Since the last time she'd gone into the game, Suhani adapted a lot of changes to her lifestyle. She made some rules for herself so she didn't get carried away while playing. First, to only ever play while she was alone. The cognitive load of adjusting to the change in environment and the adrenaline rush she got afterwards always tampered with her ability to function and go back to being a normal member of society. God forbid she was home while playing the game, too. What if her parents burst in immediately after she'd come back from Camp, only to be yelled at about some chores? The thrill, the magic, all flushed down the toilet.

No, she wanted to be able to properly soak in and enjoy the confidence and excitement being Suhani, the daughter of Aphrodite, brought her. In short, rule one was basically to only ever play the game while she was out of the house, and alone. Rule two was to never tell anyone else about this. There was no doubt that her dimension-traveling video game probably broke a gazillion laws of physics. She didn't want the scientists, superheroes, and supervillains meddling with her personal fantasy land. Also, in the worst case scenario, people would be after her life.

That meant she couldn't tell her best friend, either. Although that one was more of a selfish choice. Chaloem Chai Rochana was as trustworthy as a friend could get. Suhani would genuinely trust that girl with her life. They'd had each other's backs during the worst of times; against school bullies, against their rat infested city, against the terrors that constantly plagued New York. But, well, Chai was a casual enjoyer of Percy Jackson, and Suhani wasn't quite ready to share his world with her. And knowing Chai, she'd definitely want to tag along, just for fun, especially if Suhani expressed that she didn't want the girl to. What else were friends for?

The nicer excuse was that Suhani didn't know how dangerous it would be for her. Who knew what kind of radiations she'd been exposed to for this to even be possible. What if Suhani was able to travel dimensions, but Chai wasn't? What if trying to travel dimensions ripped her best friend apart?

To protect these two rules of hers, Suhani made a few other minor changes in her life. Things like buying a new sketchbook for her Percy Jackson brainrot. She was good at art, but she wasn't that good. If her parents ever saw the things Suhani drew from her time in the game, they'd get suspicious. The art that she drew from her imagination looked wildly different than the art she drew by sight.

The last rule was that she would only ever play once a week. Suhani had recently learned of maladaptive daydreaming, the act of losing oneself in their imaginations to the point that it hindered their actual life. Of course, normally it was a trauma response. But Suhani didn't want to find out exactly how much trauma it took to start doing that. The lines between healthy and toxic daydreaming were blurred for the creative careers. The last thing she wanted was to get addicted to living in a whole different world and become a lonely, unmarried, crazy old lady at eighty.

Suhani decided to make an event out of it: every week, she'd go to her favourite cafe, have her favourite food, and play her favourite game, and then go back home with a few pages of her sketchbook filled to make her parents happy. A win-win-win!

As Saturday rolled around, Suhani headed to the cafe and settled into her regular seat on the bar stool by the window. With a warm coffee on the way, and a kind of energy she never displayed at this unholy time of morning, she'd freaked out her parents quite a bit. She was not an early bird.

Waiting for her coffee to arrive and fully wake her up, Suhani busied herself with her sketching. There weren't many people out on the street that early on a Saturday. It was just a few cyclists and joggers, but they whooshed by too fast, leaving only the employee of the donut shop across the street for her to sketch. She was a pretty girl, tall and thin with waves of tresses she'd tied back into a low ponytail. She'd been scribbling on the 'Deal of the Day' blackboard propped up on an easel outside the shop for the past few minutes, making her the perfect subject.

Suhani could only see her profile, but she tried drawing a of the girl to test the limits of her own imagination. Ten minutes later, the girl had disappeared into the shop, and Suhani was left huffing and erasing and distressed. She'd managed to catch a glimpse of that girl's face before she'd gone back in, but all that did was ruin her, because now Suhani could see all the mistakes she'd made in her drawing. The nose had come out a little sharper than it actually was, and Suhani had exaggerated the cheekbones too much. Which, essentially wasn't the end of the world, but it didn't capture the softness of that girls' face, and it was a shame because she was gorgeous.

