A Tale of M.A.S

By: Ender (talk)

(Link in case I forget to update here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PS\_uzHu4Falxxzdu5znQQ-UHwDTlcx0q-ift0\_4XoXM/edit?usp=sharing

https://wattpad.com/story/222936138)

## M.A.S

Where to begin...[long pause] Ah, that's a good spot.

So I'm--you know what, you'll find out.

So anyway, I'm sitting in my cabin, and that is of course cabin 6, or Athena cabin, with some of my brothers and sisters, when all the sudden a vision of a...a...potato-man pops up. I hit my head, which cleared it up, and I fell on my bed. A few minutes later, one of my sisters entered. I recognized her as Mia Pallas. We had exchanged only a few words before so I basically knew her name. Anyway, I opened the door to get me some food. I must not have been paying attention, because instead of being in the Mess Hall, I was in a forest. In all directions there were the noises of civilization. Not possible. I was at Long Island which is far from any big cities. I walked forward to investigate, and saw this huge city, bigger than New York and stretched out as far as the eye can see. There was one building that stood out from the rest, so as anyone who had been mysteriously abducted, I went in that direction.

Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that this place was futuristic? Like something out of a Warhammer 40,000 game, but I wouldn't know (as I've played one). When I got closer I saw the potato-man. Another vision overcame me, and I was back at Camp, lying in my bed. Weird dream. All of the sudden my brain started hurting. Now generally this was normal because of the thousand plus thoughts that circulate in my head daily, but this was different. It felt like something was burning itself in my brain. I had another vision of the potato-man, and did a quick scribble of him. A scribble became a sketch, and a sketch a drawing. It took me...oh 10 hours? Doesn't matter, as I barely sleep. I need something like 4 hours and I'm good.

As I laid in bed, I tried to conjure an image of the city again. It wasn't long before I fell asleep. It's the only way for me to dream and fall asleep. I have to make up something, then make an image of it in my mind to trick it into thinking I'm dreaming, therefore it needs to shut down. Enough about sleep. I woke up 3 feet in the air. "Ow!" I complained as I came back to Earth, or what thought was Earth. Standing to the left of me was the infamous potato-man.

It seemed me falling out of nowhere interrupted a conversation between him and some apparition. He had the Elfish looks of a son of Hermes. Why would a son of Hermes be here? Same reason I'm here I guess. He seemed to be eating a golden banana. Must hurt his teeth.
I sat up and rubbed my back. I pushed my hands into my back, causing it to crack, then I rotated it, and it popped some more. I stood up, and took a good look at the two, while the potato-man (let's call him the spud) called security. I looked at him confused. Two people came from behind me, and cuffed me. They took me to the building I had seen earlier on my first teleport.

The two led me to the entrance and proceeded to frisk me. They found my drawing of the spud, some lint, my two daggers (I always have 'em on me), and a couple Drachma and dollars, and my silver chess piece. They threw the weapons, chess piece, and drawing on an evidence table.

"What are these?" One of them asked.

"Mortal Cash, and Drachma." I responded

"What is a Drachma?" They asked

"Uh...a golden coin...from Greece..."

"What is a 'Greece?'"

"Er...nowhere"

"Hmph".

They threw that on the table and led me to a...throne room?

"Emperor Potatocis will be in soon."

The two guards moved to the side of the throne. I began to work on my cuffs, though they were unlike anything I had ever seen or felt. There was a sudden sucking popping noise and the spud appeared on a golden throne.

"Emperors Potatocis, Lord of Dawi and Spuds!" A man from the side said.

The people in front of the spud kneeled, though I did not follow suit. The apparition appeared once again, watching from the shadows. There was also another presence in the air, though I could not identify it.

"Who are you and what is your purpose here? Speak!" His voice was very commanding, as an emperor's should be.

"Er...what kind of name is Potatocis?" I commented.

I got some distasteful looks from the others. Instead of saying anything, I looked around the room. It was mostly made of gold. I hate gold. It's too... Perfect? It disgusts me every time I look at it and I don't know why. The emperor teleported to the evidence table, where he found my daggers. He picked them up and studied them.

"Here to assassinate me, are you?"

"I don't even know who you are!"

He looked back at the evidence table, and spotted the drawing of him. He picked it up and showed it to me.

"Don't know who I am, eh?"

"Er...If I draw something I saw in a dream, it doesn't mean anything."

Just then, I had another headache/vision thing. I put my hand to my head, and a few seconds later, it cleared up. It seems I had teleported again. This time I was out by the mess hall, but it was night. When I had gone there, it had been a day. Hm. Well anyways, I was hungry. Not eating in a day and a half does that to you. I sat down with the rest of the Athena cabin after grabbing my food, and sacrificing a portion to the gods. After finishing, Chiron called everyone to the campfire for the sing-along. I chose to skip it, and went back to cabin 6. Apparently I was not alone. Mia had also skipped out on it.
Back at the cabin, I had another headache. They were getting worse every time. As if my brain was trying to be in two places at once. As it cleared up, there was another vision, this time of a tater tot-man. I tried for 15ish minutes to get it out of my head, but it wasn't going anywhere. On top of that, it was making my headache worse. Mia asked if I was okay, and I responded in a somewhat pained voice with "Yeah."

