a second as thoughts echo “(A secluded place to find out what we can do together.) (do together) (together, alone, in a secluded place)” She blushed lightly as she tried to shake the thoughts. “(Is this because he said he found me attractive? I shouldn't be thinking like this. Besides, even if that was what he wanted it wasn't even possible. I don’t even have a physical body.)”
She floats at his side in silence for a while as Percy walks. Her efforts to focus on what Percy is up to are interrupted by another question from him. “So… Can other people see you?” she responded quickly, almost like a knee jerk reaction. “No, not even other Deus Armatus users can see me. In fact you’ll have no way of knowing if they are one unless they use their power.” Percy thought to himself. “(That could be an issue. What if someone found me out and came after us? I’d have no idea until I was attacked.)” “That’s kinda concerning. I could be ambushed if I’m not careful.” Neptuna pitched in “You got to be careful when using your powers to not be seen. I mean if one normal person sees it no one would believe them even if they remembered, but other people with Armatus might come after you. Over grudges from their weapon, to be the first and only to ascend to godhood, preemptively in the fear you are after them. So yeah, be careful.” Percy continued his line of thought. “(Does the government know about this? It's hard to believe this has been going on for years without someone taking a picture or getting hard evidence. Even if everyone was careful, a son of some general or someone in the army could be chosen and they would not be able to deny it. Even if the general populace doesn't know, there could be a government task force. So people with powers is not my only worry if I’m exposed.)” It was almost like Neptuna could feel his concern. “You should keep this a secret, even from Victor.” Percy simply nodded in agreement. At least for now, it was best not to tell anyone.
Perseus finds a nice spot in the woods after a bit of a jog from his home. “No one should spot us here.” he proclaims, as he unzips a blue colored light hoodie and hangs it on a branch. He then takes off his blue shirt to reveal a white tank top under it. “W-what are you doing?” Neptuna asks, a bit of a blush forming on her face. “Well it's kinda hot out and I’m assuming using these powers will work up a sweat.” Percy responds as he hangs his shirt up with the hoodie. Percy tries to focus and puts out his hand. “(Just… do what comes naturally)” he thought to himself before shouting out. “Come forth, Trident of the Sea God, Neptuna!” The trident appears in his hand. Its whole body is blue in color, the head is just as much like that of an ax as it is a trident. A blade all around three sharp points of metal. It looks just like the one in his dream last night. Percy tries not to think of that. “That was easy enough. So my powers are water and ice right?”
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Neptuna replies “Our powers, yes. Every Deus Armata can use one or two different magic energy types from a possible eight. There are a few exceptions, but let's not get into that now.” Percy knew the energies as soon as she said there were eight. “Water, fire, wind, earth, light, darkness, lightning, and ice.” he stated out loud. He’s played enough games to be familiar with that kind of set up. Percy practices with the trident for a bit before trying to combine the attacks with his powers. It was much easier to bring forth the water and ice and more powerful than what he could use just the other day. The energies coming out of the weapon as he uses it.
“This is surprisingly easy to do. The trident is lighter than it looks so it's not that hard to move it around and attack with it.” Percy exclaimed. Neptuna takes note of his form and stance. “You've used a spear before?” she asked. “I used to play around with foam weapons and I did take a few martial arts classes as a kid. Though I was always better at archery, I still didn't do bad. Kinda had to give those things up. I mean I could pick it up again since I work from home now.”
There is a brief pause before he starts talking again. “I’m not getting as tired as fast as I normally do. I’m not exactly an athlete.” Neptuna almost forgot to bring that part up. “Oh yeah. People who we soulbind to are brought to perfect health. Muscles are toned a bit as well.” Percy looked himself over a bit, just now noticing his physique. He used to be so spindly. People would call him scarecrow, skeleton, and other such names. Tall, pale, scrawny. He had muscle, but not much minus his legs. Now he was muscular like a proper martial artist. “I didn't even notice.” he flexes a bit. Was the trident really lighter then, or him stronger?
“What do you think, Neptuna?” he asks, still looking himself over. “I used to be a skeleton… Am I sexy now?” Percy seemed to genuinely be asking. Was he that self conscious? Neptuna also wasn't sure how to even respond to that. With a light blush she simply says “You looked just fine the way you were before.” This response did not seem to sit well with Percy. He scowled lightly before lifting up the trident.
