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quincywillows · 1 year ago

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a scattered and overall supportive review of percy jackson season 1

let me just say first of all, it's extremely fun to be enthused about a tv show like this again. the adaptation isn't perfect, but it's a lot of fun, and you can tell there's plenty of heart and good intention behind what they're doing. i'm very much enjoying tuning in every couple of episodes and catching up -- and avoiding the relentless commentary of the internet while i do so lol.

but now it's time for MY commentary!! to preface, i was a huge fan of the books when i was younger, am a stalwart long-term advocate of the original five books as some of the best children's lit of our lifetime, but i also enjoyed the films a decade ago for what they were and think people (including cough rick cough) are way too harsh about them. justice for logan lerman. anyway

i'm not going to do like a play-by-play, but in summary, here are my takeaways from the first season -- what i thought worked, what did not, and things i'm optimistic about going into the future seasons.

the good

for an adaptation of the original series (which, to be fair, i have not reread in years), i felt this was honest and faithful. there were tweaks, obviously, but none that took me too out of it or felt irredeemable. there was a lot to like about this show, so i want to start right from the top with my highest highs.

the worldbuilding / production design. i absolutely loved getting to see how they imagined certain iconic characters, locations, and sequences from the books. it was so exciting to get to see camp halfblood for the first time on screen (at least, in this adaption) -- that moment in episode two definitely felt like a turning point where we picked up from the somewhat laggy pilot episode. i especially loved the design of mount olympus, aspects of the underworld (hades and his upside down castle were baller, though how did percy and grover get up there lol; and i absolutely loved the choice for asphodel and the ghosts being rooted like trees, i never would've thought of that myself but it was so chilling and unique... just wish i could see it better through the terrible lighting, but we'll come back to that), and of course, camp. even down to the small details, like the camp beads... it's just very cool to see it come to life.

the casting. i wasn't sure about some of the casting when the news was breaking, but i'm very happy to have been pleasantly surprised all around (and have majorly avoided people bitching about every single thing). there wasn't any role where i felt like someone was horribly miscast, and you could tell that everyone involved really wanted to be there and committed. i thought the casting of the gods was especially inspired at times. some of the highlights for me personally:

adam copeland as ares. i had no idea he was apparently a wrestler turned actor until my sister told me, but i thought he was absolutely spectacular. very charismatic, with just the right amount of cringefail that ares needed. i found him thoroughly enjoyable in all his scenes.

lance reddick as zeus. having just played horizon zero dawn recently, oh my lorde was this an inspired choice. he was absolutely brilliant. i'm so so sad about his passing, i don't know how they're going to recapture his performance, but i have faith now that they'll find a way.

timothy omundson as hephaestus. i love that they took a softer, more mad scientist approach to his role than like ugly basement blacksmith vibes... i just thought it was really refreshing. his scene with annabeth, where we got so much humanity from him in such a short span of time, was one of my favorite scenes of the season.

jason mantzoukas as dionysus. i mean. what else can be said. obvious choice, but he was so fun lol. i hope they give him more to do next season.

other standouts beyond the main youth cast for me were jay duplass as hades (his brief appearance in 107 was thoroughly enjoyable) and dior goodjohn as clarisse (she was by far the acting standout of the first couple episodes to me). also very happy to see jessica kennedy parker and sinclair from the 100 get work, lol.

walker as percy jackson. it was really wonderful watching walker grow as an actor even just through the first eight episodes. the difference from 101 to 108 is almost night and day. you can tell how much he cares about the project and percy as a character, and he upped his game with every episode. i cannot wait to see what he turns out in the coming seasons. to be fair, i thought all of the youth cast did a decent job, and i'm giving them a lot of leeway and room to grow since they are literally child actors -- it takes time to hone your craft, and im optimistic they're all going to do a great job as the series goes on. but walker was, definitively and thankfully as the protagonist, the standout.

charlie bushnell as luke. i was so excited when i heard he got cast because i loved him in diary of a future president, and he did not disappoint. i kind of wish he had more to do, but all of that was forgiven in the finale when he had his final confrontation with percy. oh, the acting popped off then -- i can't wait for him to get to chew up the scenery more in the coming seasons.

grover and percy's friendship. it was so sweet to see this come alive, and i thought walker and aryan had excellent natural chemistry together. they were so endearing, and i really believed their friendship basically from the start (them swapping their sandwich fillings is a tiny detail from the pilot that has stuck with me since; i just loved that choice so much). they definitely provided a lot of my favorite moments in the season, and i think evoked the most genuine "aw wow" moments from me.

percy's relationship with sally. since sally was, understandably, absent from the original novel, it was awesome to get the flashbacks here that allowed us to more deeply understand their bond. i thought walker and virginia did a great job with this, and the young actor who played little percy also did a surprisingly great job (he was actually one of the stronger youth actors in the pilot imo lol). you totally understood why percy was doing everything he was, because that mother-son bond felt believable. big shout-out to the absolutely baller line "i am sally jackson's son." one of the first writing moments where i was like oh snap!

the music. a good score really can't be understated, and this one did not disappoint. did just what it needed to do. i also loved the closing title sequence and the art direction there with the epic music -- just such a nice touch that i'm so glad they included.

some of the writing. i'll get more into some of my qualms with the writing below, but there were definitely some great moments that deserve their flowers. i thought they did a great job weaving in some early themes without being heavy-handed about it (percy having to define who he is for himself, mostly). there were some genuinely funny moments that made me laugh out loud, including "i am impertinent," annabeth's "i'm multitalented," and the entire exchange on the road side when the trio to ares are like no... we're fine... ahaha bye... oh and percy trying to drive the taxi out of the garage at the casino was absolutely hysterical.

pivotal scenes hitting their mark. when the show needed to deliver, i thought they really delivered. i absolutely loved the staging and acting in the final luke and percy confrontation -- the lighting of the fireworks was such a cinematic touch. percy's arrival at olympus and scene with zeus was also a big standout. i loved a lot of the st. louis arch episode, and thought the hephaestus golden chair sequence was really well done. overall, the episodes i thought were strongest were without a doubt 104, 105, and 108.

expansion where expansion was welcome. one of my favorite aspects of the series is how it's giving more nuance to the monsters and "villains" of the books. i loved that we got a little more motivation for alecto beyond evil -- that she clearly wanted to accomplish her own mission and retrieve the helm, whether out of loyalty or fear. i loved how medusa got much more depth and humanity, that we're sort of reexamining the fairness of how myths are told rather than just taking it all at face value. i'm really looking forward to seeing how that continues in the next seasons.

the decent

percy and annabeth. to be fair, i think my issue with this is more on the fan reaction than the show itself. i think the show is doing a decent, if somewhat awkwardly paced job, of building their friendship and offering small little hints of what could blossom in the future in classic youth awkward ways -- unexpected hugs, banter, etc. i think walker and leah are both doing a good job, and i look forward to seeing how it develops. but my god, people on the internet are really jumping the shark so hard here. i can't handle seeing more "uwu percy is in love" posts when it's like. y'all. THEY ARE 12. THEY JUST MET. LET THEM ORGANICALLY BECOME FRIENDS FIRST... i just hope the creators don't feed into that and also jump the shark. like yes, we all know where this is going, but can't we enjoy the actual journey to get there instead of forcing what isn't there yet? in any case, on the positive side, some of the moments between them i really enjoyed: the conversation on the train when grover was asleep, the hephaestus chair sequence, annabeth giving him her camp beads before going to olympus (that was a slay... that was a legendary slow burn start moment worth hyping up), the way percy smiled at her in their last scene... that's the good stuff. let's not rush through what we're getting folks. the water is fine.

lin manuel as hermes. here is the thing. i thought lin did a good job. i thought his casting was apt, and fun, and he did a great balance of hermes charisma and like, a darker edge. it's just... the thing about lin manuel is that he's lin manuel. and this is coming from someone who likes him, but it's like he shows up on screen and i'm just like. hey it's lin manuel. it's a bit of a "takes you out of the moment" stunt casting, but i'm not mad about it. i wouldn't call it a bad thing. hopefully it'll wear off (though i doubt it). i guess i'm just deciding that hermes is just lin manuel, which honestly, would kind of track.

the youth acting. mentioned this above, but again, some of that early delivery was rough. but i am giving a lot of grace, and i think they've already improved plenty in the first eight episodes. i felt the same way about shadowhunters back in the day when i thought kat mcnmara was hard to watch in season 1, but by season 3 she was my absolute favorite cast member and came so far. i have no doubt these kiddos will do the same. so very much looking forward to that.

the not so great

the pacing. this was definitely the weakest part of the story writing wise. it wasn't irredeemable, but it did hinder the first half of the show (which didn't lock in for me until about 104, when the stakes truly shot up at st. louis). and that also affected how dynamics and plot points were able to unravel. the biggest victim of this...

the luke reveal. from the start, i was worried about this. since luke was only really in episode 2, i had doubts about whether the reveal of his betrayal would be at all satisfying or earned. i don't know that i can speak on it for sure, since i knew what was going to happen as someone who read the books, but i still feel we should have gotten more of those luke-and-percy-bonding scenes and convos earlier in the series rather than tacked onto the finale as flashbacks. it worked there, but i think it could've been better. thankfully, all of that didn't hinder the delivery of the finale confrontation, which as i said, was a standout moment for me.

the fight scenes. with rare exception, i was pretty underwhelmed with many of the monster battles and confrontations this season. given that's such a huge gimmick of the novels, i hope they're able to revisit and polish up the pacing of these in the future... i just felt that scenes like the museum clash with dodds were so rushed and anticlimactic. or not even confrontations at all, like the scene with crusty. we got a bit more of this at the back half of the season, in the sword fights with ares and luke, but i wanted more of that epic feeling throughout. i'm hoping it's maybe just a budget concern and that it'll improve in the coming seasons -- especially as the bosses get bigger and the stakes get higher -- but i'm not sure i'm optimistic just yet.

some of the dialogue. it was... wooden, to say the least. i think the worst moments of this were when they were trying to force Kid Bants -- which just felt stilted in the earlier episodes -- and whenever they were explaining greek myths point blank to the audience. there were moments it worked, but many where it didn't, and i hope they flesh out how to better info dump in the future episodes. i didn't mind the change of having percy be more familiar with the myths and thus more aware, but they could afford to finesse how they relay that information to us in the audience without basically reading from wikipedia in percy's voice.

the ugly

oh my god i can't see. i can't SEE. this show went to the teen wolf academy of employing one lightbulb and it's actually criminal. there were so many scenes where i really wanted to see what was happening because the stakes were high or the scenery was so pivotal -- the entry into the underworld for the first time, the vastness of medusa's basement of stone, THE FIELDS OF ASPHODEL -- but the lighting was so god awful i legitimately couldn't see a thing. in asphodel i literally could barely see the trio's expressions, it was that bad / flat. the audience is smart, we understand it's dark out. we can suspend our disbelief so you can add some visibility to this thing. i was turning up my brightness constantly but it wouldn't go any higher. please, disney execs, rick, anyone -- GET ANOTHER LIGHTBULB. i'm losing key immersive aspects of the show to this and it's a bummer. when they were walking through waterland for the first time and annabeth was like "wow can you believe this craftsmanship" i was like i don't know, girl, I CAN'T SEE ANY OF IT. begging on my knees that they fix this next season.

well, that ended up longer than expected, but oh my gods it is so nice to be writing paragraphs about a tv show again. all in all, i'd say 7.5/10 from me in this first season. there's so much to be keen for here, and i'm really happy with how it's going so far.

friends and fellow demigods, what did we all think?

#percy jackson #pjo tv #pjo tv show #pjo series #pjo #idk what y'all are tagging with lol #maggie watches tv #maggie.txt

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once-upon-an-animation · 2 years ago

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If I could redo PJO and give each counselor and some minor characters an arc…

So one of the things a lot of PJO fans want to see done differently in the show is adding more depth to the side characters at Camp Half blood, particularly characters like the Stoll brothers, Silena Beauregard, Charles Beckendorf, etc. I’m not sure how much screen time these guys are really gonna get, but I keep fantasizing about each of them sort of having their own story, even if it would lead to a convoluted plot.

Therefore, in this post, I’m going to outline what kind of arc I would have given to each character/counselor in PJO if I had been the one writing the story. Some of these will be pretty close to what is already canon, some of these are a complete overhaul of the canon characterization, some will be inspired by canon but not obey it completely. I also can’t promise that they’re entirely original. Brace yourself, this is a VERY long post:

- Percy Jackson: Wouldn’t change much about his original arc. I would add the following things:

1) Make him more active in the resolution of the love triangle between him, Rachel, and Annabeth. Have him reflect more on what he likes about Annabeth over Rachel.

2) Have him hesitate more in his decision to give Luke that dagger. The hesitation can be caused by Percy remembering all the ways in which Luke has hurt people, including himself. Have him be angry and not want to give Luke the dagger; it would add more suspension to the choice and make it a more emotional one.

3) Have him train more.

4) The first thing that Percy told us in the book was that he didn’t want to be a half-blood. I think an awesome full-circle moment for him would be to have a moment where he fully accepts and embraces being a half-blood as a part of his identity, even if he doesn’t like it much. He doesn’t necessarily have to be proud of it, but I think it would be s cool character moment for him to make peace with it.

It could work best during his dip in the River Styx when he forgets who he is. When he initially grabs Annabeth’s hand, he not only remembers who he is just as a person, but he also remembers being a half-blood as a part of who he is. He accepts his fate and his life as a demigod for what it is, and makes a final decision to be brave and to take on the prophecy no matter how scared he is. In a way, he would also be accepting that Annabeth is also a demigod and can’t offer him an escape the way Rachel can, but that’s okay because he cares for Annabeth deeply, and they can work together to overcome their obstacles.

- Annabeth Chase: I’m going to be honest, I don’t think Annabeth had much of an arc l’in the original series. Her relationships with others definitely changed over time, but I personally feel that she didn’t change that much in terms of her core character traits or beliefs. She started the story as a prideful, aggressive, sentimental character and mostly ended the story that way (as evidenced by HoO). She ended up being right about Luke redeeming himself, so it’s not like she was forced to change her view on when to stop defending bad people. She’s also rarely called out on her flaws; Percy getting mad at her in BoTL is the closest we ever get.

So for Annabeth, I would enhance her arc by having her try to counter her hubris by actively working on her sense of humility. This can manifest in many ways:

1) Humility in the idea that she might be wrong about Luke and his ability to be redeemed. Humility in the idea that he is not a perfectly good person and that he’s hurt a lot of people.

2) Humility in the idea that she is not always right in general and she is capable of getting things wrong. More moments where someone other than Percy calls her out on her shortcomings could be a part of this.

3) Humility in the idea that she doesn’t own Percy and isn’t entitled to a relationship with him. If they’re going to end up together, she has to give him the room to choose that for himself just like she chose it for herself. Don’t get me wrong, I understand that Percy waffled around a bit and needed to be pushed/challenged a little. But like, he still has his own autonomy, you know? His relationships are still his choice. I just want to see Annabeth respect Percy’s autonomy more than she does in canon. It seems like when he doesn’t agree with her or do things her way, her usual move is to get mad at him or worse, hit him. I don’t like this and it doesn’t demonstrate a healthy relationship.

4) Humility in the idea that her plans don’t always work, and sometimes other people are better at things that she is weaker at. ie. Rachel knowing how to navigate the Labyrinth better than her.

- Grover Underwood: Wouldn’t really change anything, I would just reveal more of his quest to find Pan and what he sees/learns along the way, maybe by adding more interactions between Grover and nature deities that we haven’t seen yet. Grover’s arc and involvement with nature would also be a cool opportunity to involve Demeter in the story more and make her more than just a nagging mom character.

Perhaps she and Pan have a friendship of sorts, and Pan has asked her to help Grover subtly along his quest. Or maybe Demeter and Grover can connect over their sadness at the destruction of nature, and how Demeter sometimes worries if her own domain will fade someday as more and more human societies turn away from traditional farming and agriculture.

- Luke Castellan: Wouldn’t change anything about his core story. I would, however, change the way that Annabeth thinks of and responds to him in later parts of the story, and I would change the way that he and his sacrifice is viewed at the end of TLO. I would give the story a more balanced or nuanced view about Luke’s actions.

I would also make Luke’s motivations more cohesive and have his desire to help other demigods be the main motivation from the start. Lastly, I would remove that stuff about him developing a crush on Annabeth at the end of TLO *or* if we want to keep this, I would just age him down. I don’t think much would change if Luke was like, 2 years older than Annabeth as opposed to 6 or 7.

- Thalia Grace: The only thing I would add to Thalia’s arc is more emphasis on the transition between the end of SoM and the beginning of TTC. Thalia has been out of commission for 5 years and I’m sure a lot has changed in the world since. I would add moments where she feels behind with the way things have changed, aka her not being up to date with the latest tech, pop culture moments, slang, etc. that the other kids at her new school are using. On top of finding out that Luke is now a villain, this becomes a source of emotional stress for Thalia and Annabeth has to comfort her.

In addition, I feel like this gives Thalia an even stronger reason to join the Hunters. Not only does she want to write off love, but joining the Hunters allows her to withdraw from the modern world that she no longer feels a part of and stick with the type of life that she knows and feels comfortable with.

- Bianca Di Angelo: Wouldn’t change much; maybe add more nuance and hesitation to her decision to ditch Nico and join the Hunters.

- Nico Di Angelo: Wouldn’t change much within PJO, but I have a lot of thoughts on what happened with him in HoO. Let’s save that for another day.

- Clarisse LaRue: The inspiration for Clarisse’s arc comes from her deep fear of making Ares angry at her and not having the same respect he gives his sons, and her need for respect in TLO. In my mind, Clarisse’s arc would be about learning the right way to earn respect.

Picture this: she starts the series off as a daughter of Ares who feels disrespected by her father and is craving respect from elsewhere. She thinks about how Ares and the gods in general command respect by being intimidating and making people fear them, so she engages in bullying in an effort to make people respect her. However, throughout the course of the series, we learn that none of the campers really respect her or the other bullies in the Ares cabin, and Clarisse continues to struggle to feel respected.

Over the course of the series, Clarisse begins to realize that bullying does not inspire true respect, but she has a hard time unlearning this because it goes against what she’s always thought. She starts mellowing out a little, having some of her softer moments in SoM and BoTL, but she’s still struggling. In addition, every time she experiences disrespect, she reverts back to her old behavior.

This comes to a climax in TLO when the whole Ares/Apollo cabin beef happens and she initially sits the war out. The campers call her out for not being a good friend all these years and for not being able to put her grudge aside to help her fellow campers during their biggest challenge. They specifically tell her that the reason she and her cabin don’t get any respect is because they aren’t very nice. Clarisse tries to argue about Michael Yew and the chariot, but the Apollo campers inform her that Michael is dead. He died fighting beside his friends, making him someone worthy of respect…unlike Clarisse.

Clarisse is forced to think about what makes someone w worth respecting and what doesn’t, and realizes her most respectable moments was when she was being a good friend. She apologizes to the camp for all the bullying and for ditching them during the war, and fights fiercely by them for the remainder of it. Clarisse doesn’t necessarily become a sweetheart after this, but she certainly becomes a better friend and cools down on the bullying. She also encourages her siblings to do the same.

- The Stoll Brothers: The Stoll brothers are pranksters and thieves, always turning every moment into an opportunity to steal and loot…even during war. This implies to me that they’re not very good at taking important things seriously, so here is my arc for them.

We know that things in the Hermes cabin aren’t exactly the happiest. The cabin is overcrowded with unclaimed kids and minor god kids who are probably salty about not having a cabin. You also have the other Hermes kids who are witnessing all of this. I like to imagine that since CHB doesn’t have a therapist and Chiron is spread pretty thin, the campers usually turn to their counselors or older siblings for emotional support.

After Luke betrays everyone and leaves, a lot of the unclaimed kids and minor god kids start to think about joining Luke in overthrowing the gods as they feel he might be right. They turn to Connor and Travis for emotional support but since the Stoll brothers don’t take things seriously, they brush off their campers and prioritize their pranking and looting. This pisses of their campers, and after the battle of the Labyrinth occurs and they see a bunch of their friends die without much help from the gods, a bunch of them make the decision to leave CHB and fight for Kronos.

As they’re leaving, Connor and Travis question them and try to make them stay, but their campers aren’t convinced. They complain about the way things have been, and they call Connor and Travis out for being crappy counselors before they leave. Connor and Travis feel awful about this and vow to win back their campers.

During TLO, the Stoll brothers encounter their old campers on the battlefield and hesitate to fight them. They try over and over to apologize to them and convince them that fighting with Kronos is not the way. The old Hermes campers are not convinced that the Stoll brothers truly care about them. This changes when the monsters from Kronos’ army pull a trick that ends up endangering the demigods who are on Kronos’ side, and the demigods feel deceived. Connor and Travis risk their lives to save their old campers, which finally convinces them. The old campers defect from Kronos’ army and rejoin CHB.

After the war, Connor and Travis vow to be better counselors. They commit to cleaning up their cabin now that it’s less crowded, and doing a better job of listening to their campers concerns. They still prank and loot, but they make sure they take care of their campers first.

- Charles Beckendorf: Beckendorf’s arc is inspired by his sentiments in feeling that machines are easier to understand than people and him being the anchor for the entire camp.

Beckendorf starts the series out as a guy who is pretty introverted. He likes to stay in the forge with his inventions and stay away from all the drama and hullabaloo that goes on with other campers. As a result, no one really knows Beckendorf or how great of a guy he is. This changes in SoM. At some point prior or during the beginning of SoM, Silena and Beckendorf start interacting. I like to think it’s because Silena got her weapon damaged and Beckendorf is helping her fix it. Silena’s kind and charming personality leads to Beckendorf opening up to her a little, which helps her realize that Beckendorf is a really cool dude.

As the camp continues to struggle with monster attacks while Mr. D and Tantalus don’t help much, Silena asks Beckendorf to help her and the other counselors talk to Mr. D/Tantalus and help lead the camp defenses. Beckendorf hesitates because again, he doesn’t like dealing with other people and being at the front lines isn’t really his style. But he does care about his friends and knows he can make a difference. Silena convinces him to break out of his shell, and he sort of takes over while they wait on the Fleece to be brought back.

Through his leadership, the campers get to see what a great guy Beckendorf is and he becomes more popular around camp. This encourages Beckendorf to come out of the forge more often, and he begins making more friends and bonding with Silena a little bit more. Over time, he becomes the “anchor” for the camp: giving people advice, being a shoulder for people to lean on, making people laugh and smile, and just being a great guy all around. I like to imagine that he, Percy, the Stoll brothers, and a few other boys form a friend group where they regularly hang out together at camp.

- Silena Beaureguard: Silena’s arc would remain mostly same as her book arc. The only thing I would change are her motivations and the depth of Luke’s manipulations.