I palmed my head, and grabbed some paper. I took a sketch of the tater-tot, and the vision started going away. I resumed it, and it became like the 'Emperors Potato, Lord of Dawi and Spuds' one. I kind of mocked the guy in my mind as I was thinking that. At least now I know how to get rid of the headaches. Over time the drawing evolved into a fully formed tater-tot man. While I was drawing, Mia would occasionally ask what I was doing. I'd show it to her, and she wouldn't laugh for some reason. I would’ve. So anyway, I hung it up, and crumpled it in my pocket. Not the best of places for it, but well, why leave it out in the open for people to look at?

Shortly before I fell asleep, Chiron came in. I had missed the campfire, breakfast, and more importantly Archery. I never miss Archery. I told him I was fine, and that I had a really, really bad headache, which was the truth. As he left, I was alone in the cabin finally (Mia had left some time ago) and ready to sleep, though it was morning. As I closed my eyes, I felt my stomach get left behind in New York. This time, I had appeared on a high building, dangling just off the edge. I sighed. No sleep for me.

I climbed up, as you do when you're dangling like 300 feet in the air. I expected to meet with the Apparition and The Emperor again, seeing as how the last two times I had appeared in close proximity to them. But I was met with a different sight. It was this weird...well I don't know how to describe it. It was a creature. There was no better description. It was like a projection--not like a ghost or anything. He gestured for me to talk to him, and I instinctively reached for my daggers. My hands met with empty air. I pulled my hands out of the sheaths and came closer.

As I came closer, I realized this was the other presence in the air when I was being 'judged'. The creature whispered something, or maybe he didn't talk at all, but his lips were moving. I could make out a h and me. Probably help me. Suddenly, bars flashed into existence, and he was sitting on a chair that looked quite comfortable, forced to a tv that was playing tele-tubbies on a loop. He let out an inaudible scream as another episode began with the theme song. Good lord that seemed like torture. I walked forward in an attempt to free him from his prison, but as I tried to slide through the prison bars, the room shimmered and disappeared. Well that was interesting.

I found my way to a door with stairs leading down to ground level. Perfect. As I reached the 4th floor, I could hear marching from the outside. Not perfect. I carefully went down the last few levels, and put my back to the doorway wall. I leaned out, and saw a parade of some kind, complete with soldiers marching. I don't know why I got a little fearful when I heard the marching. Probably because the emperor seems to think I tried to assassinate him. I guess I would have too if I had been in his position.

I left the building, trying to attract the least attention I could, and found my way to what looked to be a library. It seemed to be closed down for the day, so I broke in, somehow with no one noticing. My luck continued holding when I found there was a second floor. It was mostly empty, with a window that had a nice view for a second story. Since I had a feeling I was going to be staying in whatever dimension this was, I began to make this as a makeshift home. I highly doubted anyone would come up here, as it was severely dusty and otherwise looked unused. I went downstairs to find some sort of janitor equipment, and took it upstairs. I started with the sweeping up of old stuff (there was some nasty things that I won't go in depth on, so I'll say stuff)

After that was finished, I went to work on toppling the bookshelves. As they crashed to the floor, the people hanging out around the building turned to the window. I promptly jumped down, as they came in to inspect. Yeah genius idea, throwing down heavy, loud bookshelves. I laid myself on one of these bookshelves, as 4 or 5 people came in. They turned on the light, and did a quick sweep, then they turned it back off and went about their business, thank the gods.

I did another sweep of the floor, and the day settled into night. I closed the blinds and turned on the light. The parade was closer by, which would help shelter the noise from my cleaning up. After that was done, I put the janitorial stuff back, mostly how I found it, and headed out. I needed some tools to get a home ready. Whatever controlled my visions seemed to want to help me, because I had another one, and I was in cabin 6, again.
I quickly went to my stash of cash (no rhyme intended), and pulled out about 129 dollars. I put a note on my bed telling Chiron I went out, and headed off to New York. Now I know you're probably asking, why not go to the forges, or ask the Hephaestus cabin for some tools, and that's because they usually ask why you want them, and I couldn't very well tell them about whatever the hell is happening to me. So yeah, better to spend some cash, than be the laughing stock of the camp.

By the time I found a store and bought the tools, I was exhausted. Good thing too. I found my way back to camp (I had been gone for half the day, as a FYI), and as soon as I felt my pillow, I fell asleep. Luckly, no teleportation happened. Except it did. I felt my comfortable pillows turn to wood, and my blankets to dust. I woke up 8 hours later, with a sore neck, and a back in need of being popped.

I did what you might expect, I cracked my neck and back, and soon set to work cleaning even more, and throwing out trash. I began sawing the bookshelves into legs for a bed frame, and the frame itself. This took me a good 17 hours, or something like that.
"Now I need a bed..." I muttered.

By the time it became the fourth day, the room was mostly clean, and had some living functions. Some being a place to eat, a table with two chairs, a reading space, and a 'theory space'. I dusted my tired hands, and went to the first floor. The parade/festival was still going on, which was good for me.

I made my way to the cash register, and I took the money in it. Normally I wouldn't be stealing, but I had no money, and I wanted some clean clothes. I set out from the library and into the city.