The Sounds of Minds

James was entirely exasperated.

"Wh-no-I-" he stuttered as the boy walked over to Blake. "It's a-a saying. Something of an expletive. And for gods' sakes can you all stop fighting for one goddamned minute? I don't care if you're enemies where you come from. Right now, you're here, and we're trapped, and all of your arguing is giving me a bloody headache."

"He's the one who started it," Mist said, pointing at Blake as he took a step back and stared at James. His gaze quickly traveled to the other people in the circle - including Puck, who was still laying on his side because it took far less effort than trying to get up. "He tried kidnapping my best friend-" Mist frowned. "Okay, that's weird. I wasn't going to say that. Or that. Or-" He cut himself off before he could get stuck in a loop.

"You tried kidnapping his best friend?" Puck asked incredulously.

"His best friend is Herobrine!" Blake hissed back, an exasperated tone to his voice. "What did you expect me to do? Ask nicely?"

Puck shrugged. "I don't know, but it looks like you made yourself another enemy."

Blake groaned, marching over to an empty spot in the circle and promptly plopping himself down in it.

Mist, meanwhile, hadn't even been paying attention to the conversation. He was currently searching around the area for something, peeking behind the tree and everything in the near vicinity. He even looked like he was contemplating climbing. He hesitated, then settled with kicking the trunk of the tree instead. Puck would have assumed it was one out of anger, but it almost seemed like he was trying to test something.

"Veritas or Aletheia," he muttered. He scanned the clearing. "Veritas or Aletheia. Ye gods, I've forgotten my flashcards. Which one is it?"

James stared at Mist with an annoyed confusion. "What on earth are you talking about?"

"Veritas and Altetheia," Mist replied, turning his gaze on James instead of continuing to search the clearing. "You're a mortal, so you wouldn't know. One of them is the Greek goddess of truth, and the other is the Roman. I just forgot which one was which."

Finch had his arms wrapped over his head, and he was sleeping fitfully. He was distantly aware of voices, and after tossing and turning repeatedly, he decided to do something about it.

"Shhhhhnn!" He sat up on his elbows and shushed the voices on the other side of the tree, grouchy and half-asleep.

Meanwhile, Gem the raccoon had scrambled up the tree, and she sat, staring down at the company. Her beady little eyes were shining with mischief.

James groaned, leaned back on his arms and looking up into the sky.

"Can we just keep going and get this confessional over with?"

"Hey," Mist said, giving James a look, "I'm trying my best to help out with this. Like I said, you're a mortal. You wouldn't know. But this absolutely reeks of a god trying to mess with mortals. Back when I went to Camp Half-Blood, there was all sorts of stories about gods causing trouble. Mainly trouble to Percy Jackson, since, well, he's frigging Percy Jackson, but just take one look at mythology and you'll see the trend."

Puck blinked.

"You do realize the gods aren't real, right?" he said. "That's just something you humans came up with. I would know. I was first summoned by Romans in Britain and-" He clasped a hand over his mouth, eyes narrowing in frustration when he realized he was saying more than he wanted to.

Again.

Mist gave him a blank look.

"You're a spirit?" he said, blue eyes starting to widen. "But you don't look like one on the other planes-Ye gods, you're Marius of Britannia! Anda and Cass told me all about you. We thought the magician was the one in control-"

"Wait, Cass and Anda are both in control? I thought Cass was using all of her-"

Blake suddenly cleared his throat very, very loudly.

Mist and Puck both fell silent as they looked over at him.

"Let's get back to what Mist was saying," he said. "About the gods being responsible for this, and not the part where he oddly seems to know more about you than I do. Do you really think that the gods are responsible for something like this, Mist?"

"Well, yeah," Mist replied. He looked around the clearing and crossed his arms. "Who else would be? They have the ability to do crazy things like this, and I really wouldn't put it past them - I just don't know if I'm right on who's responsible. I've never met them or heard stories about them, so it's hard to tell."

James was beginning to think that Finch had the better idea to just sleep it out. With another groan, he flopped back onto the grass with his hands behind his head.

"I don't know what kind of gods you know, but the ones I know would never mess with 'mortals' like this. They have no reason to."