Silena’s arc would focus on courage to do the right thing. When Luke initially convinces Silena to help him, it’s less so because Silena thinks he’s cute and moreso because she genuinely thinks that Kronos cares about demigods more than the gods do. She lies to her friends and dances around them to keep up with her spying. However, over time, especially after the death of her friends and siblings in BoTL, Silena starts to realize that Kronos doesn’t care about demigods at all. She tries to quit spyings few times. Initially, Luke tries to convince her that she’s on the right side by telling her that the deaths can’t be helped; it’s the campers’ fault for fighting for the wrong side. Silena is not completely convinced, but after Luke threatens to tell, she becomes consumed by fear of how her friends would react, and moreso, what Charlie would think of her.

She becomes more and more anxious about getting caught, to the point where Charlie starts to suspect that something is going on. Silena also becomes more anxious about her friends dying, knowing that she might be contributing to it. When she tells Kronos about the stealth mission, she tries to beg for Percy and Charlie’s lives, but Kronos agrees to let only Charlie live. Silena feels bad about what might happen to Percy, and has a hard time facing Annabeth, Percy, and Charlie prior to the mission. Right before Charlie takes off for the mission, she expresses her fear of losing him and begs him to be safe. Charlie assumes that this is what has been bothering Silena and gives her some comforting affection before he leaves.

After Charlie’s death, Silena is angry as she was in the books. She’s also mad at herself. However, she continues to help Kronos not just because she’s mad, but because she is still terrified of being revealed as the spy. Many campers are still angry about Beckendorf’s death, and she knows they would never forgive her. However, the amount of injury and death she sees during the battle of Manhattan is too much for her (especially Annabeth). This inspires her to try and redeem herself secretly by getting the Ares cabin, and then she ends up dying after revealing her secret as she did in the books.

In the original books, everyone agreed to view Silena as a hero. But in my head, I find this unrealistic. Maybe not every camper was willing to say what they thought because they don’t want to speak ill of the dead, but in my mind, there are a lot of mixed feelings surrounding Silena after the war. Some campers think she was a hero and don’t blame her at all, some view her actions as heroic but believe that she messed up big time, and some actively refuse to see her as a hero. Notably, Beckendorf’s siblings and closest friends (think Jake Mason, Nyssa Barrera, etc.) have a particularly hard time viewing Silena as a hero, knowing that her actions cost Charlie his life. Drew also has a hard time with Silena’s betrayal, but I’ll discuss that later.

- Pollux/Castor: Pollux’s arc is inspired by his brother’s death in the books. His arc is about overcoming grief and desires for revenge.

Pollux and Castor don’t have much of a personality in the books, so here’s what I’m thinking. As sons of Dionysus, they are larger-than-life party boys. To them, life is one huge party and nothing can bring them down. They celebrate everything and find any excuse to throw a party. In addition, they have mixed feelings about their godly parent being present at camp. On one hand, it’s like being the children of the school principal; people don’t really like their dad and don’t want to get in trouble with him and Pollux snd Castor have to deal with all that weirdness. On the other hand, it’s cool having a godly parent who’s close by and not as absent as other godly parents.

As twins, Pollux and Castor are joined at the hip; they do EVERYTHING together (including quests!) and Pollux can’t imagine a world without his brother in it. However, Mr.D starts to wonder if they’re too dependent on each other. Mr. D makes this comment to Pollux but he brushes it off. It’s okay if they depend on each other because they’re brothers and Castor will always be there, right?

During BoTL, Pollux and Castor fight side by side. However, they get separated in the heat of battle and they have a hard time fighting enemy demigods because they’re not used to fighting without each other. Just as an enemy demigod is about to kill Pollux, Castor manages to find an push his brother out of the way, and takes the hit instead.

After Castor’s death, Pollux becomes consumed with grief and depression. He stops participating in camp activities and stays in his cabin most of the time; he also doesn’t throw parties anymore. Dionysus tries to talk to him, but Pollux doesn’t want to talk to him; his dad is a god who wouldn’t understand. Mr. D reminds Pollux that he was once a demigod who lost his mother, but while Pollux appreciates the comfort, he is still grieving. He also develops a deep hatred for enemy demigods, and doesn’t sympathize with them or act merciful towards them the way Percy does.

The year between BoTL and TLO, Pollux becomes more and more bitter, getting snappier with his friends.. He also becomes consumed with training, because he has struggled with fighting monsters without Castor at his side. His friends try to talk to him about his behavior and mental health, but he doesn’t want to hear it. All Pollux can think about is his anger and desire for revenge.

During TLO, Pollux is absolutely brutal towards the enemy demigods, despite the campers he is with reminding him that the enemy demigods deserve sympathy. Pollux brushes this off, as the enemy demigods had no sympathy for him or his brother. Pollux eventually runs into the enemy demigod that killed Castor. Pollux becomes consumed by revenge and actively tries to kill this demigod, even if it means not following the battle plan. As a result, he endangers both himself and his fellow campers. One of the campers, who is Pollux’s friends sacrifices themselves to save Pollux and the others, allowing Pollux to get away with just an injury.

As he’s escorted to Olympus to heal, Pollux feels so bad about the dead camper and how much he has let grief and revenge consume him. As he rests in Olympus, he thinks about how the camper and Castor sacrificed themselves for him because they wanted him to live. Grief and desire for revenge has stopped him from living, which he feels is not a great way to honor their memories. Pollux decides that it’s time for him to accept his brother’s death and move on.

Before the campers head back to CHB after the battle, Pollux finds out that the enemy demigod who killed his brother was killed in battle somehow. Pollux remembers the kid’s name and godly parent from when they fought, and ensures that he receives a shroud at the final funeral. Pollux also decides that he wants to move on from Camp Half Blood and enjoy the life that Castor and his camper friend sacrificed themselves for. This is why he disappears after TLO. But before he leaves, he decides to host one last CHB cabin party with the help of other campers to celebrate the camp’s victory over the titans.

- Katie Gardener: Katie’s arc is inspired by her maternal personality and Demeter’s distant nature from her children. In addition, it’s also inspired by the fact that Demeter kids are not seen as super combative or strong in the first series.

Like Pollux and Castor, Katie barely shows up in the book and has no known personality traits except for the fact that she is stern/maternal. So along with her maternal personality, I like to think that she is stern but kind and caring towards her friends, especially her siblings. She looks out for them the way a mom would, making sure everyone’s on track and well taken care of.

I also think Katie is protective, the way Demeter is protective of Persephone. She sees it as her duty to nurture and protect her fellow campers, especially her siblings. When she fails to live up to what she perceives to be her responsibility, she beats herself up. Katie is very passionate about family. She prioritizes being there for her friends and family as much as she can. She loves culinary arts, and regularly bakes, cooks, and adds to her recipe book in her spare time. I like to think that she and all the Demeter kids get along really well with the nymphs and satyrs moreso than any other cabin.

Lastly, Katie is very mature. She hardly ever pulls pranks or breaks rules. She’s also very wholesome and “vanilla”. Her sense of humor is very kid-friendly, and you won’t catch her doing things like making out in public or spending a night in the stables with a romantic partner, unlike another couple we know! 😉

As for an arc, here’s what I’m thinking. Demeter kids are less likely to encounter their godly parent than other cabins, because of how distant Demeter is. The kids all feel a little sad about this in various ways, especially Katie, whose father never remarried. Katie occasionally tries to reach out to her mom via prayer but Demeter never responds. Because she loves her siblings and prioritizes family, Katie takes it upon herself to be the “cabin mama”, and looks after her siblings in a similar way that a mother would. This leads to Katie also becoming very protective of them, especially on quests and in battle.

Now, Demeter kids don’t deal with monsters too much, so it doesn’t bother them to not be as skilled or strong in combat. But when battle/war with the Titan army becomes inevitable, they begin to worry that they might not be strong enough. Katie is especially worried prior to the BoTL, because she wants to protect her siblings and get them through the battle alive. She and her siblings do their best, but the Demeter cabin ends up losing the most campers during the invasion, for which Katie feels responsible.

After the battle, Katie becomes preoccupied on how to become stronger in battle so she can protect her siblings; she begins training more and more. In addition, she wants to increase her magical powers beyond growing fruits and cooking food. Unfortunately, Katie still struggles with insecurities about feeling weak, especially when she trains with stronger campers and loses in duels to them.

She becomes desperate and frustrated enough to pray Demeter for help. Katie admits to Demeter in her prayer that she has insecurities about being a child of Demeter. Not only is Demeter distant, but she feels like she’s not as strong as other campers. She begs Demeter for help, some kind of magic item or assistance that will make her stronger. Katie doesn’t think that the prayer will work as Demeter rarely responds, but she tries anyway, reminding Demeter that her kids are family and mothers should look out for their kids.

Demeter is initially silent, which angers Katie. Upon returning to her cabin one day, she finds bags of various seeds from her mother. which angers her even more. These seeds are not special; they are the same plants that Katie has always grown. Katie feels like her mother didn’t help at all, and declares Demeter to be an uncaring mother.

During the battle in TLO, Katie is very nervous about fighting and losing more siblings in battle, and she worries if her training will pay off. Unfortunately, when the battle first starts, the Demeter kids take a few losses. Katie finally snaps, and uses one of her seeds/plants in a way she’s never used it before to take down some monsters.

Surprised by this undiscovered power, Katie continues experimenting with her gifted seeds, and ends up discovering a bunch of new ways to use the plants in battle and protect her siblings. The Demeter kids take her cue and begin doing the same with their seeds, turning their assigned tunnel into a jungle and defeating the monsters.

Katie eventually realizes that Demeter gave her those seeds as a reminder that Demeter kids have always been strong and that they have to grow their own strength. Katie’s insecurities about being weak begin to fade away, and she and her siblings kick butt in the remainder of the battle.

Now, I don’t ship Tratie (Travis and Katie), but a cute Tratie moment would be if during one of the final skirmishes, Travis gets into trouble and is about to get killed, but Katie pulls off some awesome plant magic and protects him. Travis thanks Katie and is surprised that she’s looking out for him, and Katie tells him that even though he’s kind of immature and annoying, she still cares about all her friends and would never let him die on her watch.

- Lee Fletcher: Lee’s narrative is kind of hard because he has even less of a personality and lines of dialogue in the original books than Katie does. However, I am going to base his arc off the fact that he’s an Apollo kid and some of the things Apollo mentioned in ToA about not remembering his children.

Now, as far as counselors go, we already have an archery kid (Michael Yew) and a healer kid (Will Solace). We don’t really have a music, poetry, or prophecy kid who’s lead the cabin. However, I want to stick with archery for what I’m imagining with Will’s arc. However, since the kids can have multiple interests or powers, I think it’s okay for Lee to be a good archer AND a good something else. I’m leaning towards poetry because we’ve already seen a lot of music-related powers in ToA. So poetry-related skills would be a little different. Here we go!

So in my mind, Lee’s arc is all about trying to get his father’s attention. I imagine Lee’s backstory like this: he came to camp when he was pretty young, like maybe 8 or 9. However, it took a really long time for Apollo to claim him (think a year or two). Most of the campers suspected that he was an Apollo kid due to his good archery skills and interest in poetry, and saw his claiming as just a formality, but unfortunately, the claiming took a while to come. In fact, unclaimed Apollo kids who arrived at camp after Lee were claimed before him.

After he was claimed, Lee was excited to finally know where he belonged. However, he couldn’t help but feel like Apollo didn’t care about him or live him as much as his other kids. While other Apollo kids received quests, had their prayers answered by Apollo, or even got to meet him once or twice, Lee has never met Apollo or received any quests from him directly.

Lee missed the pre-TLT trip to Mount Olympus because he was helping another camper out with one of their quests. Lee decides to try and gain his father’s attention/respect by becoming the best he can be at his skills. He trains hard to become one of CHB’s best archers and his poetry is incredible; he has a special poetry book full of his best work. Lee’s siblings (and other friends at camp) love him and really look up to him, especially Michael Yew. I like to think that the two could be close, and regularly train at the archery range together. But while Lee appreciates his siblings’ love and attention, it doesn’t make up for Apollo’s absence.

If I remember correctly, Apollo drops Percy, Thalia, and the Hunters off at CHB before leaving in Titan’s Curse. Lee hears about this after the fact, and is so angry about him missing such a close chance to finally interact with his father in a meaningful way. As Apollo continues to ignore Lee, Lee grows more bitter over the years, despite his siblings and friends continuously trying to cheer him up. He even writes some sad poetry to express his feelings. When some of the campers start to talk about joining Kronos prior to BoTL, Lee genuinely considers going with them, as he wonders what makes the gods worth fighting for.

Just as he is deciding to leave, he has a heartfelt talk with some of the siblings in his cabin, including Michael Yew and Will Solace. Lee realizes how much he loves his siblings and friends at CHB and how much they’ve supported him. He decides that while the gods might not be worth fighting for, his friends and siblings certainly are. Lee enters BoTL, ready to defend the camp with his life, and that’s exactly what happens. He takes on more monsters than he can handle to protect his siblings, and ends up being taken down.

His siblings grieve him deeply and promise to never forget the hero he was. As an epilogue to Lee’s story, I know this didn’t explicitly happen in ToA, but I like to think that one of his siblings brought up Lee to Lester/Apollo while Lester was at CHB during The Hidden Oracle. Perhaps they even show Apollo Lee’s poetry book. As Apollo reads through the book, he’s very impressed, but notices that the poems get sadder and sadder, and are referring to Apollo not caring about Lee. Apollo notices the last page of the book is empty and asks what happened. The kids reveal to Apollo that Lee died in the BoTL before he could finish the book. It devastates Apollo to discover that Lee died believing that Apollo didn’t care about it; Apollo spends a long time feeling like an awful father.

At the end of ToA, Apollo honors some of his kids who have died recently, including Lee and Michael, by writing a heartfelt memorial poem on the last empty page of Lee’s poetry book. The end of the poem also honors the Apollo kids who are still alive, and Apollo ends the poem with a few lines where he promises to contact his children more. While Apollo’s affection came far too late, Apollo wants Lee to know that he was an awesome kid, and that Apollo is proud of him and all of his children.

- Michael Yew: Michael Yew is another hard one. While he definitely has more of a personality than Lee or Katie, it’s hard to think of an arc for him that matches his personality and the theme of his death. But here’s what I’m thinking (sorry if it’s not great!): Michael is known for being on the shorter side, but offering lots of attitude to compensate for his height. He also holds on to that chariot dearly, only letting it go when he realized that the battle was more important.

So here’s an arc: Michael dreams of being a great hero, the kind that people praise for their strength and wit during battle and talk about for years to come. However, when most people think of heroes, they think of big strong macho guys, not little guys like Michael. Michael is insecure about his stature and physique, so he tries to compensate through his personality and his battle skills. In addition to his attitude, Michael is slightly cocky and arrogant. He puts himself on a pedestal, tries to act like more than what he is. He can also be a little reckless in battle; he occasionally ignores the danger of a situation if it means getting to have his heroic moment.

Michael trains hard with Lee and becomes a great archer. He’s not quite as good as Lee, but he’s still pretty good. Now, Michael got claimed much faster than Lee did and he was on the pre-TLT trip to Olympus where he got to meet his dad, so Michael knows Apollo cares about him. However, while Michael has helped others on their quest, he’s never had a chance to lead his own. He dreams of this, as it would be a chance to show off his skills and his leadership.

After Lee’s death, Michael becomes the new leader of the Apollo cabin, a role he takes seriously as he continues to try and prove himself. However, Michael’s attitude and arrogance come into play again a little bit, always looking for a chance to shine. His siblings tell him that he’s doing a little too much, but Michael doesn’t listen.

When the summer of TLO comes and quests are thrown out the window in favour of the raids, Michael is actually excited, because the chance that he will get to lead raids like he’s always wanted is more likely. However, the leadership thing doesn’t really work out because other counselors who already have experience leading (Annabeth, Percy, Clarisse, etc.) usually take charge. However, in the quest with the Ares cabin, Michael finds his moment to shine and ends up being a major hero in the battle. As he finally gets his moment of glory, Michael feels that as the “hero” of the raid, the chariot is his to keep, but as we know, Clarisse disagrees. The argument plays out the same way it did in canon, while emphasizing Michael’s arrogance.

As the campers are getting ready to leave for Manhattan as per Percy’s request, some kids in the Apollo cabin suggest to Michael that he should give Clarisse the chariot. When Michael demands to know why, his siblings tell him that it’s critical for the Ares cabin to be there if they go into battle, and that the chariot and his personal glory as a hero is not worth their absence.

At first, Michael disagrees, but then he does some self-reflecting not only on the chariot, but also on the qualities of a true hero. He really doesn’t want to let it go because the chariot is like a symbol of personal glory to him. However, he realizes that trying to shine as a hero isn’t the most important thing in the world; what matters is all the campers coming together. He tries to make peace with Clarisse by the chariot, but as it happens in canon, Clarisse holds on to her grudge, and Michael gets mad at her.

The battle begins and Michael’s on the bridge with his siblings. Michael is trying his best to lead and takes on the bulk of the monsters, but they’re struggling a lot and a lot of his siblings are getting hurt, even killed. In that moment, Michael doesn’t feel like much of hero; he feels like he’s losing and that the battle is impossible. Thankfully, Percy and Annabeth show up and things play out as they did in the books, right up until the beginning of the bridge scene. Michael’s siblings are trying to get to safety on the Manhattan side of the bridge, and Michael knows that he should probably get down and join them. However, he notices that the bridge is weak and comes up with a brilliant plan. Michael realizes that if the plan works, they’ll earn a win over Kronos by stopping him and his army from crossing over. Not only will this save them, but it’ll be a plan that Michael came up with. It’s a heroic moment that Michael has trouble resisting, even after his self-reflection from earlier.

Percy tells Michael to go but Michael ignores the request and informs Percy about the bridge. While Percy considers the plan and then goes to execute it, Michael has a split second chance to get off the bridge. But he’s so caught up in seeing his plan work out and watching the bridge collapse, that he doesn’t notice the cables giving way underneath him. He falls and smacks his head on one of the metal rods on the bridge, which renders him unconscious so that he doesn’t scream when he falls silently into the water. He ends up drowning In the river.

When Michael Yew’s death is confirmed, his siblings honor him as a hero. However, when they give their euology, they emphasize that what made Michael a great hero wasn’t necessarily how cool he was in battle. It was his better moments, like comforting Lee, and giving up the chariot if it meant getting Clarisse to come. This is what he is remembered for.

Sorry, I know this arc is kind of lame. I also know that it implies Michael is to blame for his death. However, I just couldn’t think of a reason as to why Michael would stay on the bridge long enough for it to collapse and take his life. Even as he fell, he could have jumped or even resurfaced in the water and yelled for help. The logistics of his death are really sketchy, so I did what I could.

- Will Solace: So out of all the tertiary characters in PJO, Will is the most fleshed out due to his newfound importance within the Solangelo ship. However, I’m going to be honest: I do not like Will’s canon personality. Therefore, I’m going to deviate from canon big-time and cook up a different Will in this post.

When I envision a boy who’s into healing/medicine, I imagine a much softer and sweeter person who pushes people when they need to be pushed, but in a gentle loving way (so more therapeutic). I also envision Will as a slightly flirty guy who enjoys romance a lot, and fantasizes about his ideal relationship all the time. Lastly, given his role as a son of Apollo and his light-related powers, my imagined arc for Will is all about toxic positivity, and his challenges dealing with the darker sides of being a half-blood.

Additionally, this version of Will Solace is a fairly sheltered kid. He lives in a part of the country where there isn’t much monster activity and crime/tragedy etc. He grew up in a relatively happy family…no significant trauma, abuse, neglect, relationship issues, etc. As a result, Will is a pretty optimistic, happy-go-lucky person who’s almost never in a bad mood. He always looks for the bright side in everything.

However, while Will’s optimism is generally a good thing, he sometimes falls into the trap of toxic positivity, where he pushes away darker topics and serious conversations in favour of keeping things light. This initially makes him a hard person to have nuanced conversations with, as he tends to dodge the issue at hand. Will also does this with himself. Whenever he feels sad or dark feelings, he refuses to do emotional reflection. He just bottles up whatever he’s feeling and forces himself to be “happy”.

Will is forced to confront the darker aspects of demigod life and life in general when he arrives at CHB the first time. As he talks to new friends and siblings about their backgrounds and learns more about the gods and the Greek world, he realizes there’s a lot of dark conflicts going on around him. In addition, as a healer, demigods don’t just come for healing with physical injuries. They also tend to talk about their emotional scars as well.

As much as Will cares for his siblings and friends. he finds all of the trauma overwhelming, and pushes it away as much as possible with toxic positivity. To him, anything can be fixed by just choosing to be happy and focusing on positive things. His siblings try to point out this toxic positivity and ignorant bliss, but Will doesn’t understand at first. To him, there’s nothing wrong with choosing to focus on happy things instead of dwelling on difficult feelings.

However, as the conflict with Kronos progresses, more battles happen, and more and more demigods get injured and killed. Campers open up about their grief of losing friends to death or to Kronos’ army, and Will finds it harder and harder to keep acting like these issues aren’t happening. All the feelings he’s bottled up come spilling out in BoTL (a recurring theme in this post, as you’ve noticed). Following the battle, there are a lot of dead demigods to assess, and a lot of injured demigods to try and heal. The healers from the Apollo cabin are working overtime and are struggling to attend to everyone. Will tries his absolute best to save as many demigods as possible, but some of the injuries are just too grave to fix.

The worst is Lee Fletcher. Will is tasked with trying to save his older half-brother and Will overextends himself trying to fix Lee’s injury. Unfortunately, it was never going to work as Lee was already almost dead anyway. After watching his brother die, Will’s first reaction is to do what he’s always done: bottle up the bad feelings. His siblings notice this and tell Will that it’s okay to not be positive all the time, and sometimes the best healing comes from facing sad and dark feelings instead of running from them. Will finally breaks down and sobs, letting out all the fears and worries about the dark side of being a demigod that he has kept inside over the years. His siblings give him advice on how to handle and overcome these dark moments.

Between BoTL and TLO, Will starts to change. He doesn’t lose his optimistic outlook, but he stops running away from difficult topics and conversations. He slowly becomes one of the best healers at camp not just for physical injuries, but because he’s now able to talk to people about emotional stuff as well.

This comes in handy during TLO after Michael Yew dies and the Apollo cabin is an emotional mess after losing another counselor within a year. Will is very nervous about being the new counselor; he’s not a renowned archer like Lee Fletcher or Michael Yew and doesn’t think that he will be as useful in battle. However, Will finds his groove as the battle progresses. His archer siblings take care of the battle stuff while he focuses on healing, and using his newfound coping skills, he’s able to console his siblings and keep the cabin (and camp!) together emotionally until the war is won.