After fussing over it a little while longer, Suhani gave up, dropping the sketchbook on the table and staring outside dejectedly. She heaved a long sigh, only coming to her senses when she realised her coffee still hadn't come. Wondering how much longer it'd take, she turned around, catching the eyes of a boy with perfect chocolate brown hair and hazel irises. He looked so familiar, she was sure she'd seen him somewhere before... Wait. Observing his face carefully, Suhani finally connected the dots. He was the same cute boy she'd seen the last time she'd come here. Last time, she'd gotten too busy with her game to spare him much attention. But today, he'd taken a seat right next to her! And he was staring at her!

No, he wasn't staring at her. He was staring at her sketches. Suhani picked up her sketchbook awkwardly, flipping to a blank page. Most people didn't think much of it, but looking at an artist's sketchbook was like trying to take a peek into their soul. It felt far too vulnerable. The boy realised he'd been caught and mumbled in quiet surprise.

"Oh... Sorry." He said, "That was a good drawing."

The critical difference between Suhani interacting with book characters, and Suhani interacting with real people, was that Suhani didn't interact with real people. She spent too long thinking about what to say and lost her chance to actually say something.

When she didn't respond to him, he apologised again, worried she'd taken offence. "Sorry. I didn't mean to look."

Suhani stared him down, urging her brain to be useful for once. "No... It's fine." Her mouth moved slowly. Suhani felt like the sloth from Zootopia. She felt like the cute guy thought she was dumb. Noooo, please, I'm a starrr! She screamed helplessly in her head. Not knowing what else to do, Suhani had begun mindlessly doodling on the fresh page she'd just opened up.

Someone that cute is talking to you, and that's all you can muster up? Suhani imagined Chai judging her. Are you insane? Do you think chances like these just drop out of the sky? If you don't want to be single all your life you better do something!

But her life was Satan's personal torture ground, and her chance was already lost. The cute guy had turned away, facing the donut shop, staring intently like she'd been doing moments earlier. Did he want to see how accurate her drawing had been? What was he, the sketching police? Embarrassed and mildly miffed, Suhani was glad to be distracted by the waitress bringing her freshly brewed coffee. Muttering out a thank you, she eyed the cute guy, who seemed to be avoiding her gaze.

Maybe he was awkward and antisocial, too. The thought made her feel better. Trying not to think more of it, Suhani blew on her coffee and took a sip, only to yelp as the drink scorched her tongue. The ceramic cup slipped from her grasp before she knew it. Suhani cursed, anticipating a first degree burn to wreck her thighs.

She hadn't realised when the stranger had turned around to notice, but before Suhani had even registered it, he'd caught the cup by the handle and placed it back on its saucer, not a drop out of place. Then he turned to her with wide eyes. "Are you okay?" He asked softly.

Stunned, Suhani nodded her head. Her eyebrow twitched. It sounded stupid, but she swore his eyes had been fixated outside that whole time. How he had managed to move that fast even if he had seen it coming was beyond her comprehension. But her embarrassment was greater than her confusion. This had happened because she'd been so distracted by his presence in the first place! She wanted to leave, but her coffee had just come, he'd find it so weird if she ran for it.

"Thanks." Suhani said to him, just long enough after he'd asked her if she was okay for it to be strange to talk again. "I, uh, I'm so sorry I was rude earlier. I was just surprised."

"No biggie." The boy said, cracking a bit of a smile. "I don't usually sneak up on people like that."

"Only if they're drawing cute girls?" Suhani joked, feeling more at ease hearing his casual tone.

"You caught me." He rolled his eyes. "No, it's because I know that girl." He jutted his chin towards the donut shop as he said that.

"Oh." Suhani blanched, "That sorta makes me feel like a creep. I'm actually studying animation and I'm supposed to live sketch every day, and there was no one else outside— Er, wait, I didn't mean to make excuses. Could you apologise to her for me? I'm not going to be posting these anywhere, so—"

"Yeah." He breathed, "I will."

He hadn't even turned back to look at her. He was still smiling, but almost sadly.

Suhani took that as a sign to shut up and mind her own business.

♥! PROLOGUE ( 2 / 3 )

"So, Suhani." Jesus smirked, "Anyone caught your eye just yet?"