"The gods I know don't have a good reason to, either," Mist said, turning to James and giving him a look when he saw that he had flopped onto the ground. "I think they just get bored, honestly. I mean some of them definitely like using the demigods to get back at the gods they have grudges against, but I think most of it just boils down to them having been around for countless years and needing something new to do."

Finally unable to ignore the voices, Finch groggily pulled himself into a sitting position and crawled around to the other side of the tree.

"Oh. So this isn't a dream after all." He murmered, his sleep combined with the uncanny truth preset causing him to voice everything that flitted into his mind. "Hello, short one. What are these gods you keep talking about? I'm only asking to get you to exhaust all of your information so that I won't have to hear it anymore."

"One, rude," Mist said, an annoyed expression flickering across his face as he turned and glowered at Finch. "Two, I'm not short!"

Puck raised an eyebrow. "You look like you are to me. It would be like if he-" He gestured over in Blake's direction. "-said he wasn't tall."

Blake shifted, his armor loudly clanking together as he turned to face Puck instead of Mist. "I'm not, actually." The red pinpricks of light in his helmet as he looked at the resident spirit. "My avatar in Minecraft was. I'm average height."

"Same here," Mist added, though he sounded hesitant to agree with his enemy. Then his attention shifted once more, and he spun around to face Finch again. "The gods are from Greek and Roman mythology in particular, though I heard Percy mention Egyptian ones once, and I'm pretty sure Annabeth had a cousin that dealt with Norse ones."

Blake stared at Mist.

"I recognize those names," he muttered, slowly getting to his feet. He walked over to Mist and stared down at the currently much smaller of the two, studying him with a scrutinizing gaze. After several moments of doing so - and Mist visibly growing more and more disturbed by the attention - he said, "You're May Acker."

Mist froze. At least, that was what he - or, rather, she, since it was clear to Puck that Blake had somehow figured out Mist's identity - did first. Then she took a deep breath, glared up at him despite visibly shaking, and demanded, "What did you do with Blake, Raptor!?"

"What-" Blake started to say.

"He's right in fro-" Puck started to add.

But May Acker was having none of it. She seemed terrified and furious as she started to accuse him. "You must have done something!" she shouted. "You-you must have! Blake's the only one who knows my full name on Minecraftia, besides Herobrine! And you'd never be able to do anything to Herobrine because he'd wake me up first!"

"Look," James said from his spot on the ground. "I don't know what you guys are talking about, but let's try calming down, May," he cautioned with an emotionless tone. "I suggest talking through this rationally since the truth will come out regardless. So they know your name. It was supposed to be a secret. Maybe they know something you don't. Just talk it out, but please stop yelling."

"What he said." Finch mumbled. He had leaned against the tree again, and was regaurding May, Blake, and Puck with half-lipped eyes. He was so tired- just, tired of everything, though it didn't mean he had stopped filing information about the others away. That is, the information he could understand.

"Calm!?" May repeated, spinning around and staring at James with a furious look to her blue eyes. "How can I be calm when this monster-" Here she pointed a finger right up at Blake. "-hurt one of my best friends!? It's not a matter of me being upset that someone knows my name! I honestly don't care if someone finds that out - that's why I told Herobrine it back when I first met him. But there's only two people who know that name where I was, and Blake has to be the one that Raptor got it from."

Puck cleared his throat. "Well, duh," he said. He started to getting to his feet, his limbs screaming out in protest - they still ached from when May fell on him. Now he was the focus of May's furious gaze, likely because of his nonchalant tone.

"Duh?"

"Duh," he confirmed. "Of course he got it from Blake. He is Blake, after all, if we're talking about the same Blake Croft."

She looked blankly at him. He could see the gears turning in her head as she tried to digest what he had just said - it must have come as quite the shocker. From the little he could gather, Blake and May were incredibly close, but Raptor and Mist were not. Things were definitely more than a little awkward.

"Is he telling the truth?" May asked, turning around and looking accusingly up at Blake.

"It's not like I can lie here-"

"Is he?"

Blake hesitated, then nodded. "...I'm Blake Croft."