These coping skills that Will has learned within this arc complement his future relationship with Nico. Nico’s status as a child of Hades causes people to fear him because of the creepiness of Hades’ domain and Nico’s powers. However, Will is one of the few campers that has no issues with Nico because Will has gotten better and better with confronting uncomfortable things. In addition, his therapeutic skills come in handy when talking to Nico about his trauma and emotional hardships. Rather than the snappy/angry Will that we get in BoO, we have a softer Will who validates Nico’s feelings and experiences, but gently pushes him to see that he is cared for and that there are people who want to be his friend, especially Will.

- Jake Mason: Jake Mason’s arc is all about living in the shadow of Charles Beckendorf.

As the anchor of the camp, Charlie is not only loved by all the other campers, he’s loved by his siblings. People admire his personality, his engineering skills, his looks, everything. As a result, the Hephaestus kids start using Charlie as the standard to live up to, especially when they’re building inventions. “What would Beckendorf do?” quickly becomes the motto of the cabin.

Jake Mason has mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, Charlie is a great guy and totally deserves this kind of praise. And Jake really admires him too. On the other hand, as the next oldest sibling, Jake feels a lot of pressure to be just like Charlie and to do everything the way Charlie would do it. Jake has a hard time with this because he’s not as talented as Charlie and he has a different way of doing things.

This becomes a major issue in TLO after Beckendorf dies and Jake becomes the new cabin counselor. Not only is Jake grieving, but now he has to lead his cabin mates in war while they’re all grieving as well. Since everyone misses Charlie, Jake feels a TON of pressure to be Beckendorf 2.0, and he’s not very good at it. His siblings don’t mean to add to the pressure; they just really miss Charlie and are accidentally projecting that onto Jake. Things come to boil during the battle of Manhattan when Jake tries to build and use an invention that Charlie designed. Unfortunately, Jake did not build it correctly and the invention ends up failing, leading to the Hephaestus kids nearly losing the skirmish and needing to be rescued by other campers.

After this, Jake goes to sulk. Nyssa Barrera and Will come after him, and he talks to them about all the pressure he’s been feeling to be just like Charlie. Will tells Jake that he knows how he feels - Will has also worried about not being enough like Lee or Michael. Will also tells Jake that he can’t be anything other than himself, and that he should focus on what he is good at instead of what Charlie was good at, just like how Will focused on his healing. Nyssa apologizes to Jake on behalf of the cabin for putting so much pressure on him to be just like Charlie, and she tells Jake that they appreciate him exactly as he is. She also supports Will’s message of focusing on what he can do.

Jake takes this advice and builds his own invention his way, instead of the way Charlie would have done it. When it’s time for battle, the invention seems like it’s going to fail at first, but it ends up pulling through, and the Hephaestus kids win the skirmish. Jake grows a lot in confidence and leads the cabin through the rest of the battle using his own style of leadership instead of trying to copy Beckendorf.

- Drew Tanaka: So like many fans, Drew’s canon character disappoints me because I’m tired of all the girly girls in this franchise being depicted as mean or shallow with no additional depth. I’m okay with Drew starting out as mean/rude girl but I want there to be more to her character.

My arc for Drew is her struggle with Silena’s betrayal. Prior to Drew’s first arrival at camp, she struggled with making true friends. Most of her friendships were based on shallow things, like wanting to be pretty and popular. This changes when she comes to CHB and meets some of the nicer girls in the Aphrodite cabin, including Silena. Silena is incredibly sweet: she looks out for all the girls in the cabin, is always willing to give a helping hand, is always offering a shoulder to cry on, is always willing to give her siblings advice about beauty, fashion, romance, and is just a good friend in general.

Despite Drew’s more blunt personality, she enjoys spending time with Silena because Silena shares her interests but also offers her a friendship with kindness and love. Silena’s motto of “spreading love and beauty” makes Drew admire her a lot. Drew and Silena grow really close as they get older; they’re practically besties and hang out together when Silena isn’t with Beckendorf. They shop together, do each other’s makeup and hair, help each other pick out clothes, bedazzle their weapons together, etc. They talk about everything under the sun; light-hearted stuff like makeup and clothes, and deep stuff like their family backgrounds and the gods maybe not being so great. Lastly, there are these matching charm bracelets that the girls share. One of the charms on the bracelet is of two girls holding hands. Silena and Drew both have this matching charm as a symbol of their friendship.

Aside from Charlie, Drew is the only other camper to suspect weird behavior with Silena as the story progresses. During one of their more serious conversations, Silena says some things that make it sound like she’s siding with Luke and the Titan army. This is because Silena is feeling insecure about her spying and is secretly trying to seek validation for her actions. Drew finds this odd and shuts Silena down; as far as Drew is concerned, Kronos is evil and there’s no siding with him. Drew is surprised that Silena would even bring this up. After all, Kronos/Luke has harmed a lot of demigods and as a sweetheart, Silena should show more empathy about that. Silena feels bad about getting shut down and doesn’t bring up the topic again.

During Silena’s death in the canon story, Drew was not present. However, in this version of her arc, she is present when Silena dies. Drew is shell-shocked and heartbroken when Silena reveals that she is the spy; she can’t believe that her sister would betray everyone at camp like this, including her own siblings. When Clarisse insists that Silena is a hero, Drew is the is the first to openly push back against this narrative. She argues back and forth with Clarisse about the extent and the awfulness of what Silena has done, including the fact that the spying led to Charlie’s death and the harm of other campers. She vows that she will never view Silena as a hero, and runs away from the scene in tears.

When Silena’s shroud is being burned at the end of the battle, Drew hangs back and doesn’t follow her cabin to burn the shroud, a symbol of her refusal to forgive Silena. Clarisse tries to talk to her about it, but Drew shuts her down. When Drew becomes the new cabin counselor, she does everything in her power to get rid of Silena’s influence; she changes a bunch of cabin rules and traditions that Silena had implemented. This makes Drew’s siblings upset, but Drew doesn’t care. She doesn’t want to be reminded of Silena whatsoever and she doesn’t believe in honoring traitors.

At the end of the summer before she goes home, Drew is standing alone in the cabin. She looks at the friendship charm on her bracelet, and thinks about everything that happened with Silena that summer. She thinks about how much she valued Silena for her kindness and true friendship, only to find out that Silena was betraying her and the camp all along. Drew starts to cry and rips the charm off her bracelet in anger. She tosses it in the garbage and leaves camp for the summer.

Drew’s arc concludes in HoO when Piper comes along. In order to have Drew’s arc play out how I want it, some of Piper’s story has to change. However, I’m not interested in the HoO characters for this post, so I won’t go in depth on how Piper’s arc changes, but just know that this version of Piper is also a deviation from canon. In this version of the story, things are still messy in the Aphrodite cabin, with Drew having changed a lot of cabin rules. and with her personality souring a lot since last summer. Prior to Piper’s quest, things play out similarly to how they did in the books but this time, with more emphasis on how Drew’s heartbreak regarding Silena is influencing her behavior.

When Piper returns from the quest, rather than having that classic “new girl stands up to mean girl moment”, Piper insists on figuring out why Drew acts the way she does. A heated argument occurs between the two girls until Piper says the phrase “spreading love and beauty”. This reminds Drew of Silena and Drew breaks down in tears. She reveals to Piper that Silena used to say something similar, and finally opens up about her heartbreak regarding Silena. Drew specifically mentions that she brought back the heartbreaking tradition because Silena’s betrayal made her very pessimistic about things like true love. Piper, Drew and the Aphrodite siblings have a heartfelt conversation about love, heartbreak, and why Silena might have done what she did. After the convo, Drew is not quite ready to call Silena a hero, but she has a lot more empathy towards Silena than she did before.

Drew’s arc ends with some of the Aphrodite kids revealing that they saw the charm that she tossed out last summer and decided to hang on to it. Drew accepts the charm back, symbolizing her finally making peace with Silena’s actions and death, and forgiving Silena to some extent. She peacefully offers the counselor position to Piper, stating that she (Drew) could use a break, and that Piper would make a great counselor. In addition, Drew helps Piper reinstate some of Silena’s cabin traditions.

- Malcolm Pace: Malcolm’s arc is inspired by the idea that he is a good battle strategist and the fact that kids who academically excel often struggle with perfectionism.

Like most Athena kids, Malcolm is pretty good with all academic subjects, but his favorites are modern history, especially warfare and military conflicts. In particular, he likes to study the battle strategies used during those conflicts. Malcolm’s goal is to become one of the best battle strategists at Camp Half Blood. While his siblings are good at coming up with plans for smaller monster encounters, Malcolm focuses more on large-scale battles. He studies formations, battlefield weapons, military strategies, and other things.

Malcolm’s personality is the following; he’s generally a kind person, but he can be a little snooty at times, like most Athena kids. He doesn’t make fun of anyone for being uneducated, but he does get annoyed when he hears dumb ideas. He’s also very passionate about academia, and his idea of fun is always book or learning-related, like study dates, exploring libraries, watching history movies, etc. Malcolm is also incredibly studious; while other campers are pulling pranks or riding canoes, he’s analyzing battle elements.

Malcolm’s desire to be a top strategist stems from two things:

1) He really wants to impress his mother. Malcolm has never met her, and he wants her to be proud and impressed by him the first time she meets him. Malcolm knows how much Athena admires wisdom and good planning, and him leading the camp to victory in an epic battle using good strategy would be the perfect way to stand out to Athena. He would be a hero not just in terms of strength and prowess, but also in terms of being smart and clever.

2) With the arising conflict with Kronos, battle is becoming more and more likely. Malcolm knows the camp will need help with preparing for battle, and he wants to be the one to do it. Yes, a big part of it is pride and impressing his mom, but he does genuinely care about the camp and wants to protect them.

As the story progresses, Malcolm gets a couple of chances to show off his knowledge starting in SoM against the monsters invading camp; he does pretty well and his plans help the campers take down the monsters. Malcolm is proud of himself, but in his eyes, these are just small conflicts. He wants to prove himself in a real major battle.

He gets his chance when BoTL rolls around and the campers learn of a possible invasion. While Malcolm is of course afraid for the camp, he knows that this is his major chance to prove himself as a strategist by outwitting the Titan army. While Percy and co. are on the quest, Malcolm is planning like crazy. He’s scouting the area around Zeus’ fist, he’s analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of each cabin, he’s looking at the placement for canons and other battlefield weapons, he’s mapping out offensive and defensive strategies.

The day of the invasion arrives, and Malcolm believes that he’s ready and that his plans will lead to victory. Unfortunately, Malcolm misses a few details in his planning due to stress and overworking himself. In addition, he has not planned for certain things with the Titan army, such as Kampe. As a result, Malcolm’s plan starts to fall apart partway through the battle. He tries his best to salvage it, but it doesn’t work out, and this leads to the deaths of a few campers.

After the battle, Malcolm is devastated and feels that he failed big time. However, because of pride, he is too ashamed to acknowledge what went wrong and refuses to talk to anyone about his plan falling apart. He decides to just ignore the whole thing and pretend that it never happened.

Unfortunately, Malcolm is forced to confront his failure when Athena chooses to visit him for the first time at the end of the summer when everyone has gone home. Athena is visiting Malcolm out of concern for his mistakes made during the invasion. Athena feels that these mistakes were very avoidable and were a big oversight on Malcolm’s part. She is even moreso disappointed that Malcolm has chosen to ignore the whole thing. She tells Malcolm that she has high expectations for him and wants to him to wisen up, as more battles will come and Malcolm will need to get it together. After Athena vanishes, Malcolm cries; he imagined his first meeting with Athena being a much happier one, but all she did was express disappointment, which makes Malcolm feel like a huge failure.

Over the next year, Malcolm’s perfectionism kicks in and he goes overboard with the studying and analyzing; he refuses to do almost anything else, not even sleep. In addition, he becomes hypercritical of himself, beating himself up for every mistake, even the little ones. His siblings, especially Annabeth, become concerned, but he doesn’t listen. He refuses to fail again, and will do anything to show Athena that he can do this. Unfortunately, this lack of balance isn’t good long term, and Malcolm starts to slip. During the raids in the summer of TLO, he has a hard time focusing in battle and starts making more and more mistakes, which he beats himself up for.

This vicious cycle comes to a boil during the battle of Manhattan. When the campers realize that they’re going to engage in another big battle to defend Manhattan all by themselves, Malcolm realizes how important strategy is going to be and how this will be a second chance for him. In addition, Annabeth will be staying with Percy for the battle, so it’s up to Malcolm to lead the cabin. However, Malcolm isn’t feeling very confident. His strategist skills have felt weak for some time, and he isn’t sure if he can lead the cabin to victory.

When the fighting initially starts, he does okay but is feeling very stressed. During one of the skirmishes midway through the battle, another one of Malcolm’s plans fail, causing him to finally snap and cry out of frustration. When his siblings try to comfort him, he reveals to them that Athena visited him last summer to express disappointment about his failures and he hasn’t had faith in his plans since. His siblings reassure him by sharing some of their own failures with him and reminding him that failure/mistakes are a normal part of gaining wisdom. They tell him that no matter how many mistakes he makes, he is still a smart guy and an awesome strategist.

Malcolm feels very comforted by his siblings, and regains a bit of confidence again. Instead of running away from his failures this time, he sits down and thinks about what is causing his plans to fail, analyzing what went wrong and what went right. He comes up with a new series of plans for the rest of the battle that end up working really well, and Malcolm becomes happy again as he feels he has gained back his mojo.

At the end of the battle, Annabeth congratulates Malcolm and says that he did a fantastic job. At the end of the summer, he gets another visit from Athena, who expresses pride in him for his work during the battle. She reiterates how important it is to not run from one’s mistakes and to keep learning from them, she reiterates that this is wisdom. Malcolm is happy to finally hear his mom say that she’s proud, and goes on to become an excellent strategist.

- Butch Walker/Lou Ellen Blackstone/Clovis: (different minor god kid perspectives)

These mini-arcs are based on different perspectives and experiences the minor god kids could have. We already had Ethan, who joined Kronos army immediately after learning who his godly parent was.

Butch: Butch can be an example of a minor god kid who came to Camp Half Blood and decided to support the gods in the war. This was not an easy decision because the demigods use Iris’ domain for communication all the time, but don’t see fit to give her cabin, something Butch finds disappointing. However, he’s made a lot of good friends at camp and couldn’t imagine siding against them. In addition, rainbows are often a sign of peace, so the idea of carrying out a war doesn’t sit well with him.

Lou Ellen: Lou can be an example of a minor god kid who is initially at CHB, but decides to switch sides. Lou feels that despite being a powerful goddess, Hecate doesn’t get enough respect. When Hecate switches sides, she calls out to Lou to join her and Lou does. However, Lou is one of the campers that Connor and Travis talk to about how Kronos doesn’t really care for them. When Lou realizes this, she questions fighting for Kronos and decides to switch back to CHB, much to Hecate’s frustration. After the war, Lou and Hecate speak about what happened and reconcile.

Clovis: Clovis can be an example of a minor god kid who has known his demigod parent for some time and has always sided with Kronos from the start. When he’s not sleeping, he’s very busy with doing favours for Kronos/Morpheus including helping them recruit demigods by sending messages in people’s dreams or putting enemies to sleep in battle (similar/identical to what happens in one of my favourite PJO fanfics, Daughter of Wisdom. I can’t remember the author’s name at this time but it should come up if you Google it).

In line with the idea that Kronos doesn’t truly care about demigods, Clovis starts being overworked at some point, which exhausts him more and more. He asks for breaks and rest time, but the army doesn’t care; he has work to do. Clovis grows more annoyed with the army over time, even debating quitting. When the titans lose the war but minor kids are welcomed to camp, Clovis feels a sense of relief, as he can now rest and feel safe/welcome.

Aaaaaaaand that’s it! If you read all the way to the end, thank you! I know this was a very long post 😂 Anyhow, I really enjoyed this creative exercise and coming up with story arcs for these characters. If you liked any of the ideas, please let me know. I like writing and want to write my own story someday, so feedback on which arcs were good would be helpful. Thanks!

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cescalr · 2 years ago

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thalia x reyna from percy jackson for the ask (i'm pretty sure you've read heroes of olympus but if i'm wrong, ronance from stranger things)

I will answer both and this is gonna be soooo controversial (for the second) lol ack

Also; I'm on mobile, and this is going to get long, and i cant link any suppirting posts that explain my perspectives better than i can, lol. If you want, i'll dm the metas. I hope I get the keep reading thing right, but if it doesn't work... sorry. Summary:

Tl:dr; I could see reynalia working, maybe, but I'd need to read some to get a proper feel for it. It might be one of those cases where I prefer it in polyamorous form, aka reynaliabeth. Reynabethalia. Or maybe when put alongside pipabeth (idk piper/annabeth...) Idk. As for ronance, just not my cup of tea for a variety of reasons. I prefer robin crossover ships, like my tiny little dingy of tarabin. (Tara Maclay/Robin Bucley).

Reyna/Thaila (reynalia??) Is not something I've ever considered, to be honest. I'm not sure how compatible they'd be, but I do ship annabeth/thalia (I should really look up pjo ship names, huh) and I've even given thalia/percy a go, because I'm firmly in the camp that you should give most ships a chance before you write them off completely (as it stands, the most controversial pjo ship I've ever read would either be luke/percy or nico/Sadie - that was written before he was confirmed as gay, though, so it's a grey area, like pre-confirmation romantic stobin fics, or willow/oz content, though differently so for the latter*).

Given all the above, I can't say I don't ship it, but I can say I'm not sure. I think given I like thaliabeth (??) and reynabeth, it wouldn't be a stretch to ship reynalia, though!

(*willow is controversial because of a clash between people who interpret her being called a lwsbian as biphobic vs people thinking calling her bisexual as lesbiphobic, its a whole deal I don't want to her into rn but... eeh, I guess I should state that I'm in the camp that her being bisexual is the most logical reading of canon, her status as a lesbian is a self-identifier because she swore off dating men, not because she isn't attracted to them - she cheated on Oz with Xander for purely lust related reasons, her whole thing with the will be done spell, and her actions with Amy when she goes off the rails (magically forcing men to dance half naked In cages in the bronze, along with other questionable acts) is... uh, not particularly lesbian behaviour, generally speaking; imo, Willow uses being gay as a mask for her insecurities same as she does her witchy power and her choice of fashion - to distance herself from the 'pathetic' girl she used to be. Its a whole psychological thing tied up in era-typical bigotry, unfortunately. It was the 90s. She wasn't going to be addressed as bi, even though she so clearly was. There's a reason I really like 2000s doctor who - it was the first positive representation of a bisexual I'd seen on screen, and being bisexual is clearly going to affect my opinion, here. Like. Duh. Same with lesbians who interpret her as lesbian. I don't think we should be arguing- at the end of the day, we all technically want the same thing; personal representation of our own lived experiences, and that's not a bad thing. Theres a good video on youtube about the controversy, which. Theres always a good video on youtube, lol.)

Um. Oops, rambling. Anyway.

So, ronance. Oh boy.

I see Nancy as straight. I'm also not fond of how she treats Robin in the little time we see them together. Im also not a fan of robin dating the ex that broke her bestie's heart. So, ergo, I don't ship them. I'm genuinely, as much as it probably doesn't seem that way, more of a fan of friendship, at the end of the day. I would see it as a betrayal (same way I see scolia and stydia as a betrayal). I tend to use romantic/sexual relations as a way to explore character because that's easiest to get my points across, but I prefer friendship. Romance is, at the end of the day, conditional. Friends can be friends still after three years of no contact, but that's a signal for the end of a romance. So what I'm getting at here - you can be tentative friends with someone the way robin and Nancy act (as is their canon dynamic), but I wouldn't be conformable with them dating. Nancy barely tolerates Robin. She displays annoyance at pretty much everything she does, from rambling to venting to expositing her mental state, Nancy's countenance just screamed 'I'm waiting for this to stop'. I don't like that in friendship, and I like it much less in romance. Even with my most controversial ships, there's still a kind of passion. Hate is not the opposite of love - it's apathy. Nancy seems often apathetic to Robin's mental state, her worries and concerns. She dismisses a lot of what robin says and does, at least from my perspective watching them. And it must be said - and I'll freely admit - I'm not Nancy's biggest fan, but I love Robin, she's my girl. That's going to cause some problems. Even with ships that are objectively questionable, I have to like both characters for me to get behind it, or I have to like both characters when in the context of the ship. This makes little sense, so I'll extrapolate.

In the Vampire Diaries, I don't really like Stefan Salvatore, and unpopular opinion time, I hate Klaus. I really, really hate him. At this point, it's straight-up loathing. But I greatly enjoyed their dynamics, from 20s to modern day, and that they shared an ex was funny to me (same way it is with Zutara, and making jetko kinda-canon for that reason alone half the time, akfjqlfjwk) as well as being an interesting thing to happen. (I mean, what are the odds, really?). So there's that. I also liked stefan and Katherine's whole weird deal, which played an aspect. What I'm trying to say, I guess, is that there's a certain respect even in my most dubious ships (jetko, steo, fuffy, spuffy, etc) that I feel is completely lacking in ronance. There's a video by Jill Bearup about enemies to lovers ships that might give a good reason to one aspect of why I like it - they take each other seriously. There's an understanding of competence, an acknowledgement of thought processes, a certain level of understanding. Nancy has none of that for Robin.

When I compare the two ships of the 'fruity four', as people have taken to calling them, steddie and ronance strike me as two very different kinds of ships. And I only half get steddie (very not fond of popular portrayal) - there's no real chance for me to get ronance. It is what it is, I suppose. People like what they're going to like. If you want me to extrapolate on any of this, I'd be happy to! My thoughts are oft all over the place and need a bit of direction to make sense, though, fair warning. I think about a lot of stuff and only rarely coherently akdhlwkfkq but I think there is a throughline. At the end of the day, mutual respect is mandatory for me, in romantix relationships especially, but not only for that. If I can't really get behind ronance platonically, there's no hope for romantically. And for the record, as stated above, I did give it a shot. Read the most popular fics and then a couple of the most recent, as I always do. They didn't agree with me, and they left me feeling distinctly... well, not so distinctly because I can't find the right word, but I couldn't help feeling the way I do about the popular portrayal of Hermione is happening to nancy? She's perfect and flawless and a girl boss and has never made a mistake ever and I just.... eeh. Also the treatment of Robin is... not always great. But that's a whole 'nother topic I've already rambled long enough, I don't need to add that.

Basically, tl:dr; ronance is kind of disquieting, probably because I'm not fond of their characterisations within ronance fics, and I'm often affected by the fanon regarding a ship. I never liked Sterek, for example, but I could've tolerated it if a) it wasn't so prevalent in fandom that it appears often untagged like an accepted part of canon when it is not and b) if it didn't so wildly misinterpret the characters, plus didn't include a character that doesn't sit right with me (Derek - Nancy) and a character I love but portrayed in a way that doesn't even remotely align with my interpretation of them 95% of the time (Stiles - Robin).

Er. Yeah. Oof.

:).