Suhani had gone through hellish training ever since waking up, from running laps to push-ups and crunches, to vomits or burps or whatever they were called. She didn't care what they were called she cared that they were actually making her queasy. Annabeth hadn't lied when she said she would whip her into shape. Her potential saving graces, Percy, Marisol, Jesus, and even the literal Jason and Thalia Grace did nothing to help and tittered with amusement.

"Caught my eye?" Suhani asked, "Like, romantically?"

"What else?" Marisol rolled her eyes, "You're one of us, you can drop the innocent act now."

Suhani's paused mixing her biryani and raita. "No, not exactly." She didn't bother to correct MariJes's misconception about her innocent act. It was true she was here to romance people, after all.

"I didn't expect you to be such a bore." Jesus said, taking a bite out of his deep-dish pizza. "I mean, it was already annoying enough when Piper came, but at least she staked claim right away. Don't complain if one of us takes someone you're interested in."

"What's that supposed to mean." Suhani pouted. So what, she was just a bore in both universes now? She couldn't allow that! "It's barely been two days, I haven't even gotten to know anybody yet."

"Oooh, you're the type that goes for personality, huh?" Marisol teased, "Didn't seem that way when you were all over Percy."

"Everyone's all over Percy!" Suhani felt herself growing hot in the face. She stuffed her mouth with a few spoonfuls of rice to give her time to think. "I'm just saying, there's a difference between admiring people and actually liking them enough to go out with them."

It almost felt like she was having a conversation with Chai, except she hadn't gotten comfortable enough with Marisol and Jesus yet. They didn't quite understand how hard it was for her to open about things like this. If it weren't for the fact that this was in game, she would have probably completely shut down already. But the reason Suhani wasn't telling them wasn't because she hadn't decided, it was because she didn't know. There was only one more target left for her to capture, but it hadn't been revealed who they were yet. She'd only get to know when the prologue chapters completely finished and the time skip happened to chapter one.

She'd already tried to skip them, but the game wasn't letting her. Her nintendo had been rendered useless, it was basically just a showpiece now. A showpiece that was secretly a portal to another dimension, she thought dryly.

"It's cute that you think so hard about this." Marisol started, "But it's not like you're getting married to them. It's just dating."

"It's just dating for you maybe." Suhani frowned, "For me, it's a huge thing, okay? Asian parents aren't really big on the whole dating before college thing."

"It's not like your dad is here though. He doesn't have to know." Marisol pointed out.

Suhani turned so she could look into her kaleidoscope eyes. "Why are you so interested anyway? I mean, I don't see you pestering Jesus about this."

"That's cause I already have a girlfriend." Jesus said proudly, a large smile appearing on his face as he made eye contact with some girl in the Apollo cabin.

"He's such an idiot for her." Marisol sighed, "Look at that stupid grin on his face."

Jesus stuck his tongue out at her, unimpressed by the mean older sister schtick she was pulling, "You're just jealous. Don't listen to her, Mari's hella bored and wants drama."

"And I appeared on a silver platter." Suhani groaned.

"Don't act like you're not dying to know whose heart she's going to break, too, Chuy." Marisol said.

"Ah." Suhani said. She understood now what MariJes were foreshadowing. It was that rite of passage Piper and Silena abolished. Until now, it had only existed in Beckendorf's route, so Suhani hadn't caught on right away. She wondered why it existed in this one, too. Who could the hidden character be for there to be as heartbreaking a route as Beckendorf's had been? Even Jason's hadn't been that sad, despite it still have the trope of falling in love with your sister's ex.

"Don't be getting any radical ideas there, Suhani." Jesus adopted a somber tone, catching the look on her face, "Children of Aphrodite face awful consequences for not following the rite of passage. It isn't just some tradition we follow because we like it. It's... It's almost like a curse."

Suhani frowned. But in the books— No, Suhani thought, horrified, Jesus was right. In the books, Silena and Charles had both died. And when Piper tried to rebel, too, all seemed fine until the Trials of Apollo. The only reason Piper was fine was because she broke Jason's heart.

"No worries, you won't even have to think about it if you've already had a break up before." Marisol said, noticing Suhani's mood dampen. It didn't do much.

"I haven't." Suhani's lips flattened with worry, "I haven't dated before."

