OC: Alvis Treacher (he/him)
Fandom: Percy Jackson
Species: Demigod (son of Athena)

If Athena can create children with her brain... If I and all my siblings just literally jumped out of her skull like some sort of parasite... how far does her imagination go?

How far does anyone's imagination go?

Alvis felt that he was so close to a breakthrough, but unfortunately, his train of thought was interrupted by an Ares kid shoving him. "Get your head out of the clouds, nerd. It's Capture the Flag, not Capture the... Meaning of Life or whatever."

Alvis glared at her but said nothing. He wasn't thinking about the meaning of life. He really didn't care about Capture the Flag. Besides, it would have been a much better insult without the 'or whatever.'

Alvis didn't think about any of that, though. He just sighed, readied his spear, and waited for the conch.

For once, Ares and Athena were on the same side of the weekly game. The opposing team, led by the Hermes cabin, would hardly be a challenge to defeat. Red Team had both brains and brawn on their side, while the enemy - Blue Team - had... pickpockets.

Red Team could have been unstoppable.

Alvis said 'could have' because the Ares and Athena cabins wouldn't stop fighting.

Regrettably, himself included.

He shook himself out of his contemplations once again. When he'd first arrived, the Apollo kids told him he could have been one of them simply due to the dramatic manner in which he twirled his lance. He realized he was doing that and dug the butt of the polearm into the ground.

The conch rang over the trees.

Alvis was on defense duty, which meant he could simply sit by the flag, wait, and think.

Where was he?

Right. Athena's imagination.

The gods passed their powers down to their offspring. So in theory, this ability to create life simply with the power of her mind... in weakened amounts, this could be inherited by her demigod children.

It was worth a try. Alvis closed his eyes and thought really hard about a bearded dragon. He'd desperately wanted a bearded dragon as a kid. He still sort of wanted one.

No bearded dragons appeared, unfortunately. He'd have to ask Athena how she did it, if he ever met her.

Once again, he was interrupted.

"Alvis!" Someone yelled. "Get your stupid butt over here and be useful for once!"

Alvis jumped to his feet, tightened his grip on his spear, and attacked the three Hermes campers who had managed to sneak past the defenders at the border.

Within seconds, two were tied up. Alvis looked around for the third.

She was long gone.

And so was the flag.

An Apollo camper yelled a cuss word. An Aphrodite kid tutted and shook his head. Alvis huffed.

A loud chorus of cheers arose in the distance, and the conch horn sounded.

Alvis and the other people on defense trudged over to the creek, where that Hermes girl was being held on the shoulders of the Hepheastus boy she was rumored to be dating, brandishing the red banner high and whooping at the top of her lungs.

Alvis was mostly happy that it was over so he could retreat to his cabin and think about this some more. He believed there was a child of Hypnos in the Hermes cabin. Maybe he could consult them on contacting gods through dreams. But they were probably off celebrating with the rest of their cabin. Alvis would have to wait until the next day.

As he returned to his cabin, he found someone waiting for him.

She wore traditional Greek armor and was sitting on the porch in a somehow very intimidating way. She had blonde hair and grey eyes, much like most of Alvis- siblings. He himself had dark hair, but the grey eyes were there.

"Alvis," she said.

Alvis tilted his head slightly. "I don't believe we've met. Athena?"

The woman nodded.

Alvis hesitated. "Perfect timing," he said.

"I know." Athena stood up. "I came with a warning."

Alvis opened his mouth to reply, but she continued before he could speak. "Your theories are admirable, but they're headed in a dangerous direction."

Alvis wrinkled his forehead. "What do you mean?"

"The limits of the mind are nothing to be trifled with," Athena said. "This is territory that I alone have explored... and I suppose Hermes. I intend to keep it that way. There is some knowledge that should not be shared."

"What does Hermes have to do with anything?" Alvis asked, stiffening slightly. He was not much a fan of the Hermes kids.

"He is..." Athena stopped herself. "He does not matter right now. I am warning you that the path you are following will not end well."

"Well, that just makes me more curious," Alvis complained.

Athena hesitated.

"Fine," she said. "I will give you a hint. But you will tell no one."

Alvis perked up.

"There is no limit to man's imagination," Athena said. "Artists, entrepreneurs, inventors. Even children. For some, their creations cannot exist due to the boundaries of this world... so, unintentionally, they create an idealized reality where those limitations are not an issue."

"Like... parallel universes," Alvis said. "Interesting."

And not only those. What about writers? Worldbuilders? Anyone who creates a universe?

And do these worlds exist outside of our heads? Could that be what Athena is implying?

Athena turned away. "Do not take this knowledge lightly," she said, and started to glow.

Thankfully, Alvis remembered to look away as she went into her true form and disappeared.

Other worlds.

Somehow, Athena had managed to harness the power of the imagination to create her children.

Other worlds!

Alvis' first thought was that he would have very much enjoyed visiting one of those worlds.

But no - he needed to think about this. If it was true, his very presence in another timeline could drastically alter it. He had to be careful with this.