(As you can probably tell, I have... lots of very complicated feelings about shipping Robin (and like, shipping in general, being honest) with canon ST characters. I'm much less strict abt Riordanverse characters as a whole, for reasons I'd be perfectly willing to extrapolate on/discuss if you'd like to do so!).

♡♡

#ask game #♡♡♡ this was difficult but a good exercise in trying to put my thoughts into words thank you!!#:)#st #pjo #hoo #anti-ronance #jic i dont want to upset anyone #its not anti-anti but im not a crosstagger or an asshole so ergo #its like just not my cup of tea for a variety of reasons #that this tries to explain some of :) hope thats okay lajglqogkqjfp #idk what you think of ronance or reynalia? hope our opinions dont clash too much lol #at the end of the day. at least we both ship steo alfjwldjkwhfkqjdkajfk #all fun and games anyway! silly not to get along bc of something as dumb as differences in ship opinions lmao #♡

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percabethfeelsfandom · 3 years ago

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How I’d rate the Gods/Goddesses(riordanverse)

This is my rating based off the way Rick Riordan portrayed them in the Riordanverse. The traditional myths have been taken into account but do not make up my entire opinion.

Hestia:

10/10 would give my life for this goddess. In all aspects of the word, this goddess is a goddess. I want a novella of her watching over the hearth and watching out for her family and the heroes. I imagine her being a very comforting presence and warm like a hug, and maybe this is me projecting my mummy issues but I just want her to hug me.

Dionysus:

A solid 7.35/10 for Mr D. Naturally he was a bit annoying, but we were never under the pretence that he he was meant to be anything more than what he provided and I respect that. Him caring about his kids at camp, and staying relatively loyal to his wife is always a plus. And I like his relatively humble beginnings being a hero and becoming a god and then not causing that much trouble in the series. Unlike some other pieces of shit.

Hermes:

4/10. Mans had no right blaming Luke’s thirst for mass genocide on 16 year old Annabeth. Not cool man. Not cool. He gets the points he got because he did genuinely care about Maia, and Luke, but he lost the rest of them by having a blatant favourite (who literally caused so much destruction). However I do still like his line about family in sea of monsters and never giving up on them. Nice meaning. But he was still a shitty father and only intervened out of self interest most of the time.

Aphrodite:

2/10. I hate how low I have to rank her. But my god did Rick do her dirty in his depiction. Just the misogyny, the lack of depth, and the untouched potential she has as a character, as a goddess, THE OLDEST GOD/GODDESS and Rick really made her throw rose petals around the battle fields on one of (what was meant to be) the biggest fights of the riordanverse. Absolute robbery. If I’m not mistaken as well, she was a huge contributor to the issues and obstacles percabeth went through and we do not Stan. HOWEVER, I love her as a goddess normally, and what she could represent if she’s written properly.

Hephaestus:

8/10. I have no qualms with this man. I too prefer the company of inanimate objects to people and get stressed about social interaction. And I too have mummy issues. So me and Hephaestus are on the same page. Let this man tinker away in his little bunker. He never went out of his way to make things harder for demigods, and was helpful when they came to him for help which I can also respect. (Point deduction because it was on his land that Bianca died…if I’m not mistaken).

Ares:

-12/10. This man was introduced as a bully, and gives off the vibes of every phobic, known to humanity. I do not vibe. I do not agree. I do not stan. ALSO his motorbike seat is apparently made from "Caucasian human skin”!!!!!!???? We as children never questioned this? We just went sure aight move on?! Please this man has the biggest small dick energy if I ever saw it and I despite him so much. Mans was also never helpful. Ever. I don’t think. I think Mars was better than him though so I’ll give him that.

Artemis:

9.99/10 all hail queen of the lesbians. Mad respect to this woman. In what she stands for, who she protects and in her actions. She’s what I embody when I stand up for myself in fights and when I speak to have my voice heard. I like Rick’s depiction of her and I love seeing her and her hunters pop up in his books. Would love a couple books on the hunters and their adventures. Also I love archery. And I’m biased to the moon because I love the night so she gets extra points for all of that too.

Apollo:

Prior to Trials of Apollo 7/10, after TOA 9.90/10. Yes it’s a big jump but my god did Lester grow on me. Prior to TOA he was pretty average. He was funny, always provided a good laugh to the plot and was always helping the demigods which I loved. But I know he’s an asshole full of himself so I can’t give him any higher than that until he had some character development, which we got in TOA (specifically after Burning Maze). And I really like who he is now and the type of character Rick shaped him out to be. In the myths he’s a big creep, and I still stand by that idea, hence why he doesn’t get a full 10.

Athena:

3.5/10…ughhh I hate to say this. But part of it is the same reasoning I gave about Aphrodite. I just have so many issues with the way she’s portrayed and it’s not accurate to what I believe in my heart she should represent. And as a child of Athena, I feel like Rick then did her entire legacy dirty. She has her moments, but since I can’t even fully recall one right now, it just proves my point. As a goddess as a whole though, what she represents is everything I aspire to be in life. She’s my entire aesthetic of hard work, creativity, and strength and grit, without taking away of being a powerful female. Zeus’ lead strategist like shit, Rick could have done so much. But he did not. And I am thus sad about it.

Demeter:

6/10. I have no issues with Demeter. Kinda boring. I think that’s what most of the fandom thinks as well. She just didn’t get enough screen time or development. I have no attachment to her. I think the powers that she has, and has passed on to her kids is cool though so there’s that. But in the series as well she doesn’t do much. She also (initially) doesn’t fight in the battle of Manhattan so maybe I’m slightly bitter there. But yeah, i’m indifferent.

Hades:

8.99/10 Okay so hear me out I know this man gets so much bad rep in the myths and that’s part of why he doesn’t get a full 9. But I really really love the way he’s depicted in the riordanverse, especially with his entire arc with his kids/specially with Nico. Like literally one of my favourite quotes In the entire series is “my children are so rarely happy, I would like to see you be the exception.” Out of the gods listed here (and excluding Dionysus), he acts like a genuine parent to his kids and tries. And like there’s issues, sure, but he works on them. And since so much of the first series is about how the gods are neglectful, seeing him change and seeing him fight for Nico is my everything.

Poseidon:

7.1/10. Honestly this feels too high considering mans was nearly If not just as bad as Zeus in keeping it in his dam pants. His points come from treating Sally like the queen she is, and trying with Percy (albeit too little too late but I can see the minimal effort). That being said, he’s really shitty in the myths so I can’t really give him anything higher than this. He’s barely a dad, and sees Percy more as an ally than an actual son or human being that needs attention. I like him more in Fanon and the way that I write him lmao because I humanise him. But I won’t lie he’s dilf material, and I still like rick’s depiction of him.

Hera:

3/10 I’m surprising myself with this rating because tbh I might even push her to 4.5 just because she’s so consistent in her own goals and agenda, and that perseverance is very admirable even if it was at the cost of some of my favourite characters. She was very much two faced though and fucked around stuff that she should have stayed out of. Her hatred for literal children though is a bit problematic. I have no attachment to her but I admire how much she just wants a family. However she just really needs to assess how she approaches that since it’s a bit messed up.

Zeus:

-5/10 I really don’t Zeus, his character, him in the myths, everything about him. He gives off the vibes of a man who abuses the power that he was given. And I don’t like that. It makes me uncomfortable and I don’t like him at all. His treatment of his children, of the demigods, and the way he governs Olympus. Not a fan. I could rule Olympus better and I’m a mentally unstable, serotonin deficient 20 year old with a hyper fixation on greek mythology and Minecraft. However despite not liking his character, I think Rick does a great job at depicting him accurately to how he was in the myths.

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annabethy · 4 years ago

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fall into midnight

in which percy can’t sleep, there’s the terror of being new parents, but with annabeth, he doesn’t think he minds,, percabeth,, no plot just happiness

After almost ten years of sleeping next to his wife every single night, Percy likes to think that he knows her sleeping patterns well enough to not wake her up. Annabeth is curled up in his arms like a surly kitten, with Percy rubbing up and down her smooth back under the oversized t-shirt she wears, and he can feel each labored breath she takes against him.

Percy desperately doesn’t want to get up because she hasn’t slept in what seems like forever, and he’d feel bad if she were to wake up, but he’s wide awake and figures he poses more of a threat if he stays here with her in his arms.

He slips her out of his arms, making sure her head settles gently against the pillow, before he slides out of the bed entirely. Immediately, he feels the contrast of the cold air from the heat of her body, and he nearly climbs back into bed. Annabeth shifts slightly to wrap the comforter further around her, and Percy bends down to press a kiss to her forehead.

Percy treks to the living room silently, skipping over the creaking floorboards, and he finds himself minutes later sitting against the couch with the tv playing on the lowest volume. The situation feels a bit surreal, it being three in the morning with the only light coming from the glowing screen. It offers him a semblance of comfort, and he sits hypnotized, just thinking about life a few months from now.

He’s excited, and understandably nervous, but he loves Annabeth more than he thought possible, and he’d do anything for her. Annabeth is quite literally the love of his life, and he knows that it’ll never change.

His thoughts are interrupted by the squeaking of a floorboard behind him, and it causes him to turn in his seat on the couch. He finds Annabeth staring back at him, guilt written across her face like she’s just been caught doing something she’s not supposed to be.

“Hey,” he says softly, muting the tv with the remote. “Are you okay?”

“You weren’t in bed.”

“I couldn’t sleep,” he tells her. She doesn’t say anything else, so he just looks at her. She looks painfully cute in his t-shirt that falls a little above her knees and her tousled hair. Her stomach protrudes underneath it, and she just looks so tiny in his clothes with her baby bump, entirely warm and homey. “Why are you up?”

“I can’t sleep without you,” is her quiet response. She sounds almost embarrassed to admit it, though she’s never been before, so he chalks it up to the effect of the early hours and holds out an arm towards her in invitation.

Annabeth lays down next to Percy, her head resting on his lap, and Percy caresses her head, brushing a couple loose strands of hair behind her ear. She closes her eyes soon, but he can tell she’s not actually asleep.

They sit in silence for a while, Percy looking down at his wife and wondering how he got so lucky, and Annabeth with her eyes closed and breathing uneven. Something nags at the back of Percy’s mind as he looks at her, and it brings a slight frown to his face. He palms at her bump for a second and notices the way she’s curled up like she’s trying to protect herself from the outside world.

“Annabeth,” he prompts, gentle as though not to scare her. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

She nods but presses her face into his thigh to hide from his gaze.

“Baby,” he pleads, grabbing her hand and bringing it to his lips. “Talk to me.”

“No.”

His lips quirk up slightly. “No?”

“Mh-hm.”

“Please?”

Annabeth whimpers, and it breaks his heart. “I had a bad dream.” He doesn’t say anything and instead gives her a chance to continue. He holds her tight, doing his best to comfort her in any way he can.

“It was scary,” she says, “and I just… I have no idea what I’m doing. We’re going to be raising a baby, but I don’t know what to do, or how to be a mom, and I might be bad at it, and— It’s almost here and I don’t know if I’m ready.”

Percy frowns and pinches her side. “Don’t say that.”

“It’s true.”

“No, it’s not.” Percy shifts her slightly, so she has to look up at him. “You’re going to be an amazing mom.”

She laughs, but it’s choked, and he knows she’s on the verge of tears. “Okay.”

“I’m serious,” he tells her, soft but stern. “You already love her so much. Of course you’re going to be a good momma.”

“What if I’m not?”

“You will be,” he says. “I don’t know how to take care of a baby.” “You think anyone does?” Percy smiles softly, leaning down so that he can press a kiss to her nose. “No one knows what they’re doing, including me. But you care, and that’s how I know you’re going to be the best mom our baby could have.”

“How are you not terrified?”

“I am,” he admits, “but I have you. When have we ever not been able to do something when we were doing it together?”

Annabeth sniffles, but gives him a weak smile. “Never.”

“Exactly.” Percy lifts Annabeth off of his lap and lets her lay on the couch so that he can hover on top of her. He presses a soft kiss to her lips before moving down so he can lift up her shirt and expose her swollen stomach. It’s insane, the amount of love that fills him at the sight.

That’s their baby.

After the life they’ve lived, spent wandering the country just trying to figure things out and survive, he thinks they deserve this. Compared to everything they’ve faced, raising a baby should seem like nothing, but it’s arguably the most nerve-wracking thing he’s ever had to do.

It’s scary, knowing that there’s going to be a human that relies on them in only a few months. Their baby to love and support. But he knows it’ll be worth it.

Percy presses a kiss just below her belly button and smiles when he feels the nudge of a kick.

“I love you two so much,” he whispers, pressing his cheek to her stomach.

He slides between her and the couch this time, throwing a hand over her waist and pulling her in close. He gives a lingering kiss right behind her ear, and whispers, “It’s you and me. We’ve got this.”

And Annabeth turns so that she is facing him. Her arms bend between them, and her nose presses into his shirt. “I don’t want to go back to bet yet.”

“Okay.”

“I want to stay here a little longer,” she says. “Stay with me, just a little longer.”

It’s them against the world. They’ll be alright.

Percy kisses her forehead. “For you? Always.”

#percabeth #percy jackson #pjo #annabeth chase #percy jackson and the olympians #my writing

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thehopeofitalll · 4 years ago

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"How am I attracted to you?"

read it on ao3.

“I’m studying!” Percy announced.

Annabeth looked up from her book. “That’s good!” she said. “I’m proud of you.”

“But you know what that means,” Percy continued.

“What does it mean?”

“You-” he pointed to her for extra emphasis. “-have to stay away from me.”

Annabeth scoffed. “That’s a stupid rule.”

“What can I say?” he said. “You’re very distracting.”

“Is that a compliment?” she asked, smirking.

He shrugged, leaning forwards and kissing her forehead. “If you want it to be.” Annabeth watched as her boyfriend stood up and disappeared into their room. She sighed, standing up to get her laptop and opening it up to start on an essay she had to write for her Architectural Design History class

She had been working on it for a while when she noticed that she hadn’t seen Percy around for a long time. Annabeth stood up, curious, and walked into their room to find Percy asleep on their desk.

She stifled a smile, and shook Percy’s shoulder. “Perce, wake up,” she said softly. “Percy!”

“I’m awake!” Percy yelled, jolting up. “I’m awake,” he repeated, rubbing his eyes.

“Studying, huh?”

“I was studying,” Percy said. “It’s just that this desk began to look like a really good place to sleep.” He yawned.

“I could help you if you want,” she offered.

“Nope,” he said, firmly. “You’re distracting.”

She rolled her eyes at him, smiling. Her eyes scanned the desk, and she furrowed her eyebrows at one object. “Why is there a stuffed animal on your desk?”

“He's not a stuffed animal, he's Bob and he keeps me from losing my mind,” Percy replied, in a matter-of-factly tone.

Annabeth let out a soft sigh. “You know what, I’m not even gonna question it. Now, come, let’s go grab something to eat then maybe I can help you study, okay?”

II.

Annabeth’s eyes flew open, and she lay near Percy, staring at the ceiling and wondering why she woke up. Then, she heard her stomach grumble.

She groaned, getting out of bed to scrummage their kitchen for something to eat. She wasn’t exactly the best cook, but she knew enough to make something that looked edible. Well, most of the time anyways.

Pulling out a box of mac and cheese, she set some water to boil.

“Wise Girl?” came Percy’s voice, as he entered their kitchen. He ran his hand through his messy hair. “What are you doing up at what time is it?” He glanced at the clock. “Uh...3:30 in the morning making...mac and cheese?”

“I’m hungry,” Annabeth replied. “Duh.”

“And you decided to come and cook with what confidence?” Percy asked, trying hard not to smile.

“Look, I don't ask for much in life, but just this once, could you not question my madness for like 10 minutes,” She said, rolling her eyes at him.

“Wise Girl, I love you from the bottom of my heart but I don't trust your cooking. Stay out of my kitchen.” Percy said sternly. “You remember the last time you ‘cooked’ right?”

“Uh…” Annabeth recalled the time she tried to bake blue chocolate chip cookies to surprise Percy, after getting the recipe from Sally. To put it simply, it had not gone well. “Yeah, I do.”

Percy walked towards her. “So, maybe it’s best if I take care of this, okay?” He said, softly.

“Ugh okay,” she said, smiling at him. “Thanks, by the way.”

“Anything for you, Wise Girl.”

III.

Annabeth flipped through the pages of her book, her eyes scanning the words. She felt a tug on her hair, and glanced over her shoulder to see Percy freeze, caught in the act of playing with her hair.

She raised her eyebrow. “Percy, what are you doing?”

“Nothing,” he said. “Go back to reading.”

She stared at him, then turned her head back to her book. She felt another tug, and glared at Percy. “Percy, don’t touch my hair.”

“Ssh! Stop fussing. I’m braiding your hair.”

Annabeth rolled her eyes. “I don’t need my hair to be braided.”

“Don’t worry, you won’t even feel me braiding it,” he said. “Just turn around.”

She groaned, then continued reading, while Percy continued to braid her hair. A lock of her hair fell over her shoulder and she suppressed her annoyance. “Percy….”

“Yes?”

“You interrupt my reading once more, and this book will become a lethal weapon,” she warned him.

Percy scoffed. “At times, I think you love your books more than me.”

“Well, it isn’t a lie,” she said.

IV.

Annabeth played with a few strands of Percy’s hair, glancing down at his concentrated face—which consisted of him sticking his tongue out—as they watched a mystery movie.

“Quit staring at me, Chase,” he said, teasingly. “Eyes on the TV.”

“I wasn’t staring at you,” she said, even though it was extremely obvious that she had.

“Sure,” he said.

Annabeth smiled at her boyfriend. Percy’s phone chimed nearby, and when she glanced to see what it was, her heart nearly melted. She laughs softly, causing Percy to look up at her.

“What happened?” He asked her.

She held up his phone. “Am I your lock screen?” she asked.

Percy froze. “You weren’t supposed to see that,” he replied, trying to reach for his phone.

“Aw, Seaweed Brain, it’s fine!” Annabeth said, smiling. “It’s cute that I’m your lock screen, ‘cause guess what?” “What?”

Annabeth searched for her phone, then held it up for him to see: they had the same picture of each other as their lock screens.

Percy grinned. “Maybe we are made for each other.”

“You’ve been spending way too much time with Piper.” Annabeth turned her attention back to their TV. “I bet you, Jim killed them.”

“No,” Percy said, shaking his head. “It’s definitely Vanessa.”

Annabeth groaned, walking into their apartment. “I could die.”

“Well, I certainly hope you don’t,” Percy said, glancing at her from their couch. “What happened?”

“Long exam,” Annabeth mumbled. “I can’t speak.”

He raised an eyebrow, then patted at the seat beside him. “How long?”

“Three hours,” she said, taking off her socks before collapsing next to her boyfriend. “So exhausted. Can I snuggle up to you?”

“Sure,” he said, putting his arm around her.

“What if we’re all just living in a simulation?” Annabeth asked.

“Oh no,” Percy pulled away from her. “We’re getting to Existential Crisis Annabeth.”

“It makes sense though!” she exclaimed. “Like, it makes sense, what if our life is an experiment?”

“I highly doubt that,” he said. “Alright, maybe let’s get you to sleep before we reach Giggly Annabeth.”

“Hm,” Annabeth glared at him, pulling her feet up, resting her head against his chest.

“Wise Girl, quit touching me, your feet are cold!” He whined.

“I. Sleepy.”

“Uh...how long have you been awake for?”

“32 hours, 20 minutes and 45 seconds.”

VI.

Percy groaned, shuffling through his clothes. “Annabeth?” he yelled, finally giving up his search.

“Yeah?” came her voice from the other room.

“Have you seen my hoodie?”

“...Nooo.”

Percy sighed. “You’re wearing it, aren’t you?”

“What makes you think that, Perce?”

He rolled his eyes, and walked towards her. “Give me the hoodie.”

“It’s mine now!”

“Sharing is caring, now give me the hoodie!” He said, reaching out for her.

“Nope,” Annabeth said, smirking. “You should’ve hidden all your hoodies before you decided to let me in your life.”

VII.

“Perce?”

“Yeah?” he asked, craning his neck to see her.

“This is serious, okay?” Annabeth said, focusing her eyes on him. “Am I...too competitive at Monopoly?”

“...No,” he said.

She rolled his eyes. “I can tell you’re lying, you know. Be honest, am I too competitive?”

“Maybe...maybe just a little bit,” he said. “And-ouch! Wise Girl!”

She looked at him innocently, like she hadn’t just smacked him with a pillow. “What?” Then she smacked him again.

“YOU SAID TO BE HONEST STOP HITTING ME!” He yelled.

VIII.

Percy walked across their apartment nervously. He called Annabeth when he was a few feet away.

“Percy?”

“Hey, so, um...totally random question here, but what would you do if I dyed my hair?” Percy asked.

“...Did you dye your hair?” Annabeth asked in turn.

Percy gave a fake laugh. “No! What makes you think that?”

“Percy…” The door to their bedroom opened up, and Annabeth peeked out to find a blue-haired Percy Jackson. She groaned. “Percy!”

“Surprise?” He said, giving her jazz hands.

“I think we need to have a talk, mister.” She folded her arms. “You dyed your hair blue?”

“I mean, you should’ve known it was coming,” he protested weakly. “I waste time trying to find blue maple syrup, how did you think I wouldn’t dye my hair?”

“You never find blue maple syrup! I thought you were gonna give up on your obsession one day or another.”

“How am I attracted to you?"

#percabeth #percabeth au #percabeth fluff #annabeth chase #percy jackson #my fic #fluffy percabeth #they're so 🥺

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night-fallz · 4 years ago

Text

XY’s Muse

Based on this prompt

Like I have stated before, this is my first fanfic. Please let me know what you think of it. Any kind of criticism will be welcome.

uploaded on 01/23/21

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Ao3 // Wattpad

previous II next

Chapter 2

XY was staring at the ceiling. A week has already passed. And he still couldn't stop thinking about the day he spent with Marinette. It was the most fun he'd had in a while.

Before the whole Silencer fiasco, his father would not stop pressuring him to produce a new song. So when they met up for dinner and his dad came up with the idea of stealing someone else's music, he couldn’t bring himself to decline.

XY knew it was wrong.

But all he wanted was the chance to finally impress his dad. Bob Roth might not have the best attitude towards him, but he was all XY had left.

Xy already lost his mom. He would not lose his dad too.

At least, that's what he believed. He should've known that his father was just using him for money. According to his dad, money was the most valuable thing in life.

XY scoffed. He should've known better. He should've known that all his father thought of hi-

He felt a buzz in his pocket and his face immediately brightened. Marinette just texted him!

Marinette: what's up?

Marinette: have u been inspired yet?

Marinette gave XY the idea to just sit back and let inspiration hit him. It was a common idea but it was one that most people tend to forget in the long run.

XY: nothing much

XY: and nope.

XY: my dad has been pressuring me to come up with something tho

Marinette: ignore him

Marinette: he's just mad cause he can't get any ladies

The three dots popped up on his screen.

