Jared Cooper was the son of Athena, goddess of strategy and wisdom, and grandson of Eris. He was a prodigy, even for a demigod, mastering his demigod abilities by the time he was fifteen, and his fighting skills superior to that of many Ares children. Jared lived right outside Las Vegas in a suburb and gambled for a living. He was very good at it, specifically at Texas Hold Em and Blackjack. He was a card counter, using his powerful mind to keep track of all the cards that had and hadn’t already been played, and to calculate complicated mathematical probability statistics and equations in his head. Due to his abundant godly relatives, his raw demigod power, and his craftiness, Tyche had taken an interest in him. For a while, she simply watched him from afar.
One day, he was counting cards during a national poker tournament, Tyche approached him and demanded to know how an amateur like him was outsmarting some of the world’s best poker players, one of whom was her son. When she told him who she was, he revealed his trick to her. She was quite impressed with his mental skills and how he applied them to a game so embedded in luck. By the end of the night, the two of them ended up back in his apartment, with Tyche leaving as soon as the night came to a close, not returning for five months.
Tyche returned five months later, with a child in her hands. They named him Chase, as it rhymed with the playing card Ace. Tyche gave Jared two celestial bronze throwing knives that he would give to Chase when the time came.
Chase and his father lived life in luxury, using their poker skills to support themselves. Chase grew up with his father in a large mansion right out of Vegas, but wasn’t a jerk or a brat. He was just your average party kid, who was really good at any party game involving luck. He liked the mansion, but could hardly ever be found there. Starting at the age of six, his dad would take him to poker tournaments (outside casinos of course) and he would learn to play. He had mastered the games of poker and blackjack by the time he was ten, beating worldly ranked poker players.
Chase was an early bloomer, especially mentally. This may have also been influenced by his father’s openness about the sexual world of Las Vegas. Jared would often go out to casinos (Crystal would help, sometimes, charmspeaking him in), bringing home “guests” of either gender home with him. One night, he brought home a young, attractive, Japanese man by the name of Kiyoshi Moto. The two of them enjoyed their time together so much, that Kiyoshi was a “guest” in Chase and his father’s mansion the next night as well. And the next. It soon became approximately an every other day type of occurrence.
One day, when chase was nine, Kiyoshi brought his daughter with him to the mansion, who was four years older than Chase. Her name was Crystal, and would entertain and play with Chase while their parents would also entertain each other. Over the next year, their parents were in a real relationship, and the two became very close friends. One day however, their parents got into a huge fight and Crystal’s dad wanted to take her away from Chase and his dad, but she wouldn’t leave Chase’s side. Crystal, like Chase, was also a demigod legacy, a child of Aphrodite and grandchild of Hecate. She manipulated her father into loving her so much at that moment that he would let her stay, and even make up with Jared so she could be with Chase.
Crystal spent the next three years of her life using all her power manipulating her father so he would stay with Jared so that she could stay with Chase. The four of them moved in together, and became much of like an artificial family, (as they were a family because of artificial feelings. Except, Crystal had begun to develop a large crush on Chase.) Kiyoshi put protective spells on the house in order to cover up the strong scent of four demigods. Chase was first attacked by a Cyclopes at the age of fourteen in his home when Kiyoshi’s spells were not enough to cover up their scent. At the time, Kiyoshi and Jared were both home. They stopped their cuddling when they heard the magical alarms that they had set up go off and went to see what the problem was. They found Chase barely dodging the attacks of the Cyclopes, most likely by luck. They rushed to his aid, and before Jared could attack, Kiyoshi said that he would handle it. He summoned all his magical energy and transformed into a female Cyclopes, and seduced the male Cyclopes, talking to it and keeping it occupied, before Jared would stab it in the eye while the Cyclopes was distracted.
Crystal and Chase grew up as free range kids. They were allowed to go anywhere and do anything they wanted. Chase could almost always be found in a casino, at a nightclub, or at bars that didn’t care for the drinking age. He spent his days picking up chicks, but one day, when Chase was fourteen, he was out on the streets with his dad when they were attacked by a single harpy, which they easily defeated together. Later that year, he and Crystal came across an exceptionally violent Scythian Dracanae. At the time, Chase had his father's crossbow on him, and Crystal had a bow and arrow on her, and the two of them together defeated to beat with ease. When Chase was fifteen, he realized that he wasn’t actually enjoying the sex he was having and wasn’t attracted to girls unless he was drunk. (Which wasn’t often, as he felt it impacted his luck.) It was also at this time that as he became more aware of his surroundings, and Crystal’s crush on him became more obvious. Chase became aware of this, but pretended not to notice. He loved Crystal, but only as a friend.
One day, when he was sixteen, Chase and Crystal were at a casino when he was attacked by two Hellhounds. At this time in his life, Chase has been trained well enough to be able to defeat the beasts with the celestial bronze knives he had on him along with Crystal (who would have a sword on her), but afterwards, Chase decided it was time for him to head to Camp Half Blood, as the real world was becoming less and less safe, Kiyoshi’s spells becoming less and less effective every day.
Crystal wanted Chase to stay, but his mind was made up, and she could not bring herself to make him artificially love her, as she wanted it to be real. Jared drove Chase across the country, leaving Kiyoshi for the first time in years (thanks to Crystal.) When Chase left, Crystal had no reason to keep Jared and Kiyoshi together, and she and her father moved back into their own mansion.