Athena was right. Some knowledge shouldn't be shared.

He didn't really feel like joining his siblings at the campfire, so instead he put on his pajamas and got in bed. Still, he was up long after they returned, long after they were asleep, thinking.

It'd be okay if he broke the rules just this once, right? Some knowledge shouldn't be shared, but what was knowledge if it wasn't used? It would just be another random piece of trivia.

Secrets were kept to protect them from people who would misuse them. Bad people.

Alvis wasn't a bad person. At least, he didn't consider himself to be a bad person.

The temptation was too strong. Alvis slid out of his bunk and pulled on his shoes. Then he just sat there.

Surely he could come up with a way to get to another world, right? Just for a while. He'd be right back before anyone knew he had even been gone.

The question was how.

"Oh, I wouldn't do that if I were you," a voice said.

Alvis jumped, hitting his head on the top bunk with a loud thunk. The kid above him grunted and rolled over.

He scanned the room for the source of the voice. Right next to his bunk, hidden mostly in the shadows, was a man, maybe eighteen or nineteen. Some of his hair glowed. He had antennae on either side of his head. And something around his torso area, under his shirt, was glowing as well.

Alvis scrambled for his spear. How had a monster gotten into his cabin?

"Chill," the monster said. "I'm not here to kill anyone. Unfortunately."

Alvis grabbed his spear and pointed it at the monster.

The monster sighed. "I don't get paid enough for this," he said, and easily yanked the spear out of Alvis' hands and tossed it behind him.

Alvis stared at his hands, where his spear had been seconds before. Then he looked up at the monster. "W-what do you want?"

"Well, personally, I'd love to stab someone and watch this whole place panic. But the higher-ups want me to talk to you, and I gotta do what the higher-ups say if I want my paycheck."

"Who are the higher-ups?"

"The captain."

"That is... so specific."

"I know!" The monster said, grinning. He stepped forward and extended a hand. "Pleasure to meet you. Call me the Warden."

"That implies that you have an actual name," Alvis said, tentatively shaking the Warden's hand.

"Nope. Just The Warden."

"Well," Alvis said, folding his arms and trying not to panic. "Mr. Warden. What... exactly are you doing in my cabin?"

"Just giving you a warning. A little birdie told me that you know about other worlds now."

Alvis narrowed his eyes. "What other worlds?"

The Warden grinned. "Good. Keep it a secret. Don't world hop, don't tell anyone, and you will be perfectly fine."

Alvis stiffened. "Was that a threat?"

"No, just a fact. The dimension police have a job to do. I have a job to do. Basically I'm just saying don't start. If you want to start world-hopping legally, you can apply for a permit, but that's a different thing." The Warden held out what looked like a business card. "That's contact info. But world-hopping isn't for the faint of heart. You have to have a good reason, it can't just be 'I want to explore' or whatever people say."

"That's just..." Alvis took the card and looked at it. "That's not even- what? That's not a phone number."

"Of course it's not a phone number," the Warden said, rolling his eyes. "But it's instructions to send a message. It's my hope that you don't use it. But I'm required to give you the card, or I-"

"Don't get your next paycheck," Alvis said. "Right."

"Exactly!" The Warden grinned. "You're catching on. Now, I'll be going. Don't break the law! Not that jail is that bad, it's really just rehabilitation. Someday, I'm going to give it a real punishment, though."

Alvis turned the card over in his hand, then tucked it into his bag. "Okay. I... didn't even know there was a law."

"That's the whole point of the visit," The Warden said. "Any questions, or can I go?"

"How did you know that I knew?" Alvis blurted.

The Warden waved his hands, wiggling his fingers. "We have our ways," he said dramatically.

"And how do you get a-"

Before Alvis could finish asking how to get a world-hopping permit, the Warden disappeared, leaving nothing behind but a business card and some strange fungus.

Alvis stared at the card some more.

The Warden
To summon:
Get a skulk catalyst. Kill something on the skulk catalyst. Spread the skulk until you get a loud obnoxious noisy thing. Step on the noisy thing until it screeches three times. Don't die!

Alvis glanced at the fungus again. Was that skulk? If so, what was a skulk catalyst?

All he knew was that he wanted to visit other worlds. He'd think up a reason as to why. But one step at a time.

Alvis went to rip the card in half. If he destroyed it, it wouldn't be found. He knew what the instructions were.

As he tore it, the card changed shape. Alvis yelped and jumped back, dropping the strange fungal formation on the ground.

Was that a skulk catalyst?

It had to be.

Alvis hesitantly picked it up. The woods had monsters. He'd go there, kill some, clean up whatever fungus it made so the dryads didn't come after him, and then he'd be off.

Alvis grabbed his spear. Miraculously, none of his siblings had woken up during that whole ordeal.

Then, skulk catalyst and spear in hand, Alvis slipped out the door.

This was just another instance of the scientific method. A question - what were the limits of Athena's imagination? A hypothesis - other worlds existed.

Now, it was time for the experiment. And Alvis was confident in what the results would be.