Marinette: OH CRAP I'M LATE

Marinette: TTYL.

XY rolled his eyes and smiled.

They've been texting back and forth these past few days. He's learned so many things about her and vice versa.

It was nice. It's been a while since XY has had a friend.

Maybe she'll be even more, XY couldn’t help but think as he ran a hand through his hair.

"Huh," XY said out loud. "Even more"

And just like that, inspiration for his next song hit him.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Marinette was thinking of a certain blonde-haired, blue-eyed musician when she heard her phone ring.

"Tikki!" she screamed, staring at her phone as if it was Hawkmoth himself.. "He's calling me. XY is calling me."

Tikki sighed and floated next to Marinette, "Maybe you should answer it. It would be pretty rude to keep him waiting."

"Right, right," Marinette answered his call and hoped her voice didn’t sound as squeaky as she thought it did.. "Hey."

"Hey."

There was a moment of awkward silence.

Marinette didn’t know what to do. She glanced at the small goddess.

Tikki rolled her eyes at their awkwardness as she gestured to the phone. Ask him why he called you, she mouthed to Marinette.

Marinette nodded. That was a smart idea. "So," Marinette cleared her throat. "Why did you call me?"

"Right, Uhm." Marinette heard him shuffling around his room. "You know how you've been asking me if I was inspired and stuff?"

Marinette's eyes grew wide and a huge smile took over her face as she started to nod before remembering that he couldn't see her. "Yep." she eagerly said, "Did you find any?"

"Yes!" Marinette could hear the excitement in his voice. "I was actually wondering if you wanted to design the outfits for my music video."

Marinette's eyes looked shocked. "Yes!" she jumped around in excitement before remembering she was still in a call with XY. "Why me though?"

XY’s voice sounded confused.. "What do you mean, why you? You're literally perfect for it. You're talented. Plus, everyone loves your designs."

Marinette’s cheeks resembled a tomato. She has never been more thankful for the fact that he couldn't see her right now.

"Thank you." Marinette managed to mumble. "That really means a lot."

"You're welcome." XY said. Marinette had a feeling he was smiling though. "I have to go and have my dad listen to the demo. But I'll text you later, okay?"

"Yep," Marinette whispered and gave Tikki a cookie. "Good luck. I know that whatever song you came up with is gonna sound good. No matter what he'll say."

Marinette heard a faint "Thanks" from the phone before the call ended.

Marinette screamed into her pillow and looked up and saw Tikki look at her with amusement. “I think I like him.”

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"So, what do you think?" XY asked as his father finished listening to his song. "Is it bad? Do you think people will like it?"

Bob Roth grinned at his son. "This is a Masterpiece. Where did you find this?" He gestured to the video of XY singing the song, "Who did you steal this from?"

XY's proud smile immediately turned into a scowl. "What do you mean, who did I steal this from?" He yelled at his dad, his blue eyes glaring at him as he grabbed the demo from the table. "I made it. I came up with it myself." XY felt his eyes tearing up. "Something you would actually know if you thought of me as something more than a money-making machine."

How could he? XY thought as he climbed up the stairs. Is it that hard to believe that I could come up with something good?

XY slammed his door shut. "All I wanted was to prove to him that I wasn't a talentless son." XY put his hands on his face. "I just wanted to make him proud."

XY felt a buzz in his pocket and immediately knew that it was Marinette. After all, she’s the only one that ever texts him.

Marinette: how did it go?

Marinette: did he like it?

XY wiped away the tears that were starting to come out of his eyes. He couldn't help but smile. Marinette certainly had an effect on him.

XY: he called it a masterpiece

Marinette: yes! I knew he would like it.

XY: yeah

XY: but then he asked me who i stole it from

Marinette: THAT JERK

Marinette: WTF

Marinette: THAT's SO MESSED UP

Marinette: HOW COULD HE-

Marinette: DO YOU WANT ME TO BEAT HIM UP FOR YOU????

XY laughed at her text messages. He only started to text her and he already felt better.

XY: no, it's fine

XY: i actually yelled at him

Marinette: ...

Marinette: do you feel better?

XY: actually, yep.

XY: he's a really sucky father

Marinette: for some reason, a lot of the blondes i know have a toxic parent

Marinette: it's kinda sad

XY: maybe it's a paris thing

They texted back and forth, XY laughing at the memes Marinette sent.

XY: You're definitely a daughter of Athena

Marinette: ( ⚆ _ ⚆ )

Marinette: is that a percy jackson reference i see

XY: yep

XY: have u read the books?

Marinette: duh

Marinette: you haven't lived til you've read the books

Marinette: sadly, the movies sucked tho

XY: I KNOW

XY: ANNABETH WASN'T EVEN BLONDE

Marinette: EXACTLY!!

Marinette: SJSJSJSJSJSJ

Marinette: THE MOVIES SCARED ME FOR LIFE

XY: oh yeah

XY: before i forget

XY: what's ur insta?

Marinette: which one

XY scrunched his eyebrows up in confusion.

XY: What do you mean by which one?

Marinette: i have two

Marinette: one as my personal one and the other one for commissions and stuff

XY: ohhh

XY: smart

Marinette: i know ;)

Marinette: my personal one is @Mdupaincheng and the one for my commissions one if @MDCdesigns

XY switched his apps and searched up Marinette's personal instagram. He clicked on the first result that came up.

The profile picture was Marinette in a blue, silky dress that went just above her ankle. There was a slit on her left leg that showed her knee. It was nighttime and Marinette was practically glowing under the city lights. She was staring at something on her right side, with one hand running through her silky black hair which was down for once.

She looked hot.

After XY stopped admiring her profile picture, he finally noticed her follower count.

She had 200,000 followers. 200,000.

It wasn't as high as XY's follower count, that was still quite a lot.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

XY: i didn't know u were insta famous

Marinette: wdym?

Marinette: which acc

XY: ur personal one

XY: u have over 200k followers

Marinette thought that she read his text wrong. There's no way that Marinette had that many followers. 200,000? There was no way.

Marinette: ur lying

XY: I'm not.

XY: check ur acc

It's been a while since Marinette has logged onto her personal account. The hate she got the last time she's been signed in was too much for her and when Alya told her to log out and just focus on her other account, @MDCdesigns, she couldn't bring herself to argue against her.

Marinette hasn't even thought of that account since that day. So when she logged in and saw that XY wasn't lying, she accidentally dropped her phone in shock.

Tikki looked at Marinette with a questioning look.

Marinette ignored her kwami and texted the blue-eyes boy back.

Marinette: HOLY SHIT

Marinette: I HAVE 200k FOLLOWERS

Marinette: HOW TF DID THAT HAPPEN

XY: when was the last time you checked ur acc

Marinette: about 3 months ago

Marinette: the media thought i was adrien's gf and his fangirls came at me

Marinette: i got a ton of hate and a friend of mine told me to log out and just focus on my @MDCdesigns acc

Marinette: so i did

Marinette: i haven't thought abt that acc since then

XY: the fangirls were probably just jealous

XY: it's been months so they probably calmed down

XY: I'm looking through the comments rn and so far the latest hate comment you've got was about 2 weeks ago

XY: you've got a bit of a fanbase yk

Marinette: WHAT DO I DO

Marinette: DO I JUST CONTINUE NOT TO POST OR SHOULD I POST SOMETHING ON MY STORY ABT HOW THANKFUL I AM FOR 200k

Marinette: HOW COME NONE OF MY FRIENDS TOLD ME ABT THIS

XY: don't post anything rn

XY: post a picture of yourself and the caption it something that shows ur thankful for the number of followers u received

XY: OH

XY: a few hours before u post the picture, make sure u post on ur story abt how ur back from ur break on social media

XY: that way ppl will understand why u haven't been active

XY: it'll also have ppl prepared for ur post and they'll be waiting for u to post it

XY: that'll give u more engagement and stuff

Marinette: thank u

Marinette: that was really helpful

Marinette: when should i post something?

Marinette: AND I STILL DONT KNOW WHY MY FRIENDS DIDNT SAY ANYTHING ABT THIS

XY: u told ur friend that u were taking a break from social media right?

Marinette: yes

XY: then they probably weren't expecting u to post anything so they weren't checking ur insta

XY: u should post something on the weekend

XY: that way ppl wouldn't bother u during school this week

XY: if u want i can help u come up with ideas tomorrow?

Marinette: yes, please!

Marinette: do u wanna come over

Marinette: we can plan it in my room so that ppl won't overhear us

XY: guess I'll see u tomorrow then

XY: just text me the time ur available and I'll be there

Marinette: make sure to wear a disguise tho!

Marinette: we got lucky last time and no tabloids caught us

XY: ur right

XY: we must've been really lucky if no one got a pic of us

XY: but okay

XY: I'll wear my best disguise

XY: goodnight, princess

Marinette blinked a few times, making sure she read the text correctly.

Princess.

Marinette: goodnight ♥

previous II next

This is the first chapter of the story. Please let me know what you think

1,967 words

Tag list:

@iglowinggemma28 @mica-aa @lady-bee-fechin @maskedpainter @snnoww26 @ravenr22 @spiritofchaoticdreams @ravennm84 @heaven428 @finn-cipher @peterxwade24 @aliceofice22 @queenamongthorns @captainmac6

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phykios · 4 years ago

Text

honesty and promise me, co-written with @darkmagyk [read on ao3]

Update: Annabeth has not done what needs to be done.

August moves over into September, hot and sweltering days giving way to the first few hints of the coming autumn chill. One unseasonably cold night, Annabeth had gone to bed wrapped in one of Percy’s old Paris Opera sweaters, waking up with it and wearing it home to ward off the chill of the morning drizzle, like some a normal girlfriend would.

It’s a problem, she knows, but she just cannot quit this man.

And boy did she try, about a hundred different times.

One time, she spent an entire Tuesday before seeing him googling around until she found a picture. It was three years old, and it showed Mittie--oh, sorry, Her Royal Highness Margherita--at a soccer game in Moscow. Next to her is the handsomest man in the world. Percy’s hair is shorter, and something about his windbreaker reminds her of some of the crew boys she knew at Harvard. They aren’t touching, but they are both smiling. This is the kind of girl Percy deserves. This is the kind of girl he should want. His type. She reminds herself of it for hours before meeting him at a show. But the smile he gives her is nothing like the one in the pictures with the princess. And when he whispers what he wants to do to her that evening, she just can’t do it.

She even took him to his favorite pizza place once to soften the blow. But then she thought about how her dumping him would forever taint the magic of Antonio’s for the both of them, and she just couldn’t abide that.

So she kept putting it off. And putting it off. And putting it off.

And then he asked her to dinner with his parents again, on his one night off in three weeks.

“You’re sure you don’t want me to bring you something?” he asks for the fourth time, concern making his connection thin and tinny.

“It’s just a little stomach thing,” she lies, shaking out a ramen flavor packet. “I’ll be fine. You go have fun with your mom.”

“Okay. I’ll call later to check up on you.”

She rolls her eyes. “I’m just going to be asleep.”

“Talk to you later.”

“Yeah.”

He clicks off. Her apartment is very quiet. For lack of anything else to do, she decides to check her mail.

Who even mails anything anymore, she thinks.

Rifling through the pile of wasted paper, she sighs at the banality of it all. Junk, junk, junk, NYCB brochure she needs to cancel, junk… Harvard?

She peers at it.

The red seal is unmistakable, as is her name, printed in neat, black ink. “Ms. Annabeth Chase.” Why are they contacting her? And more importantly, who the fuck gave them her address?

Hands shaking, she unfolds it. “Dear Ms. Chase,” it reads, “Thank you for your generous contribution to the Harvard Graduate School of Design. As one of our most promising graduates, we are so pleased and thrilled to receive your encouragement. With your gift, we were able to reach our fundraising goal of $2.5million, which will go to support the various operations of the school, so that we can continue to provide a top-notch education for your fellow students. You do make a difference for us, and we are immensely thankful for you!” And then it goes on. “As a thank you for your generous gift of $15,000, we would like to invite you to the Alistair Moore dinner for distinguished graduates and faculty. We would be delighted to receive you at...”

She can’t finish, dyslexia scrambling the words in front of her. Or maybe that’s just her, trembling so hard she has to sit down. Fifteen thousand. The Alistair Moore dinner. She knows it well, yet another fancy networking event, like the Eta Industries party. Bile rises in her throat. Who would…

The answer hits her like a freight train. Only one person would be so bold.

Crumpling the letter in her fist, she pulls out her phone, dialing the number she still stubbornly has memorized, despite deleting it off her contacts list.

She isn’t sure if she’s upset that she gets his voicemail, or relieved. “Hey, dad. It’s me,” she says, grimacing as she starts off like he wouldn’t recognize her voice. Like it’s any other phone call. “I got your message. The Alistair Moore dinner? I’m not going. I told you, I don’t want your help. I don’t need your help. What I need,” she sneers, “is for you to butt out and leave me the hell alone.”

Then she hangs up, before she can chicken out and delete it.

She shoves the letter into her recycling bin, down to the very bottom. Out of sight and out of mind.

Well, her night is pretty much ruined.

Ramen growing colder, she lies on her couch, her head hanging over the edge, studiously not looking at her phone. She shouldn’t have left that message. She shouldn’t have opened that letter. She shouldn’t have rebuffed Percy’s invitation. Or maybe she was right, in all those situations. Who the fuck knows. Who the fuck cares. Her leg bounces, frantic, stomach roiling.

Like a gunshot, her phone vibrates on her coffee table. Annabeth catapults herself up, reaching for it, nearly dropping it, even as her eyes begin to blur. Please let it be her dad. Please let it be anyone else but her dad. Please. Please. Please.

checking in, writes Percy. feeling any better?

With a sob, she hits call. He picks up after the second ring.

“Hey,” he says, softly. “Everything okay?”

“Can,” she hiccups. God damn it. God damn her. “Can you please come over?”

She can feel his demeanor change over the phone. “I’ll be right there,” he says, calm and collected. “What’s your address?”

Her address is supposed to be a secret. No one is supposed to know where she lives. She doesn’t even like Luke knowing where she lives, and he might be the closest thing she has to family right now. But she tells Percy, and he promises to be there within thirty minutes. Throwing her arms over her face, she lies back down, breathing through her nose so she doesn’t vomit.

He makes it in twenty. here is the simple text, devoid of any hearts or emojis, and she buzzes him up. Less than a minute later, he knocks on her door. “It’s open,” she calls, pressing the heels of her hands into her eyes.

Softly, the door clicks open, someone smoothly and quietly stepping inside. “Annabeth?”

“Here,” she moans. She should get up to greet him. She can’t feel her legs. She can’t feel anything at all.

The couch dips as someone sits next to her, a warm, large hand on her shoulder, and she can’t help but open her eyes. Percy is there in his blue sweater that she returned the last time she had slept over at Nico’s apartment, his brow furrowed in worry, but he’s smiling a little, too, just happy to see her, to see that she’s safe. In his other hand, he holds up a plastic bag. “I brought you a cookie,” he says, gently. “Chocolate chip.”

Annabeth blinks. “It’s… blue.”

He nods. “It is.”

Blue cookies. His mom’s special recipe, he had told her, for bad days of aching feet, harsh dance instructors, and school bullies.

The dam breaks.

She launches herself into Percy’s embrace, sobbing. He tucks her head into his neck, his arms coming up around her. “It’s okay,” he murmurs. “It’s okay.”

“I’m--I’m so sorry,” she gets out, in between heaving breaths. “I just--I didn’t want to be alone and--”

He shakes his head against hers, his nose in her hair. “I’m here. It’s okay.”

They sit there for a long, long time, him holding her as she cries, pathetic. She can only imagine what it must be like from Percy’s end: here he was, having a lovely dinner with his mother uptown on his night off, only to get a frantic call from his hookup, demanding that he drop everything and rush to her side. And he did. He even fucking brought her one of his mom’s special cookies.

She does not deserve this perfect, amazing man.

It’s that thought more than anything else that pulls her out of her spiral, her sobs abating somewhat. “There we go,” he says, sweetly. “I’m going to get you some water, okay? Be right back.”

Resisting the urge to hold onto his sleeve like some kind of child, she lets him pull away, stepping into her kitchen. Head aching and eyes puffy, she can’t even really register the fact that he is in her apartment right now. Her secret hideaway. Her sanctum sanctorum. He can see her tasteful couches and her expensive coffee maker and her giant TV screen.

But honestly? She doesn’t care about any of that right now. All she cares about is the long, solid line of Percy’s body next to hers as he sits back down next to her, handing her a glass of water. She drinks it down, greedily, falling back against him, his hand automatically coming up to her shoulder, and she turns into his side, drinking him in, just as desperate.

They don’t speak, just holding onto each other.

As she drifts off, there on her couch, her arm around Percy’s midsection, she only has one real thought in her head.

Forget the apartment--this is her sanctum sanctorum. This is her safe space.

***

Annabeth wakes up in a bed that isn’t her own, in an apartment that isn’t her own.

It reminds her, weirdly enough of her mom’s apartment, she thinks as she sits up in the soft, cream sheets, here in New York. She had only ever been a handful of times, whenever her mother deigned to claim her for their allotted family time. She doesn’t remember much about that place--mostly the skyline through the window, the low, uncomfortable furniture, the spotless, empty kitchen.

Across from the bed is a mirror, squat and wide. Annabeth has her hair back, her face devoid of metal. She looks tired, she thinks, and maybe a little older, dark, heavy bags beneath her eyes. She’s wearing a real, actual set of pajamas, rather than a sweater or an oversized shirt, pale pink silk tight around her body.

Shaking her head, she looks down, and spies a thin band of gold on her left hand, which rests on her stomach, sporting a slight, but noticeable curve.

Only then does she realize it’s a dream. She lets out a grateful sigh. Just a dream.

It seems like a pretty boring one, too. She’s older, a little fatter, and has a nicer apartment. Somewhere in the distance is the indistinct sound of a person singing. And beyond that the even more indistinct sound of the city.

Stumbling out of bed, her feet falling into a pair of soft, pink slippers, perfectly positioned next to her bed, she makes her way out into the apartment. The walls are cream, decorated with generic seaside landscapes, a nondescript sailboat in the background against an unchanging, cornflower blue sky.

The kitchen is empty. Breakfast is cooked, laid out on a placemat at the kitchen island, but no one is there eating it. No one is there cleaning up, or making coffee. The food looks delicious, like a magazine spread: a perfectly made bowl of granola and yogurt, a lemon poppyseed muffin, a glass of orange juice on the side. Nutritious. Small.

It’s weird. It’s really weird.

Moving on, she enters the living room. There’s a little girl on her knees, maybe three or four, she’s wearing a red pinafore over a white polo shirt and Mary Janes shined like the top of the Chrysler building. The preschool version of a prep-school uniform. She’s hunched over the glass coffee table, frizzy blonde curls bouncing as she moves her hand back and forth, scribbling with a colored pencil on a piece of paper.

All of a sudden, she notices Annabeth standing there.

“Mommy!” She jumps up, holding the pencil behind her back, her green eyes wide with apprehension. “I--I was--”

She hears whistling, and turns to see… well, it's Percy, but he looks nothing like her Percy. His hair is cropped shorter, parted and moussed perfectly flat. He’s in a three piece suit. He’s in trousers. Not a pair of sweatpants or a muscle tee in sight.

He stops when he sees her. “Sorry, didn’t know you were awake, wouldn’t have been singing.” Which makes no sense, Because Annabeth loves Percy’s ambient music. He looks around her, speaking to his--to the girl, “I told you you’d have to stop when mommy got up.”

Annabeth glances at the little girl, who nods too solemnly.

“Don’t worry,” this stranger wearing Percy’s face says, “She’s ready for school. She is ready for her Math qualification. I only said she could draw for a little, to calm herself down.” He glances at the girl again. “Put your things back in the art box, and we’ll go to school. I have an 8:30 meeting with the board.”

The little girl runs off. Holding her paper and her pencils close to her chest, like she’s afraid someone is going to take them away from her. Maybe someone is.

Percy turns to her. “I confirmed our reservations at 7 tonight at Sarabeth’s with your mother’s assistant this morning. And the nanny is going to stay late, so we don’t have to bring her.”

The her in question reappears just then. She’s so small. And she’s carrying a backpack. She looks like that breakfast, out of a magazine. But normally kids in magazines smile.

“Are you ready?” Annabeth’s voice finally says.

A beat, then she nods again. “Yes, mommy.”

“Good,” she says. Outside, the sunlight through the windows isn’t so bright anymore, but dark and cold, like a solar eclipse. “Make me proud.”

And she turns to go back to bed, but the floor has disappeared, and she steps on nothing, tumbling down into the void.

With a start, she wakes up again in her bed, to the smell of breakfast in the air. Which is confusing, because she’s pretty sure she fell asleep on the couch, and she usually doesn’t wake up in time for breakfast, let alone actually make it herself: she has Percy for that, now.

Right. Percy.

It comes back to her in flashes: the donation, the voicemail, calling Percy out of desperation. Inviting him into her room, her bed. Falling asleep in his arms.

She physically shakes her head, roughly scrubbing her face, forcing herself further into consciousness. The light coming through her window is grey and weak, doing absolutely nothing to help her out. The morning feels muted, for some reason, like it’s very far away. Maybe it was her nightmare.

She can’t hear Percy, Annabeth realizes. That’s what’s wrong. She can smell breakfast, but she can’t hear him puttering away. She doesn’t hear the clanking of pans as he tries to be quiet, or his off-key humming, or the dull thump of footfalls on her floor as he practices his steps.

God, how late did she sleep? If he has to leave for a morning class he usually makes sure to wake her up, first. For a kiss if nothing else.

But when she pads out to her kitchen, she’s stunned to find Percy still there, sitting at her warped kitchen table. There are two plates in front of him, eggs and bacon untouched and cooling. He’s fully dressed, too, in his dark jeans and stupid dance pun t-shirt: “Girls Just Wanna Have Buns,” his sweater on the empty chair. Annabeth had been weirdly looking forward to wearing that this morning; he likes seeing her in his clothes, and she likes seeing him without them. It’s a system that works for them, typically leading to a lot of smiles, a couple giggles, and maybe another round or two before he has to leave.

He’s not smiling now. His gaze is fixed on his plate, hands in his lap. “Morning,” she croaks, softly.

Percy lifts his eyes to her, unfathomable like the sea. “Morning.”

Something in her stops her from sliding into the seat across from him. Standing gives her strength, gives her power that she doesn’t want to give up. She may not be able to tell what Percy is thinking right now, but she knows when someone is gearing up for a fight. “What is it?”

“What is what?”

“What’s the matter?”

He is uncharacteristically still. Annabeth has gotten so used to him expressing himself via his body, the stillness is unsettling. Percy holds her gaze for a moment, then sucks in a breath, sitting up a little bit straighter. “I kicked over your recycling by mistake, and when I was cleaning up, I…” He bites his lip, a little ashamed. “I accidentally read some of your mail.”