Did that mean all that was waiting for her in this game was heartbreak? That was awful, why couldn't she have gotten the power to travel dimensions during some other route, where the ending wasn't pre-written? But then again, it wasn't like Suhani would actually die or get hurt, she'd just end up back in the real world afterwards.

Besides, it was just a game. She could quit whenever she wanted. Maybe she could play through the first two chapters and feel things out, and if she felt like it wasn't worth it, or that she was getting too attached, she'd stop. That was simple enough. This was just for fun, after all, no point getting involved in things that brought her stress.

"Oh." Marisol didn't seem to have any response to that, and changed the topic of conversation instead, "We're going to the armoury after lunch to pick up your weapon, right?"

"Oh yeah!" That did the trick. Suhani perked up right away. All the weapons in the armoury were basic level items, but you could up their strength, durability, and enchant them with the help of campers from the other cabins. But in exchange, they make you play mini quests for them. In the books, the mini quests were the extra chapters you'd get at the end of the full book. But in the game, they were designed to be like puzzle games. Things like navigating a maze to find some item, or untangling the wiring in Festus's brain.

"Sometimes it feels like you're not really our sister." Jesus joked. "Your interests are so skewed."

"I know right?" Marisol complained. "But she did get excited for the closet, at least."

"Are you... calling me a pick me?" Their enthusiasm was so dull, Suhani felt incredulous. She knew they'd been in camp forever, but it was so insanely cool to think there might be a weapon in there used by actual mythological legends that could end up in her possession! "I just happen to be interested in all this magical stuff, okay?"

Jesus and Marisol exchanged smirks, "It'll wear off in a few days, don't worry."

Well, no wonder the player ends up defecting to Kronos. The Aphrodite kids in-game were in-sane. Rick had been trying to fix the mistake he'd made by making Piper such a pick me in the books with the game by making it have the plot it had. Suhani thought it probably would have worked better if other Aphrodite kids felt the same way as the player instead of making the player the One That Changes the Perception of the other campers. Although, it was true that younger girls did prefer feeling like the main character, so that choice was probably made to appeal to them.

"What are you thinking of picking up from that shed to be that excited, anyways?" Marisol asked, "Anti-sweat armour? Callous-preventing gloves?"

Suhani rolled her eyes. "I mean, not an awful idea if that actually exists..."

"It doesn't." Jesus and Marisol chorused without missing a beat, looking equally unhappy about it.

"But," Suhani continued, "I wasn't thinking about the weapon as much as I was thinking about the enchantments I wanted to put on it."

Excitedly, she picked up her from off the ground, and showed it to them. "Wouldn't it be so cute if these charms could turn into my weapon of choice?"

"Oooh!" Marisol's eyes glittered at the sight, "Wait, that's actually so cute!"

"Not a bad idea." Jesus also begrudgingly admitted, "Considering you carry that thing around with you everywhere."

That was an understatement. That bag was somehow always there no matter where Suhani went, even if she forgot it. She thought it was because it was the only thing from her dimension. Just like how she magically got kicked out of the world every time the chapter ended, ( because the portal somehow knew when the chapter ended ), it also knew that the bag was Suhani's inventory. And every player could always access the inventory at any time.

"Right?" Suhani grinned, "You have to introduce me to someone from the Hecate Cabin after we pick up my weapon."

After promising to introduce Suhani to someone that could help her, the Garcia twins continued to chatter on about ridiculous rumours they'd heard about people at camp. Suhani felt much more at ease, now that the important conversations were out of the way, but the day was long ahead of her. After choosing a weapon, she'd have to do someone's chores for them, and perhaps another romanceable character would enter the scene. After completing all the tasks, she'd be done with part two of the prologue, leaving only one more part before she would find out what character would be the end game this time around...

AUTHOR'S NOTE ✸꙳⋆

suhani is literally meeee idk how to talk to ppl irl but on here i am fliRt mAster hahaha. did you figure out who suhani was drawing in her sketchbook? what did you think about the most awkwardest meet cute between suhani and peter? hahaha.

if you noticed any errors feel free to point them out i changed a bunch of plot points a few times while writing this and might have missed something but am feeling too lazy to reread the whole thing rn

as always, thanks for reading!

esme