“I think that’s enough fooling around. It’s time for the real deal.” he then lifts up the trident and swings it down with as much force as he can muster, putting as much energy through it as he can. “Take this!” Percy yells enthusiastically for no reason as he swings the trident down. A torrent of water and ice cutting outward taking out all the trees twenty feet in front of him in a line and leaving a scar in the ground. Even rocks were cut and smashed in its wake. Percy is both surprised and impressed at what he has just done. “Holy shit! Okay, yeah. I can get used to this. If this is where I’m at with no training, then I wonder just how far I can go.” Percy eclames.
Neptuna feels the need to interrupt. “Keep in mind I chose you. If I feel we won’t be compatible, I can leave at any time. The moment I don’t think we can ascend together, I’m out. This is going to be a team effort. We must be in harmony and have unity in order for this to work. Training alone will only do so much.” Percy seemed to understand immediately, but his choice of words, as always, made it hard to focus on the endgame goal of this union. “So the better our bond, the stronger we get? Alright Neptuna, let's get to know one another and work to strengthen our bond. Let’s do it, together.” he reaches out his hand to Neptuna’s, likely to shake it to seal this ‘deal’ of theirs.
She goes to do so with a blush but her hand just passes right through. The red on her cheeks immediately fades from her face as the reminder that she has no body and can’t actually touch him hits hard. Never before has the absence of touch been this sorely missed. Even the simple gestures of shaking hands, of holding hands, were outside the realm of possibility for her.
“Oh, right, you’re not actually even there.” Percy says. “It’s a weekend, so we have all today and tomorrow to work on training and building our bond.” Neptuna was still looking at her hand when Percy’s voice shook her from her train of thought. “R-right. Let’s work hard and hope this odd start doesn't hinder moving forward.” “(I’m supposed to be his teacher, a guide and a friend who shows him how to use his powers and helps him on his way. Then if we are compatible enough then we would become one person and that one would essentially be reborn as a new god. That’s what I should be, a friend and mentor. Nothing more.)”
Neptuna tried her best to simply be out of the way as Perseus trained physically and in channeling water and ice through his body and his weapon. Not like his attacks could hurt her or anything, but she felt kinda awkward trying to talk to him now. This wasn't like any pairing she had before, but maybe that was a good thing. Her plan had been to bond early when he was really young and mold him from youth. The point was to try something different. This was definitely different. Every so often she would give him a pointer on stance and movements here and there. “You've got to flow more from movement to movement, like water. Then come down hard like ice. Move like the power that runs through you.” “Through us.” Percy corrects.
Seems accepting that it was a ‘we’ and not an ‘I’, that this was a team effort, was really easy for him to do. She’s had issues before, with egotistical people that insist the power belongs to them and the weapon is property they own. Her thought is both broken and continued by the next thing Percy says. “So how many people have you been with? I mean the age of gods was thousands of years ago. That’s a lot of failed attempts.” Neptuna was a bit surprised at this, but hesitated. A bit distracted by his wording. “Actually we only became as we are a few hundred years ago. Around the wild west era of America in the eighteen hundreds. And you’ll be attempt number… ten? It’s not like I keep track of my failures.”
Percy understood this. No one liked admitting to or keeping track of when they failed. “So I noticed you live in a two bedroom home but you live alone. Do you even have any family?” Neptuna felt odd asking this. She’s technically been with him his entire life, but knew so little. “Yeah. Two parents, both alive. Mom… She has Delirium. Barely remembers who she is half the time. Dad took it hard. I have a sister and two brothers. Liberty is the oldest of us, strong and independent. She’s the manager at one of those health supplement places. She’s got four kids. Theseus is a mechanic, and was always good with his hands. Also has four kids. My other brother Chrysaor is… I’d rather not talk about him.” such a big family. Still does not clear up the second bedroom. Maybe a family member used to live with him. Best to leave it alone for now. After a nice day's work out the pair go home.
Percy makes a quick meal and goes to bed. A sigh leaves him as he changes into pajamas. Tonight he would likely dream again. At least it’ll be awhile before he has that tyrant dream again. “Don’t bother me in my dream unless I call on you.” Percy instructs “I at least need a small break.” She asked no questions. She simply hovered at his bedside till he dozed off before fading once more.