“Okay.” He can’t be that broken up about her junk mail, can he?

It’s only then that she sees it, laid out neatly next to the breakfast plate. The letter has been carefully uncrumpled, but the red Harvard seal is as obnoxiously bright as ever. “I don’t mean to pry, but…” Percy licks his lips, gathering his words together. “I thought you didn’t get into Harvard?”

She doesn’t say anything.

“It’s just--this is from the Graduate School of Design,” he continues, looking at the page as if to confirm it. “And the dean says you were one of their ‘most promising graduates,’ here, so. That means you have, what, a master’s degree? Right?”

Still, she doesn’t say anything.

Percy rubs a hand over his mouth, square jaw squaring further. “I guess I just don’t understand why you lied to me.”

“I never--” she blurts.

“I mean, were you trying to spare my New Yorker sensibilities by telling me you didn’t get in? Did you think I would actually care?”

There’s nothing she can say in response. So she doesn’t.

After a moment, he blows out a sharp breath. “So. Fifteen thousand dollars, huh.”

She sighs, looking away. It’s not like Annabeth doesn’t hate it, too. “I didn’t do that,” she says, crossing her arms. “My dad did it, he just put it under my name.”

“And, he did that… why? I mean,” he tilts his head, a little bewildered. “I thought you guys weren’t on speaking terms.”

“To try and get me to network again, probably.” She shrugs. “And I’m not on speaking terms with him. He just hasn’t gotten the memo yet.”

He hasn’t raised his voice at all. He hasn’t moved from his seat, or made any kind of threatening gesture, but like an approaching storm cloud, she can feel the anger rolling in, dense and crackling. “Does he do this a lot, your dad? Throw his money around for you?”

“It’s not like I asked him to.”

But he’s shaking his head, rueful. “I don’t know how I didn’t see it before. You know, I thought it was weird that you could afford an apartment in the East Village with a bedroom on periodic architecture contracts, but I’m guessing he pays for that, too?”

He’s right, of course, but that doesn’t stop her from bristling. “It’s a trust fund,” she snaps. “It’s still my money.”

“A trust fund,” he says, softly. “Right.”

Anger lances through her, cold and burning. Just because her dad had set it up for her didn’t mean that she wouldn’t use it. “Yeah, a trust fund. Is that a crime, now?”

He opens his mouth as if to say something, then snaps it shut with an audible click. Pushing his chair out, he stands up, hands flat on the table. “I should go and get ready for my class. I’ll… I’ll text you later, okay?” Percy takes a step towards her, hands reaching for her on instinct, then pauses. “See you around.”

Percy leaves without so much as a look back, closing the door so quietly she can barely hear it over the roar of blood in her ears.

#my fic #percabeth #the rivalry ends here #ballet au #😈😈😈#darkmagyk #happy endings onlyyyyyyyy #percabeth fic #PJO

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kookie-doughs · 4 years ago

Text

Y/N L/N AND THE HALFBLOODS

Percy Jackson X Reader

-Y/N L/N met Percy Jackson and everything was now ruined.

CHAPTER 15: Spiders Aren't Water Proof

The next afternoon, June 14, seven days before the solstice, our train rolled into Denver. We hadn't eaten since the night before in the dining car, somewhere in Kansas. We hadn't taken a shower since Half-Blood Hill, and I was sure that was obvious. "Let's try to contact Chiron," Annabeth said. "I want to tell him about your talk with the river spirit." "We can't use phones, right?" "I'm not talking about phones." We wandered through downtown for about half an hour, though I wasn't sure what Annabeth was looking for. The air was dry and hot, which felt weird after the humidity of St. Louis. Everywhere we turned, the Rocky Mountains seemed to be staring at me, like a tidal wave about to crash into the city. Finally we found an empty do-it-yourself car wash. We veered toward the stall farthest from the street, keeping our eyes open for patrol cars. We were four adolescents hanging out at a car wash without a car; any cop worth his doughnuts would figure we were up to no good. "What exactly are we doing?" Percy asked, as Grover took out the spray gun. "It's seventy-five cents," he grumbled. "I've only got two quarters left. Annabeth?" "Don't look at me," she said. "The dining car wiped me out." I fished out my last bit of change and passed Grover a quarter, which left me two nickels and one drachma from Medusa's place. "Excellent," Grover said. "We could do it with a spray bottle, of course, but the connection isn't as good, and my arm gets tired of pumping." "What are you talking about?" He fed in the quarters and set the knob to FINE MIST. "I-M'ing." "Instant messaging?" "Iris-messaging," Annabeth corrected. "The rainbow goddess Iris carries messages for the gods. If you know how to ask, and she's not too busy, she'll do the same for half-bloods." "You summon the goddess with a spray gun?" Grover pointed the nozzle in the air and water hissed out in a thick white mist. "Unless you know an easier way to make a rainbow."

Sure enough, late afternoon light filtered through the vapor and broke into colors. Annabeth held her palm out to me. "Drachma, please." I handed it over. She raised the coin over her head. "O goddess, accept our offering." She threw the drachma into the rainbow. It disappeared in a golden shimmer. "Half-Blood Hill," Annabeth requested. For a moment, nothing happened. Then I was looking through the mist at strawberry fields, and the Long Island Sound in the distance. We seemed to be on the porch of the Big House. Standing with his back to us at the railing was a sandy-haired guy in shorts and an orange tank top. He was holding a bronze sword and seemed to be staring intently at something down in the meadow. "Luke!" I called. He turned, eyes wide. I could swear he was standing three feet in front of me through a screen of mist, except I could only see the part of him that appeared in the rainbow. "Y/N!" His scarred face broke into a grin. "Is that Annabeth and Percy, too? Thank the gods! Are you guys okay?" "We're... uh... fine," Annabeth stammered. She was madly straightening her dirty T-shirt, trying to comb the loose hair out of her face. "We thought—Chiron—I mean—" "He's down at the cabins." Luke's smile faded. "We're having some issues with the campers. Listen, is everything cool with you? Is Grover all right?" "I'm right here," Grover called. He held the nozzle out to one side and stepped into Luke's line of vision. "What kind of issues?" Just then a big Lincoln Continental pulled into the car wash with its stereo turned to maximum hip-hop. As the car slid into the next stall, the bass from the subwoofers vibrated so much, it shook the pavement. "Chiron had to—what's that noise?" Luke yelled. "I'll take care of it.'" Annabeth yelled back, looking very relieved to have an excuse to get out of sight. "Grover, come on! "What?" Grover said. "But—" "Give Percy the nozzle and come on!" she ordered. Grover muttered something about girls being harder to understand than the Oracle at Delphi, then he handed me the spray gun and followed Annabeth. Percy readjusted the hose so we could keep the rainbow going and still see Luke. "Chiron had to break up a fight," Luke shouted to me over the music. "Things are pretty tense here, guys. Word leaked out about the Zeus—Poseidon standoff. We're still not sure how—probably the same scumbag who summoned the hellhound. Now the campers are starting to take sides. It's shaping up like the Trojan War all over again. Aphrodite, Ares, and Apollo are backing Poseidon, more or less. Athena is backing Zeus." In the next stall, I heard Annabeth and some guy arguing with each other, then the music's volume decreased drastically. "So what's your status?" Luke asked us. "Chiron will be sorry he missed you." We told him pretty much everything, including Percy's dreams. It felt so good to see him, to feel like I was back at camp even for a few minutes, that I didn't realize how long I had talked until the beeper went off on the spray machine, and I realized I only had one more minute before the water shut off. "I wish I could be there," Luke told me. "We can't help much from here, I'm afraid, but listen... it had to be Hades who took the master bolt. He was there at Olympus at the winter solstice. I was chaperoning a field trip and we saw him." "But Chiron said the gods can't take each other's magic items directly." "That's true," Luke said, looking troubled. "Still... Hades has the helm of darkness. How could anybody else sneak into the throne room and steal the master bolt? You'd have to be invisible." We were both silent, until Luke seemed to realize what he'd said. "Oh, hey," he protested. "I didn't mean Annabeth. She and I have known each other forever. She would never... I mean, she's like a little sister to me." I wondered if Annabeth would like that description. In the stall next to us, the music stopped completely. A man screamed in terror, car doors slammed, and the Lincoln peeled out of the car wash. "You'd better go see what that was," Luke said. "Listen, has the knife come in handy?" "Very..." I smiled. "The knife is really perfect." "And Percy, are you wearing the flying shoes? I'll feel better if I know they've done you some good." "Oh... uh, yeah!" Percy tried not to sound like a guilty liar. "Yeah, they've come in handy." "Really?" He grinned. "They fit and everything?" The water shut off. The mist started to evaporate. "Well, take care of yourself out there in Denver," Luke called, his voice getting fainter. "And tell Grover it'll be better this time! Nobody will get turned into a pine tree if he just—" But the mist was gone, and Luke's image faded to nothing. We were alone in a wet, empty car wash stall. Annabeth and Grover came around the corner, laughing, but stopped when they saw our face. Annabeth's smile faded. "What happened, Percy? What did Luke say?" "Not much," Percy lied. "Come on, let's find some dinner." A few minutes later, we were sitting at a booth in a gleaming chrome diner. All around us, families were eating burgers and drinking malts and sodas. Finally the waitress came over. She raised her eyebrow skeptically. "Well?" I said, "We, um, want to order dinner." "You kids have money to pay for it?" Grover's lower lip quivered. I was afraid he would start bleating, or worse, start eating the linoleum. Annabeth looked ready to pass out from hunger. I was trying to think up a sob story for the waitress when a rumble shook the whole building; a motorcycle the size of a baby elephant had pulled up to the curb. All conversation in the diner stopped. The motorcycle's headlight glared red. Its gas tank had flames painted on it, and a shotgun holster riveted to either side, complete with shotguns. The seat was leather—but leather that looked like... well, Caucasian human skin. The guy on the bike would've made pro wrestlers run for Mama. He was dressed in a red muscle shirt and black jeans and a black leather duster, with a hunting knife strapped to his thigh. He wore red wraparound shades, and he had the cruelest, most brutal face I'd ever seen— handsome, I guess, but wicked—with an oily black crew cut and cheeks that were scarred from many, many fights. The weird thing was, I felt like I'd seen his face somewhere before. As he walked into the diner, a hot, dry wind blew through the place. All the people rose, as if they were hypnotized, but the biker waved his hand dismissively and they all sat down again. Everybody went back to their conversations. The waitress blinked, as if somebody had just pressed the rewind button on her brain. She asked us again, "You kids have money to pay for it?" The biker said, "It's on me." He slid into our booth, which was way too small for him, and crowded Annabeth against the window. He looked up at the waitress, who was gaping at him, and said, "Are you still here?" He pointed at her, and she stiffened. She turned as if she'd been spun around, then marched back toward the kitchen. The biker looked at me. I couldn't see his eyes behind the red shades. Who did this guy think he was? He gave me a wicked grin. "So you're the unclaimed kid, huh? No wonder they're arguing over who your parent is." I squinted at him, "The hell does my parents have to do with this?" "Well, which ever stuck up your parent is, the big guys upstairs are angry for interfering with your life." He said and placed his dirty boots on the table. "Your parent raised you with your mortal idiots, that's why no one can smell you." I could tell Annabeth wanted to say something but she probably was processing what this guy said. "Don't call my parents idiot. And I only have two parents, it's M/N and D/N L/N." I glared. I was confused as to why an Olympian would raise me and it'd hide my scent. Shouldn't it make worse? "Sure thing." He then turned to Percy who was beside me. "And old seaweed's kid." "What's it to you?" Percy spat. Annabeth's eyes flashed him a warning. "Percy, this is—" The biker raised his hand. "S'okay," he said. "I don't mind a little attitude. Long as you remember who's the boss. You know who I am, little cousin?" Then it struck me why this guy looked familiar. He had the same vicious sneer as some of the kids at Camp Half-Blood, the ones from cabin five. "You're Clarisse's dad," Percy said. "Ares, god of war." Ares grinned and took off his shades. Where his eyes should've been, there was only fire, empty sockets glowing with miniature nuclear explosions. "That's right, punk. I heard you broke Clarisse's spear." "She was asking for it." "Probably. That's cool. I don't fight my kids' fights, you know? What I'm here for—I heard you were in town. I got a little proposition for you." The waitress came back with heaping trays of food—cheeseburgers, fries, onion rings, and chocolate shakes. Ares handed her a few gold drachmas. She looked nervously at the coins. "But, these aren't..." Ares pulled out his huge knife and started cleaning his fingernails. "Problem, sweetheart?" The waitress swallowed, then left with the gold. "You can't do that," I told Ares. "You can't just threaten people with a knife." Ares laughed. "Are you kidding? I love this country. Best place since Sparta. Don't you carry a weapon, punk? You should. Dangerous world out there. Which brings me to my proposition." He turned to Percy, "I need you to do me a favor." "What favor could I do for a god?" "Something a god doesn't have time to do himself. It's nothing much. I left my shield at an abandoned water park here in town. I was going on a little... date with my girlfriend. We were interrupted. I left my shield behind. I want you to fetch it for me." "Why don't you go back and get it yourself?" The fire in his eye sockets glowed a little hotter. "Why don't I turn you into a prairie dog and run you over with my Harley? Because I don't feel like it. A god is giving you an opportunity to prove yourself, Percy Jackson. Will you prove yourself a coward?" He leaned forward. "Or maybe you only fight when there's a river to dive into, so your daddy can protect you." I wanted to punch this guy, but I knew he was waiting for that. He'd love it if I attacked. I didn't want to give him the satisfaction. But by the gods I want to smack him. Maybe some other time. "We're not interested," I said. "We've already got a quest." Ares's fiery eyes made me see things I didn't want to see—blood and smoke and corpses on the battlefield. "I know all about your quest, punk. When that item was first stolen, Zeus sent his best out looking for it: Apollo, Athena, Artemis, and me, naturally. If I couldn't sniff out a weapon that powerful..." He licked his lips, as if the very thought of the master bolt made him hungry. "Well... if I couldn't find it, you got no hope. Nevertheless, I'm trying to give you the benefit of the doubt. Your dad and I go way back. After all, I'm the one who told him my suspicions about old Corpse Breath." "You told him Hades stole the bolt?" "Sure. Framing somebody to start a war. Oldest trick in the book. I recognized it immediately. In a way, you got me to thank for your little quest." "Thanks," Percy grumbled. "Hey, I'm a generous guy. Just do my little job, and I'll help you on your way. I'll arrange a ride west for you and your friends." "We're doing fine on our own." "Yeah, right. No money. No wheels. No clue what you're up against. Help me out, and maybe I'll tell you something you need to know. Something about your mom and Y/N's parents." "Our parents?" He grinned. "That got your attention. The water park is a mile west on Delancy. You can't miss it. Look for the Tunnel of Love ride." "What interrupted your date?" I asked. "Something scare you off?" Ares bared his teeth, but I'd seen his threatening look before on Clarisse. There was something false about it, almost like he was nervous. "You're lucky you met me, punk, and not one of the other Olympians. They're not as forgiving of rudeness as I am. I'll meet you back here when you're done. Don't disappoint me." After that I must have fainted, or fallen into a trance, because when I opened my eyes again, Ares was gone. I might've thought the conversation had been a dream, but Annabeth and Grover's expressions told me otherwise. "Not good," Grover said. "Ares sought you out, Percy. This is not good." I stared out the window. The motorcycle had disappeared. Did Ares really know something about our parents, or was he just playing with me? Now that he was gone, all the anger had drained out of me. I realized Ares must love to mess with people's emotions. That was his power—cranking up the passions so badly, they clouded your ability to think. He does not lie. He knows about your parents. "It's probably some kind of trick, Y/N," Percy said. "Forget Ares. Let's just go." "We can't," Annabeth said. "Look, I hate Ares as much as anybody, but you don't ignore the gods unless you want serious bad fortune. He wasn't kidding about turning you into a rodent." "Why does he need us?" "Maybe it's a problem that requires brains," Annabeth said. "Ares has strength. That's all he has. Even strength has to bow to wisdom sometimes." "But this water park... he acted almost scared. What would make a war god run away like that?" Annabeth and Grover glanced nervously at each other. Annabeth said, "I'm afraid we'll have to find out." The sun was sinking behind the mountains by the time we found the water park. Judging from the sign, it once had been called WATERLAND, but now some of the letters were smashed out, so it read WAT R A D. The main gate was padlocked and topped with barbed wire. Inside, huge dry waterslides and tubes and pipes curled everywhere, leading to empty pools. Old tickets and advertisements fluttered around the asphalt. With night coming on, the place looked sad and creepy. "If Ares brings his girlfriend here for a date," I said, staring up at the barbed wire, "I'd hate to see what she looks like." "Y/N," Annabeth warned. "Be more respectful." "Why? I thought you hated Ares." "He's still a god. And his girlfriend is very temperamental." "You don't want to insult her looks," Grover added. "Who is she? Echidna?" "No, Aphrodite," Grover said, a little dreamily. "Goddess of love." "I thought she was married to somebody," Percy said. "Hephaestus." "What's your point?" he asked. I suddenly felt the need to change the subject. "So how do we get in?" "Maia!" Grover's shoes sprouted wings. He flew over the fence, did an unintended somersault in midair, then stumbled to a landing on the opposite side. He dusted off his jeans, as if he'd planned the whole thing. "You guys coming?" Annabeth, Percy and I had to climb the old-fashioned way, holding down the barbed wire for each other as we crawled over the top. The shadows grew long as we walked through the park, checking out the attractions. There was Ankle Biter Island, Head Over Wedgie, and Dude, Where's My Swimsuit? No monsters came to get us. Nothing made the slightest noise. We found a souvenir shop that had been left open. Merchandise still lined the shelves: snow globes, pencils, postcards, and racks of— "Clothes," Annabeth said. "Fresh clothes." "Oh my gods yes." "Yeah," Percy said. "But you can't just—" "Watch us." She snatched an entire row of stuff of the racks and offered me a hand which I graciously took, together we disappeared into the changing room. "I need a shower." I groaned, while I changed. "We all do." She pointed out. A few minutes later we came out in Waterland flower-print shorts, a big red Waterland T-shirt, and commemorative Waterland surf shoes. A Waterland backpack was slung over our shoulders, obviously stuffed with more goodies. "What the heck." Grover shrugged. Soon, all three of us were decked out like walking advertisements for the defunct theme park. We continued searching for the Tunnel of Love. I got the feeling that the whole park was holding its breath. "So Ares and Aphrodite," Percy said, to keep my mind off the growing dark, "they have a thing going?" "That's old gossip, Percy," Annabeth told us. "Three-thousand-year-old gossip." "What about Aphrodite's husband?" "Well, you know," she said. "Hephaestus. The blacksmith. He was crippled when he was a baby, thrown off Mount Olympus by Zeus. So he isn't exactly handsome. Clever with his hands, and all, but Aphrodite isn't into brains and talent, you know?" "She likes bikers." "Whatever." "Hephaestus knows?" "Oh sure," Annabeth said. "He caught them together once. I mean, literally caught them, in a golden net, and invited all the gods to come and laugh at them. Hephaestus is always trying to embarrass them. That's why they meet in out-of-the-way places, like..." She stopped, looking straight ahead. "Like that." In front of us was an empty pool that would've been awesome for skateboarding. It was at least fifty yards across and shaped like a bowl. Around the rim, a dozen bronze statues of Cupid stood guard with wings spread and bows ready to fire. On the opposite side from us, a tunnel opened up, probably where the water flowed into when the pool was full. The sign above it read, THRILL RIDE O' LOVE: THIS IS NOT YOUR PARENTS' TUNNEL OF LOVE! Grover crept toward the edge. "Guys, look." Marooned at the bottom of the pool was a pink-and-white two-seater boat with a canopy over the top and little hearts painted all over it. In the left seat, glinting in the fading light, was Ares's shield, a polished circle of bronze. "This is too easy," I said. "So we just walk down there and get it?" Annabeth ran her fingers along the base of the nearest Cupid statue. "There's a Greek letter carved here," she said. "Eta. I wonder..." "Grover," Percy said, "you smell any monsters?" He sniffed the wind. "Nothing." "Nothing—like, in-the-Arch-and-you-didn't-smell-Echidna nothing, or really nothing?" Grover looked hurt. "I told you, that was underground." "Hey Percy, that wasn't nice." I glared. "Okay, I'm sorry." Percy took a deep breath. "I'm going down there." Pulling out my knife, "There isn't any monsters." "I'll go with Percy." Grover didn't sound too enthusiastic, but I got the feeling he was trying to make up for what had happened in St. Louis. "No," Percy told him. "I want you to stay up top with the flying shoes. You're the Red Baron, a flying ace, remember? I'll be counting on you for backup, in case something goes wrong." Grover puffed up his chest a little. "Sure. But what could go wrong?" "I don't know. Just a feeling. Y/N, will go with me—" "Yeah, I can go with." "Didn't take you as a romantic Seaweed Brain." Annabeth smirked. "What?" Percy's face was burning now, too. It made me laugh at how adorable he was. He turned to me and blushed even more. "Fine," he told us. "I'll do it myself." "Percy, I didn't say i don't want to come with!" I giggled. He started down the side of the pool, I followed, I hear him muttering about how this wasn't how its supposed go. Then I realized how we would've been surrounded by water. "Arthur Curry, if I drown I will beg Hades to have you." He paused and turned to take my hand and we continued walking. We reached the boat. The shield was propped on one seat, and next to it was a lady's silk scarf. I tried to imagine Ares and Aphrodite here, a couple of gods meeting in a junked-out amusement-park ride. Why? Then I noticed something I hadn't seen from up top: mirrors all the way around the rim of the pool, facing this spot. We could see ourselves no matter which direction we looked. That must be it. While Ares and Aphrodite were smooching with each other they could look at their favorite people: themselves. Percy picked up the scarf. It shimmered pink, and the perfume was indescribable—rose, or mountain laurel. He smiled, a little dreamy, and was about to rub the scarf against his cheek I frowned ripped it out of his hand and stuffed it in me pocket. "No." "What?" "Just get the shield, Arthur Curry, and let's get out of here." The moment he touched the shield, I knew we were in trouble. My hand broke through something that had been connecting it to the dashboard. A cobweb, I thought, but then I looked at a strand of it on my palm and saw it was some kind of metal filament, so fine it was almost invisible. A trip wire. "Wait," I said. "Too late." "There's another Greek letter on the side of the boat, another Eta. This is a trap." Noise erupted all around us, of a million gears grinding, as if the whole pool were turning into one giant machine. Grover yelled, "Guys!" Up on the rim, the Cupid statues were drawing their bows into firing position. Before I could suggest taking cover, they shot, but not at us. They fired at each other, across the rim of the pool. Silky cables trailed from the arrows, arcing over the pool and anchoring where they landed to form a huge golden asterisk. Then smaller metallic threads started weaving together magically between the main strands, making a net. "We have to get out," Percy said. "Woah I didn't know!" I said. Percy grabbed the shield and holding my hand we ran, but going up the slope of the pool was not as easy as going down. "I'm going to drown again aren't I? "Come on!" Grover shouted. He was trying to hold open a section of the net for us, but wherever he touched it, the golden threads started to wrap around his hands. The Cupids' heads popped open. Out came video cameras. Spotlights rose up all around the pool, blinding us with illumination, and a loudspeaker voice boomed: "Live to Olympus in one minute ... Fifty-nine seconds, fifty-eight ..." "Hephaestus!" Annabeth screamed. "I'm so stupid.' Eta is H.' He made this trap to catch his wife with Ares. Now we're going to be broadcast live to Olympus and look like absolute fools!" We'd almost made it to the rim when the row of mirrors opened like hatches and thousands of tiny metallic... things poured out. It was an army of wind-up creepy-crawlies: bronze-gear bodies, spindly legs, little pincer mouths, all scuttling toward us in a wave of clacking, whirring metal. "Spiders!" I said. I kicked these pests. Percy pulled me up and dragged my back toward the boat. "I am not staying here! I am so going to drown again!" The things were coming out from all around the rim now, millions of them, flooding toward the center of the pool, completely surrounding us. I told myself they probably weren't programmed to kill, just corral us and bite us and make us look stupid. Then again, this was a trap meant for gods. And we weren't gods. Percy and I climbed into the boat. Percy started kicking away the spiders as they swarmed aboard. I was swatting away some that I could. "Thirty, twenty-nine," called the loudspeaker. The spiders started spitting out strands of metal thread, trying to tie us down. The strands were easy enough to break at first, but there were so many of them, and the spiders just kept coming. I kicked one away from Percy's leg and its pincers took a chunk out of my new surf shoe. Annabeth was frozen from where she stood trying to keep away from us as much as possible. Grover hovered above the pool in his flying sneakers, trying to pull the net loose, but it wouldn't budge. Think, I told myself. Think. The Tunnel of Love entrance was under the net. We could use it as an exit, except that it was blocked by a million robot spiders. "Fifteen, fourteen," the loudspeaker called. Then I saw them: huge water pipes behind the mirrors, where the spiders had come from. And up above the net, next to one of the Cupids, a glass-windowed booth that must be the controller's station. "Annabeth!" Percy yelled. "Get into that booth! Find the 'on' switch!" Snapping out of her trance she turned. "But—" "Do it!" Annabeth was in the controller's booth now, staring at the buttons. "Five, four—" Annabeth sighed and started pushing every button, then looked up at us hopelessly, raising her hands. She was letting us know that she'd pushed every button, but still nothing was happening. "Y/N, I won't let you drown, just hold on!" I didn't think twice on nodding. Percy closed his eyes. "Two, one, zero!" Water exploded out of the pipes. It roared into the pool, sweeping away the spiders. He pulled me into the seat next to us and fastened me seat belt just as the tidal wave slammed into our boat, over the top, whisking the spiders away and dousing us completely, but not capsizing us. The boat turned, lifted in the flood, and spun in circles around the whirlpool. He held my hand tight afraid I'll drown the moment he lets go. The water was full of short-circuiting spiders, some of them smashing against the pool's concrete wall with such force they burst. Spotlights glared down at us. The Cupid-cams were rolling, live to Olympus. Percy and I held tight, both of us screaming as the boat shot curls and hugged corners and took forty-five-degree plunges past pictures of Romeo and Juliet and a bunch of other Valentine's Day stuff. Then we were out of the tunnel, the night air whistling through our hair as the boat barreled straight toward the exit. If the ride had been in working order, we would've sailed off a ramp between the golden Gates of Love and splashed down safely in the exit pool. But there was a problem. The Gates of Love were chained. Two boats that had been washed out of the tunnel before us were now piled against the barricade—one submerged, the other cracked in half. Jump. We have to jump. "Unfasten your seat belt," I yelled to Percy. Who already had his belt unfastened. "Jumping?" "We're going to have to jump for it." My idea was simple and insane. As the boat struck, we would use its force like a springboard to jump the gate. I'd heard of people surviving car crashes that way, getting thrown thirty or forty feet away from an accident. With luck, we would land in the pool. Hopefully not drown. Percy nodded. He gripped my hand as the gates got closer. "On my mark," I said. On mine. Jump when 'I' say so Perseus Jackson. He looked at me reluctantly. "How?" "What?" You'll know when I say so. "Fine." He shouted. "Jump when I jump!" "How would I know?!" "You'll say it!" "What?!" "Just tell me when to jump!!" "Now!" I yelled. I was about to jump when Percy pulled me closer. "Not yet! You didn't say it yet." Jump Hero. Percy jumped. I followed him. Crack! He was right. If we'd jumped when I thought we should've, we would've crashed into the gates. He got us maximum lift. Our boat smashed into the pileup and we were thrown into the air, straight over the gates, the pool was getting closer. I was going to drown again. Something grabbed me from behind. I yelled, "Ouch!" Grover! In midair, he had grabbed Percy by the shirt, and me by the arm, and was trying to pull us out of a crash landing, but we had all the momentum. "You're too heavy!" Grover said. "We're going down!" We spiraled toward the ground, Grover doing his best to slow the fall. We smashed into a photo-board, Grover's head going straight into the hole where tourists would put their faces, pretending to be Noo-Noo the Friendly Whale. Percy and I tumbled to the ground, banged up but alive. Ares's shield was still on Percy's arm. "Are you okay?" Percy panted. "Yeah... I didn't drown." Once we caught our breath, Percy and I went over to help Annabeth who was getting Grover out of the photo-board and thanked him for saving our lives. I looked back at the Thrill Ride of Love. The water was subsiding. Our boat had been smashed to pieces against the gates. A hundred yards away, at the entrance pool, the Cupids were still filming. The statues had swiveled so that their cameras were trained straight on us, the spotlights in our faces. I walked closer, "You guys suck." I blew blasphemy at the camera. Percy pulled me away. "Show's over!" Percy yelled. "Thank you! Good night!" The Cupids turned back to their original positions. The lights shut off. The park went quiet and dark again, except for the gentle trickle of water into the Thrill Ride of Love's exit pool. I wondered if Olympus had gone to a commercial break, or if our ratings had been any good. I hated being teased. I hated being tricked. And I had plenty of experience handling bullies who liked to do that stuff to me. Percy hefted the shield on his arm and turned to us friends. "We need to have a little talk with Ares."

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#Percy Jackson #Percy Jackson X Reader #Percy Jackson X Y/N #percy jackon and the olympians #pjo #luke castellan #Luke castellan x reader #Y/N L/N #Y/N L/N and the halfbloods #Lightning thief #Book 1 #Chapter 15 #Fanfiction #Fanfictions

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pearsabeth · 5 years ago

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The Folks - A Percabeth fic

"Annabeth, don't try to act like this is my fault"

Percy's amused tone earned him a glare from his girlfriend. They were waiting in the warm car, anticipating the cold air they would be met with outside and the reaction of the Chase family if they were to notice the red bruise adorning the side of Percy's neck.

"Of course it is, I could've planned all this if you hadn't been so..." Annabeth's eyes flickered as she recalled the making of the hickey that has decided to plague her life.

It was the mischief in his eyes taunting her to remove that trouble maker smirk playing on his swollen lips. Before she knew it her teeth were on his neck and all sense had disappeared. She hadn't thought about the scheduled dinner at her parents. She wasn't thinking at all.

"You know you can't just wait in the car and glare at the house until it disappears" Percy's voice comes from the driver's seat.

"I can try," she sighed.

Knowing perfectly well she had to go in soon and face Bobby and Matthew and their fascinating incapability of minding their business , Helen who's judgemental stare could burn a hole through the dark grey woollen scarf wrapped around Percy's neck and tucked under his thick winter coat and her Dad who would interrogate them until the truth came out.

"You'll be fine Wisegirl, nothing's gonna happen and if anything does we'll just play it cool. We're grown." Percy suggested, hands landing on her thigh to try and comfort her.

She faced him with an anxiety-stricken expression he hadn't been expecting. His eyebrows raised in realisation. There was always more to it when it came to Annabeth.

"They already hate me enough. I bet Helen's in there preparing a list of ways to criticize my life. As if bringing home a boy isn't enough, it just had to be a bruised necked pretty boy who doesn't study law at Harvard."

"I guess we don't care about my self-esteem today, huh," Percy feigned offence.

"C'mon Annabeth, we're gonna be late. You've got this. Besides, I'll be on my best behaviour," He couldn't help the lopsided grin that emerged on his face as he said it.

When it didn't look like she was getting up anytime soon, Percy got out of the car and practically dragged her out and onto the sheet of snow that had begun to cover the driveway. When they got to the porch, Annabeth fixed his thick scarf once more to cover the hickey and rang the doorbell hesitantly.

Percy attempted to offer his support by holding her hand and giving it a squeeze only for Annabeth to snap her hand out as she heard footsteps walking towards the door.

"You're crazy," Percy murmurs as he opted for the small of her back.

The door opened to reveal Annabeth's stepmother, wearing a clean apron over her clothes. Before the couple could exchange greetings with the woman, the sound of slapping feet against the wooden floors was followed by the eager faces of Annabeth's twin brothers, Bobby and Matthew.

"Annabeth, did you get the stuff?" Bobby said his eyebrows disappearing under the brown coils against his forehead.

Matthew, presumably the mature one of the two rolled his brown eyes, showing the little resemblance he and his brother shared with Annabeth. For the most part, the twins resembled their Filipina mother more so than their father and it showed in their soft eyes and thick dark hair. But they couldn't escape the splatter of freckles on their nose that seemed to be Chase family staple.

"You bet I got the stuff, help Helen set up and then we can do business," Annabeth said as she made her way towards the living room, Percy following her lead awkwardly.

Matthew looked at his brother smugly, " I told you it was too good to be true."

Before sulking off to the kitchen, the boys set aside their negotiation and finally got a glimpse of the infamous Percy Jackson. Annabeth had been talking their ears off about him ever since the summer the two met. They knew vaguely about the two being an item from Matthews tendency to pick up his parents' grown-up conversations because he was just quiet enough to go unnoticed as opposed to Bobby who always made his presence known even if he didn't mean to. It was almost never good stuff.

Percy almost took a step back despite himself against the scrutinising gaze of the twins. Seriously, where could he learn to do that? Maybe Annabeth's Dad held lessons.

"Percy Jackson?" Bobby questioned.

Percy had always been great with kids. Annabeth had joked about it saying that it was only because he was basically a child himself. But something about making a first impression on his girlfriend's brother's who looked like they had their fair share in troublesome behaviour made it a lot harder. Percy could blow up a few school busses by accident here and there but the twins looked as if they would not only commit vandalism to school property but also devise an intricate plan before doing so. He had to make the right impression, he could feel the pressure from Helen's silent gaze and Fredericks presence from somewhere in the large suburban home.

"Yeah, that's me, it's nice to finally meet you two." Percy scratched the back of his neck subconsciously and turned to Helen.

very cool of him

"It's nice to meet you too, Mrs Chase." He hesitated before her name not wanting to call her Helen and rendering himself as even more disrespectful than the image of him that she probably had in her mind.

"Yes, I've heard a lot about you. Frederick will be down shortly," She gave Annabeth a side-eye before telling Bobby to go upstairs and call his father from the office.

The silence that followed was enough to send Percy's inattentive mind to the surroundings of the house. It was a pretty big house, nothing too fancy though. The walls were decorated with various family photos and plaques of both Helen and Frederick's degrees and academic achievements.

He noticed quickly that Annabeth memorabilia was lacking save for a picture of her beside the wall nearest to the staircase with a smile, her two front teeth missing and posing proudly in front of a lego block set. Percy couldn't help but take his phone out of his pocket and snap a photo of it.

He didn't call for the loud shutter that erupted the silence and he definitely wasn't expecting to see Frederick Chase's aloof yet somehow still disapproving face on his phone screen.

Annabeth stifled her chuckle with a cough and went forward to greet her dad.

"Hey, Dad."

She wasn't sure whether to hug him but it didn't seem like he was opening his arms in an inviting embrace so Annabeth settled for an awkward handshake.

"Annabeth, I hope the traffic wasn't too bad."

Annabeth shot Percy a look that seemed to say,

‘look at this oaf.’

Percy was new to paternal interactions as well, having only met his dad in this last quarter of his life. But Frederick Chase's actions confused him too. His daughter had fallen into Tartarus and saved the world, putting her life at risk for the second time in the span of a year and the first thing he does is make conversation on vehicular congestion?

Percy calmed his fury at the man as he approached. They had met once before but the middle of a battle determining the fate of the world wasn't exactly the ideal setting to exchange pleasantries. In the back of his mind, Percy hoped he wouldn't attempt to give him "the talk" because quite frankly he didn't have any right to tell Percy to take care of his daughter when he'd been failing to do so himself.

"Percy, It's good to see you again. I hear you two have been on quite the journey these past months." Frederick led them to the dining room, taking a seat at the head of the table

This time, it was Percy's turn to throw a meaningful glance Annabeth's way.

Does this man know nothing?

Annabeth returned it with a squeeze of his leg as if she were saying, hang in there.

Helen arrived with steaming plates and bowls of food and the twins weren't far behind her trying to speedily set the table.

Percy thanked Helen for the food and right before he was about to dig into the steaming plate, Annabeth's fears were confirmed.

"It's a little warm in here don't you think? Annabeth must've forgotten to show you but you can hang your coat and scarf behind the door." Frederick suggested.

Percy looked at Annabeth for help, only to see the blood already rushing to her cheeks, fear evident in her eyes.

" Uh- I can't," Percy said shortly.

"You can't?" Frederick's eyebrows raised in question.

"He has this condition, it's uh, what was it called again Percy?" Annabeth aided which must've been suspicious because it wasn't like Annabeth to forget things.

"Um-eczema, it's pretty bad."

"Yeah, wouldn't want flakes of skin falling into your soup or anything," Annabeth added helpfully with a small smile on her face at the twins' disgust.

"Well, sorry I asked then," Frederick said suspiciously but didn't comment on it anymore.

Helen was busy serving Bobby and Matthew, seemingly unaware of the conversation. Percy tapped his foot against Annabeth's shin under the table to get her attention. They were good now. Annabeth shook her head at Percy's gullibility, not buying for a minute that her parents had bought it. But they didn't push, so as far as Annabeth was concerned she was blushing because her boyfriend had a terrible case of eczema and not because she had sucked his neck.

The dinner was unbearable. The food itself was great but even good food couldn't scratch the itch Percy felt to do or say something. Compared to mealtimes at Camp Half-Blood, which were always loud and eventful or dinnertime with Sally who always had something to say whether it be an idea that popped up while writing her manuscript or the oddly dressed poodle she saw on the subway- this dinner was a bore.

It wasn't long before they had retired to the living room again to make more small talk that conveniently avoided the topic of the two falling into the pits of hell. Annabeth had finally given the twins an anticipated copy of a comic series they followed and they'd resided upstairs to read it, leaving the couple alone with Annabeth's parents. They endured until it seemed appropriate to leave.

They were so close. Oh so close to getting up and getting as far away from the dull monotonous voice of the news reporter on TV to the warmth of the car when the tense air was broken by a musical note on the tv claiming to be an emergency weather report.

A blizzard.

It had to be Zeus. It was barely snowing when they had arrived. Percy and Annabeth were stuck and at this moment he had empathised with the dread that encompassed Annabeth every time she had to go home for the summer. How could a house so big feel so claustrophobic and lonely at the same time? The twins were lucky they had each other. He couldn't imagine how Annabeth managed.

"I guess it's a sleepover," Matthew's voice came from the kitchen as he licked the mocha from above his upper lip before running back up the stairs to his brother.

***

Before Percy knew it, he was in the Chase family guest room. Annabeth had nothing to worry about since she had clothes to wear to bed. She had changed into loose purple sweat pants with a long sleeve shirt and had come out of her room to help pick up the assortment of toys that were scattered on the floor. If Percy had an extra room in his house as a child he would probably make it an unofficial playroom as well.

This was probably just as inconvenient for the Chases as it was for them. Percy remembered how his mom fluttered around the house cleaning every surface before the arrival of guests and he finally understood why she always insisted he clean his room even if no-one was entering. Just in case Zeus decided to create a blizzard and snow-in the poor unsuspecting guests.

Percy's thoughts were interrupted by a soft knock on the door to the guest room. He opened the door for Helen, who had arrived with a bundle of Frederick's clothes. She placed them in his hands and left abruptly before he could thank her as if she had forgotten something. Annabeth laughed softly at the thought of Percy wearing her dad's plaid pyjama's.

"You think this is funny Wisegirl?" Percy said with a smile spreading on his face as he took off his coat and shirt and buttoned up the plaid print flannel.

"It's quite comical," she said, shamelessly looking at Percy's exposed chest as he fixed the last few buttons.

Annabeth averted her gaze quickly to the action figure on the floor when Helen resurfaced with a small bag of toiletries for Percy.

"Your condition isn't so bad," Helen said to Percy. She glanced at Annabeth, a hint of a sly smile on her usually stoic face.

Annabeth looked between the two of them. Helens eyes and Percy's exposed neck, scarf abandoned. She couldn’t somehow manipulate the mist and make herself disappear. So she opted for the second-best thing.

"Goodnight, I'm gonna go to my room now." she rushed out the words and almost crashed into Helen on her way out.

It was Percy's turn to be flustered as he nervously scratched his neck, then quickly switched to his head not wanting to bring any more attention to the very blatant hickey.

"Towels are in that closet," Helen said finally and closed the door behind her.

Percy puts on the rest of the clothes with two thoughts in mind:

1) Annabeth's cute when she blushes.

2) I hate it here.

#percabeth #hoo #percabeth hickey drabble #percabeth fanfiction #percabeth fluff #annabeth chase #percy jackson #whatisatimeline #on second thought this is not a drabble #percabeth fic #percabeth fanfic

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a-hundred-jewels · 3 years ago

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cruel summer ch 12: i have these lucid dreams

Ao3 Wattpad

Summary: sabrina starr, pegasuses, and oh no! the fourth wall broke! do we have a carpenter in the audience?

Word Count: 9000 ish

Tags: Rachel Elizabeth Dare/Jane Penderwick, Rosalind Penderwick/Tommy Geiger, Nico di Angelo/Will Solace, Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson, Jane Penderwick, Rachel Elizabeth Dare, Rosalind Penderwick, Skye Penderwick, Chiron (Percy Jackson), Martin Penderwick, Elizabeth "Batty" Penderwick, Elizabeth Penderwick (senior), Iantha Aaronson-Penderwick, Ben Aaronson-Penderwick, Nico di Angelo, Will Solace, Annabeth Chase, Jeffrey Tifton-McGrath, Percy Jackson, Demeter (Percy Jackson), Apollo (Percy Jackson), Camp Half-Blood (Percy Jackson), Camp Half-Blood AU, Demigods, demeter!elizabeth penderwick, demeter!rosalind (second generation), demeter!batty (second generation), apollo!alec mcgrath, apollo!jeffrey (second generation), demeter!jane (second generation), demeter!skye (second generation), all of that's in no particular order, main focus is on jane because i love her and she's so so fun to write, tomsalind is there (and stuff will happen - i can't really say what, it will really be eventful though), yes of course there's solangelo, takes place right before Penderwicks In Spring, After Trials of Apollo, more tags to come??, Minor Swearing

Notes and Full Chapter below cut:

Hello everyone and welcome back! I'll admit, this is a little later today than I'd been planning to post (was hoping to get an early start), but hey! If the Puppet History season 4 finale can be late, then so can I!

First off, a massive massive thank you to waterbottle_stickers for being the best beta reader ever. This chapter would be a mess without you. Also, if you haven't already, please check out their enola holmes fic wherever you stray, i follow it's truly wonderful.

If you've been following me on tumblr, then you'll know that, in addition to reblogging an alarming quantity of good omens fanart, I've been making some plans for fics this month. The original plan from back in august was to post every day of the month, but... ahhh.... I just don't work that fast lmao. I'll have to be content with just posting a fair amount this month. Happy october! Anyway, stay tuned.

On this fine day, we've got two lovely QUEER fanfic recommendations that I'm very excited to share. Up first is one from the tumblr blog izzielizzie (which you should all absolutely check out! especially if you're into the one of us is lying fandom!). it centers around the skye/melissa pairing and their senior prom, which Skye is said to have only gone to last minute, and also wearing a lab coat, in a passage of the penderwicks at last. featuring some oblivious lesbians and also jane. once again a massive thanks to izzielizzie, as this fic is one of my favourites!. click here to take a look! (also keep an eye on her blog in general bc her penderwicks fics are awesome!)

The second fanfic is also one I'm very fond of, as it focuses on the siblinghood of skye and jane, which is one of my favourite topics on earth. check out rolling down the ancient high street by hanchewie/ramblemadlyon (tumblr and ao3 respectively) for the sibling antics of aroace skye and bisexual jane when the latter visits the former at her college in california! and, if you like it, ramblemadlyon has two other penderwicks fics from the past couple days that look fantastic as well, and that I look forward to reading.

This chapter is dedicated to my therapist, since I've decided this will be the month of oddly specific dedications. thank you for telling me to stop referring to cruel summer as my "trash baby" and help me recognize the true worth that it holds in my life.

Disclaimer: not my characters, you know the drill. Jeanne Birdsall and Rick Riordan are lucky ducks indeed. chapter title is (obviously) from "lucid dreams" by Juice WRLD.

FROM THE POV OF JANE PENDERWICK

The woods loomed around me, seeming as tall as buildings as they invited me in further. I took another step, the sharp pain of a pinecone digging into my foot barely registered in my mind. I kept walking. A crack sounded throughout the air, and, behind me, a tree splintered round its base and fell down, only inches away from crushing me dead, and completely blocking the path out.

Frightened, I began to run, looking for a way out of the forest. But no matter which way I went, there were only trees in front of me. Where was the path? Where was the grassy hill I had walked down to get in here in the first place. Had I even walked down that hill to begin with? Now that I thought about it, I wasn’t sure I remembered coming here. I wasn’t sure I remembered waking up this morning, or going to bed last night, or anything besides existing in the forest. Who was I? What was I doing here? How could I get out?

Panicking, I stood in the middle of a clearing, looking frantically at the trees around me, trying to find something familiar. Nothing. I was exhausted. How long had I been here? An hour? A day? A lifetime? I collapsed at the base of a tree, sobbing as I tried to remember. Something. Anything.

Then, a voice echoed around me. “Welcome,” it said, and my mind went black.

I bolt upright in bed, a scream halfway out of my throat. I clamp it back, not wanting to wake my cabinmates. Thin light whimpers through the window--enough for me to see my white-knuckle grip on the sheets, but not enough to pass as daylight.

What time is it?

Our cell phones don’t really work here--that was one of the first things Miranda told us when we arrived, and Batty’s been gleefully lording it over us that her Mp3 player will still play music and, like, function, while our smart phones recline sadly in our duffel bags. That being said, I don’t feel quite brave enough to get out of my bed just yet and tiptoe over to the big analog clock that Rio bought at a pawn shop in Colorado. Maybe my phone will at least show the time.

I reach under my bed and fumble for my duffel, hooking my pinky through the zipper loop and yanking it out onto my floor. My phone’s in the front pocket, buried under two pairs of headphones, several gum wrappers, and some strawberry leaves (?????). A piece of gum peels off the screen as I disentangle my phone, and I mentally chide my past self for being so messy.

My phone does not turn on. Big clock it is.

I tiptoe across the cold tile and peer around the tree.

5:45 .

Jesus Pagan Christ.

It’s too early to wake anyone up (as I think this, Batty lets out a snore to rival any crabby Tyrannosaurus Rex), so I wrap a blanket around myself like a criminally attractive burrito, and creep out onto the porch, with my notebook and pen tucked into my shirt.

As long as I live, I will never get tired of summer mornings. There’s something deeply lovely about the soft light of the still-sleepy, pink lemonade sun, the quiet anticipation of the cool air, damp from dew and preparing for the upcoming heat. At home in Cameron, Skye’s woken me up many an early morning to go for a run or do soccer drills or for a grueling “Seven Minute Workout Except You Don’t Follow The Rules And Torture Your Sister by Making It Actually A Forty-Nine Minute Workout.” (But it’s okay, I’m not bitter). But, as delightful as those experiences have all been, I don’t think Skye really gets it. The beauty of the summer morning is not what it can do for your workout schedule, but rather in its gentle softening of an otherwise boiling day. It is to be appreciated in the way that I am now, sitting curled up on this frighteningly creaky porch (I mean, seriously, who built this?) and calling up the Sabrina Starr section of my brain to try and write away the residual panic from my nightmare.

Sabrina sighed as the plane took off. She wasn’t sure if she should have followed the voice in her head telling her to come here. Saying it out loud--even just thinking it--made it sound ridiculous. A dream, a voice in her mind. Barely more than a whim.

Worse than that, Sabrina wasn’t even sure where this whim was taking her. On a napkin in her pocket, she’d scrawled everything she remembered about the dream from the night before. The dark sky, lit only with spiderwebs of lightning, the shadowy figure huddled on a beach and soaked through with rain. The voice crying for help.

And a name. Aeaea.

After she’d woken up, Sabrina had looked up Aeaea, too tired to fully connect why the name felt familiar. Her heart had sunk further after reading the Wikipedia entry, and a breath of hopelessness had left her lips. According to the internet, Aeaea was not a real place. It had been the island prison of Circe. Fiction wasn’t new to Sabrina, and neither was mythology (she recalled an adventure spent with a ghost called Rainbow from a few years back).

Fictional places, though, were another matter. How could she get somewhere if she didn’t know where she was going? Was she trusting her gut with too much this time?

Sabrina folded up the napkin and put it back in her pocket. There was no point in worrying about that now. She’d looked at enough maps to make a guess at where Aeaea might be if it was real. When she got there, she could get more information. Sabrina Starr had survived this long in her career of rescues and whims. She could survive one more adventure. Worst case scenario, she said to herself, I spend a few days running around for nothing and have to brush up on my Greek.

She repeated it to herself like a promise. Worst case scenario, worst case scenario… Eventually, tired out from all her anxieties, and from trying desperately not to worry about what would come next, Sabrina fell asleep.

FROM THE POV OF RACHEL ELIZABETH DARE

“Okay, I give up. Tell me what’s wrong.” Annabeth’s voice startles me away from my plate of eggs, which I had been pushing around with a fork. Anxiety bubbles in my throat, just as it had been since I woke up, and food just doesn’t sound like a good idea.

“I--what?”

Annabeth waves her hand impatiently. “Don’t play dumb. I’ve been talking to you for five minutes and I don’t think you’ve looked up once. Also you’re always hungry in the mornings, so unless you, like, ate an entire cow before I got here, this ,” she gestures to my uneaten eggs, “is unusual behaviour.”

I give her a look. Sometimes, I get the feeling that Annabeth exists as a part of multiple different dimensions at once, like she’s having four other conversations that I can’t hear, and is still ten steps ahead of me in the one I’m actually a part of.

Or maybe I’m just easy to read.

“Nothing’s wrong.” I don’t want to talk about it. “I’m fine.” I’m terrified.

Annabeth sighs. “Is this about the prophecy?”

“No,” I spear another piece of egg, and don’t eat it. “Maybe. Yes.” I feel like going back to my cave and staying there for the rest of my life. Waiting with a book and some paints for the prophecy to get bored and go away. Maybe I’d take Jane with me, or Nico, for some company. That sounds nice.

My plate is pulled away from me as I aim my fork again. “I can’t pay attention when you do that,” Annabeth huffs. I think I wouldn’t invite her to stay in my cave. She’s too on the nose when I want to mope. Then again, she says the same about me.

“Fine,” I turn and face her. “Let’s talk feelings.” Connor Stoll, who had been making his way towards our table, abruptly turns around and walks the other way. I should get Chiron to hire a therapist. Gods know we need it.

Further proving my point, Annabeth’s eyes widen a little, before she remembers it is I who will be spilling. (I make a point to corner her later. It’s a routine we have). “Wow. You broke fast.”

I nod. “I’m tired and you’re annoying.” (False. We both know it. Another routine). “Like you said, I’m nervous about the prophecy.”

Annabeth nods. “And?”

I frown. “What do you mean, and ? There’s no and.”

Annabeth frowns back at me. A mirror, a mime, an annoyance. The nerve to look disappointed in me. “I thought you were spilling, Red.”

I roll my head back and study the roof of the pavilion, which Annabeth designed, and slowly lean my head down to stare at the table. I really don’t want to have this conversation. I go along anyways. “I’m worried about Jane.”

Annabeth leans back, triumphant. “Ah, yes. Your girlfriend.”

Maybe if I try reeeeeeeally hard, I can activate the Oracle of Delphi and freak Annabeth out enough to make her go away. “ Not my girlfriend. You know that.”

“You called Percy my boyfriend for weeks before we actually officially decided.”

I wave my hand dissmissively. “That’s different, you guys were dancing around each other for like three years. You needed a bit of a push. Jane and I kissed once! Over a week ago! And nothing came of it.” We actually haven’t really talked about it. We’re in this sort of in-between zone where we spend a ton of time together, but don’t have a label for it. Honestly, it’s been nice.

Annabeth grins, apparently reading my thoughts. “You’ve been eating lunch with the Demeter cabin, like, every other day. I saw you doing archery together yesterday. Both of you were awful at it, but you stayed there for hours. I’ve never seen you focus on something that long outside of your paintings.”

I stare at the ceiling again. Maybe Annabeth designed it so that a single square foot of rock might fall down onto my head and relieve me from this conversation. “Yes, fine, we spend a lot of time together. But that doesn’t make us a couple, and has nothing to do with what I’m actually worried about!” I can see in her face that Annabeth is more serious now, and is about to fully listen to me, when Percy and Malcolm show up, sliding into the seats across from us, and clanging several plates of pancakes down onto the table in front of them.

“Made them ourselves! Wanna share?” Percy gives Annabeth heart eyes and a kiss on the cheek when she folds a large blue pancake into thirds and bites it like a burrito. I roll my eyes at them because they are a horrifying and disgusting couple and also I kind of want to be them when I grow up. Malcolm ignores them, instead turning to me. “Were you talking about Jane?” he asks, pushing wire rimmed glasses up his nose.

I frown. “Sort of. Why?”

He shrugs, sheepish. “You know. Just, uh, just wondering.”

I narrow my eyes at him, then Percy, who tears himself away from looking at Annabeth to sigh dramatically. “Malcolm wants to ask out Jane’s sister. You know, the blond one.”

I snort. “ Skye? Seriously?”

Malcolm looks vaguely offended. “What’s so weird about that?”

“Sorry, it’s not weird.” I reach over the table to pat him on the shoulder with my fork. “Perfectly normal teenage hormones.” He glares at me and I smile sweetly back. “I just can’t imagine Skye going out with anyone, that’s all.”

Malcolm stares down at his pancake, disappointed. “Oh. You sure?”

I nod, feeling a little more normal with my friends and less doom-related breakfast conversation. My eggs are past the threshold of “warm and appetizing” but I take a bite anyway. “Pretty sure. Jane told me that she’s aroace and, based on past occurrences, there’s a seventy percent chance she’ll punch anyone who asks her out. Anyway, why the interest? I didn’t know you guys talked.”

Malcolm shrugs. “We don’t, really. She just seems cool.”

Percy pipes in, “He’s been practically obsessed with her since she won that soccer game against the Nike kids and made them cry.”

I nod approvingly. “Well, Malcolm, at least we know you have good taste.”

Annabeth pats him on the head, ignoring his complaints that her hand is covered in blue maple syrup. “Better luck next time, brother of mine.”

Piper and Leo join us next, contributing an alarming volume of grapes and a single hardboiled egg to the breakfast display. Leo grabs a pancake and wraps it around some grapes, before taking a big bite. “I hear you’re discussing Malcolm’s romantic failures,” he says around the world’s worst breakfast burrito. Piper gasps in mock offense, then swallows the unpeeled hardboiled egg whole, like a snake. (This is a regular morning routine. She’s trying to work up to being a sword swallower, since her dad did it in a movie once and she thought it looked like fun). “ Malcolm, why didn’t you come to me? I could have given you a verdict within five minutes!”

“I wanted advice on whether I should ask out that Heaphestus boy two weeks ago and you told me to fuck off.”

Piper pouts at him. “That’s on you, you caught me at a bad time.”

Annabeth holds up a pancake with the air of a respected royal and we turn to her. “As delightful as this is, Rachel and I were initially talking about her romantic prospects and also her worries and fears, and I feel that we should get back to that before she slinks off and avoids the rest of the conversation.”

I glare at her. “Why would you bring this away from the very nice conversation we were having about everyone else’s problems? Do you hate me?” Annabeth rolls her eyes. “No, dumbass, I’m just not letting you walk away from a potential breakthrough. Now, where were we? You were saying that you’re worried about Jane but it has nothing whatsoever to do with your relationship, or lack thereof.”

I give a long suffering sigh, and try to communicate telepathically with Piper that she needs to Save Me Now, but she’s looking at me in interest with her chin resting in her hands, her long fingers adorned with rings sent to her from her Mortal girlfriend, Shel, who bought them at a vintage punk store. The traitor. Defeated, I turn back to Annabeth.

“It’s just that, whatever ends up happening with this prophecy, I don’t want it to fuck her up, in the way the quests have sometimes done to us. Like, we’re used to this by now, but it hasn’t been a smooth road. I don’t exactly like going on quests, and at first I was really worried at the prospect of being included in a prophecy, since that’s fairly abnormal, but Jane was only made aware of her heritage a couple months ago! What if this turns out like Silena or Beckendorf or-or Jason, and the prophecy destroys her, and it’s all my fault because I’m the one who pulled her into all this?”

Everyone tenses up at the mention of Jason, but they continue to look at me with a mixture of concern and love that makes something soften inside of me. For the hundredth time, I think of how lucky I am to have these people who love me unconditionally. Even if they really, really need therapy.

“I know that I didn’t plan any of this, but we’re both tied in now, especially since both Chiron and I had the prophetic dream and I actually gave the prophecy that day in the woods, and, well, this isn’t her world yet. She’s only got a little bit of ichor in her, and she grew up knowing nothing of any of this. In a way, I did too, and I have no ichor, but I had clear sight. For me, it was ineffable, but she could technically leave any time, if it weren’t for the prophecy. She can leave, and I feel like it’s up to me to make sure that doesn’t change.”

“Oh, Rachel.” Annabeth reaches her arms out to me and I let myself be pulled into an embrace. “Jane’s going to be okay. We’ll make sure of it.”

Sabrina stood in line at the boat rental hut, her arms crossed and a frown plastered on her face. It had not been a successful afternoon. For hours, she’d been searching the coastal towns near where her plane landed, looking for some trace of Aeaea, or anything else she’d seen in her dream. She was used to working with dregs. It was normal for her to have to squint a little at the evidence, have to shuffle things together around big holes of “Maybe,” like she was working a jigsaw puzzle with half the pieces missing.

But this was something else.

Sabrina had read about places where mythology shaped the culture. Places where the tourist draws were events that had supposedly happened thousands of years ago, or creatures that only existed in grainy photographs and people’s imaginations. Hell, she’d met the Loch Ness monster. Was it insane for her to have assumed she’d be able to find the same kind of thing here? All her training and years of experience had told her that, if you sniff around long enough, you’ll find a conspiracy theorist or a slightly off-the-rails guidebook.

So far, though, Sabrina had found nothing. Absolutely nothing. She hunted around, searching up library catalogs, checking every store on the street. “Aeaea,” “Circe,” even “the Odyssey.”

Nothing.

The line edged along slowly, and Sabrina ran her hands up and down her arms. The air was chilly from its proximity to the cold sea water. There were three people in front of her now. She just had to wait a little longer, then she would have a boat and be able to explore these waters herself.

Something was wrong with this place. Something was wrong with all of these places. And Sabrina was going to figure out what.

Later, Jane and I are taking our time walking to the pegasus stables to watch the riding lesson that Rosalind has reluctantly agreed to let Batty take (provided that Percy, who’s teaching today, doesn’t let her fly high enough that she’ll die if she falls off, and that Batty wears all of the necessary protective gear). Jane looks lovely, wearing a sunshine-y yellow bandana that sets off her dark curls and warm sepia skin. She has on her Camp Half-Blood shirt again, and a short green skirt, and all of it should clash horribly, but it doesn’t.

We’ve decided to cut through the strawberry fields, and I swallow a sun-warmed strawberry while Jane tells me about the dream she had last night. I think back to my conversation with Annabeth this morning when she tells me of the dark woods and the feeling of drowning, the memory warping and the echoing voice. At some point we sit down in a patch of grass, a simple circle amidst strawberry plants with a couple logs where the campers and satyrs take their breaks when they work here. Jane finishes her story and we sit in comfortable silence for a few moments, only broken by the grunts of annoyance Jane makes while trying to get her plant powers to activate again. She’s been doing that a lot.

“Well that sucks,” I say finally. “Have you been having other dreams like it?”

Jane shrugs, the neon orange fabric of her shirt wrinkling on her shoulders. “One or two, I think. Last night’s was the first one I really remembered. ” She smiles out of the corner of her mouth. “I hardly ever remember my dreams. It used to upset me. I thought I was losing potential writing material.”

I laugh. It’s such a Jane thing to think, that I can’t help it. She goes quiet, like she’s reminiscing, and I picture a tiny version of Jane, sitting crossed-legged on her summer quilt, writing. I look at her now, scrunched up nose and big brown eyes. Oh gods, she must have been an adorable child.

“My mother used to say that my imagination was the eighth wonder of the world,” Jane says. She’s looking down the hill at the cabins, plant powers temporarily forgotten, and I remember her telling me about her mother, the first Elizabeth Penderwick, who came here and was a daughter of Demeter and loved opera. The Penderwick siblings’ beloved mother who died so young.

I move closer to Jane on the log. “I can understand why she’d say that.”

Jane smiles again, a little sad this time, a little absent, but full to the brim with love.

“Bet you she’s in Elysium,” I say softly. I explained the Underworld to Jane a couple weeks ago, and she’d gotten this same absent look on her face, that I now know means she’s thinking about her mother. Jane nods, now, then turns to me. “Could we talk about something else?” Her voice is quiet, her eyes a little shiny.

“Course,” I say. “Shall I regale you with tales of dimwittery at this camp in the years past?” I told her last week about the time some Hermes kids tried to order pizza to the camp, accidently causing Chiron to think we were under attack. Jane had nearly fallen off the bench laughing.

She grins now, but shakes her head. “Tell me what it’s like being an Oracle.” I give her a look. She’s asked me before and I never really know what to say. When I give prophecies, it’s like I black out. I’m taken over by another entity who shares my body. (“Like that lady in Suicide Squad ,” Leo had said when I tried to explain it to him once, but I’d refused to be compared to such a gods-fucking-awful movie). So, in a way, I don’t know what it’s like to be the Oracle.

As if reading my thoughts, Jane shakes her head. “Not that part. I’ve seen you all green and smokey, and I know you can’t feel it. I mean the other stuff. How did you know it was you? What did you have to do to become the Oracle? That kind of thing.” I relax a little. Jane’s asked me all sorts of weird questions about Greek mythology and the gods recently. She calls it “research for her book,” but sometimes I think she’s just nosy. It’s cute.

Jane shrugs and looks off into the distance. If you tilt your head a little you can kind of see the stables from here. We have fifteen more minutes to get there, according to my watch. I decide to take it easy. “Delphi is this weird ethereal spirit,” Jane continues, “but there’s also just everyday, Oracle you, who likes paint and denim and bagels.” At that, I laugh. “I actually don’t like bagels that much. I’m just late to breakfast so often that they’re usually the only things available.”

Jane pouts at me and plays with the bracelet tied around my wrist--the one she gave me. “You know what I mean! You know all this weird shit about me because my siblings don’t shut up at lunch, and I know stuff about you, like the denim thing, which I still think is funny by the way. But you’re also the freaking Oracle! Your dormant self lies waiting!” I laugh at her, and she rolls her eyes, but I see the corner of her mouth tilting up. “Rachel, that’s very cool!”

I give in. “Honestly, there’s not much to say, that’s why I don’t talk about it.” I pause. “Well no, it’s that a lot of the stuff beyond the obvious is actually sort of creepy and weird, and not in a good way. There’s stuff I try not to think about, is what I mean.”

The edge of her yellow bandana sticks up as Jane tilts her head at me. “That makes sense. You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

I shake my head. “No, it feels okay right now.” I mean it. Now that I’ve gotten into the swing of it, I do want to talk about it. Still, a small sigh escapes me. “I like being the Oracle, because that’s what brought me to a place where I feel like I belong and I have people who love me. It’s nice to know that I’m fulfilling my purpose in life.”

Jane pulls her knees up to her chest. “But?”

“But I also get lonely.” It comes out in a rush. “There are other oracles, but I didn’t know about any of them until the Apollo thing happened, and even then, they’re all supernatural beings--I know, I know, but not in the way I am. It’s not the same. Also, there are all these weird rules. Like I have to stay an unmarried virgin my whole life.”

“That’s fucked,” Jane says softly.

“I know! Chiron won’t even tell me why, just that it’s ‘the rules’” I let out an annoyed huff. “And, like, it’s not even that the idea itself bothers me. That’s pretty much what I was planning to do with my life anyway.”

“Same.”

“But it’s the principle of the thing!” I flick a strand of hair out of my face, offhandedly noticing that the tip of my pinky finger is slightly green. I ignore it. It’s not important. “Just because I don’t want to have sex or get married doesn’t mean it’s a fair rule to impose on me! Besides, why is it always the women in these things whose identities are tied up in who they do or don’t fuck? Last I checked, Grover didn’t have to sign an ‘I shalt not fornicate’ contract when he became Lord of the Wild!”

“Exactly!” Jane raises her hands and shouts up to the sky. “Don’t you fuckers realize we’re more than that?”

“The Hunters of Artemis, too!” I’m a jack-in-the-box, and something’s winding me up. “Thalia and Reyna send me letters all the time, and they seem really happy! Which is great!” I pause to emphasize the greatness of their happiness. My pinky is completely green, now. “But, they also had to make a stupid ‘ode of chastity,’ like I did!”

“Are you kidding me?” Jane’s hair flips as she turns to me. “I thought Artemis was one of the good ones!”

My voice lowers to a husky rumble, and I stare into the distance towards you, the reader. “In a broken system, there are no good ones. Abolish the police.” I clear my throat and my voice turns back to normal. “Sorry, zoned out for a second.” My green pinky has begun to vibrate.

“Happens to the best of us,” Jane’s voice is light and nonchalant. “And yeah, I know. Pretty much all of the gods have skeletons sitting on their shoulders, but it just seems out of character for her. I thought all of Artemis’s groups were supposed to be safe havens, not oppressive structures in their own right.”

I frown. “Yeah you’re right, that is weird. I’d never thought of it much beyond the gods having weird rules, but I wonder if something bigger is at play. The gods might be fucked up in the way that regular people are, and are undoubtedly responsible for all sorts of crap. But then there's more personal things, like the ‘chastity vows’ the Hunters and I had to take, and the fact that Nico was initially outed by Eros, and the weird unexplained eye condition that Piper had during some of her quests that made her eyes a bunch of bright, Eurocentric colors, rather than their natural brown. All sorts of other stuff, too.”

“Wow!” Jane says, sitting up straight on the grass. Her hand moves from where it was resting in her lap to cover her heart. “It’s almost like a bunch of genuinely good and inspiring material, such as including prominent queer people and characters of color in fun children’s fantasy, as well as having an immortal group of warrior women who support each other and are free from the gaze of men, was taken into the hands of a cis white man armed with unchecked misogyny and a fair amount of white Twitter feminism, both of which really showed when he tried to create an inclusive and empowering book series for children! Like yeah, it had its moments, and definitely some good characters, but overall, a lack of meaningful research in certain areas really made it fall flat!” Once again, I stare through the bindings of URLs and internet coding, now joined by Jane as we lock eyes with you, the reader. This time, we hold eye contact for nearly a minute, giving you time to read and process the long tangent spat out by this fanfic’s author, who, if we’re being honest, has gone just a tad off the rails right now. Finally, Jane and I look away from you, and resume our roles as fictional characters, still shaking off that strange cloud that comes with staring into the soul of those who give you life.

“Ugh, what’s going on with me today?” Jane groans at the same time I mutter, “What’s Twitter?” We turn to each other, blinking in the sunlight, then grin. This is normal. We’re fine. Jane looks up at the sky again. “I wonder if the gods are watching us. Maybe we should make them think we suck so they’ll leave you alone.”

I laugh as she sticks her tongue out, grinning wickedly at a nearby cloud. “Better yet, make them think we’re too powerful to be messed with,” I say. Jane sees me watching her and opens her mouth, sucking the cloud in between her teeth. The sky seems bluer in the space where it had been, and Jane’s eyes glitter with mirth as she swallows. “Mmm, tastes like sugar.” I giggle, feeling a small shiver on the top of my head. When I peer up, I see another cloud has floated over to me. I open my own mouth, and take it in, just as Jane did hers. “Sugar, yes. But there’s a touch of blood, too,” I say. Jane nods sagely. “What were we talking about?”

“The inherent misogyny in much of Greek mythology and the world of Camp Half-Blood in general.”

Jane nods again. “Right. A very important topic. It makes it weird when I’m writing sometimes. You know, cause I want to bring in Circe and Zeus and Apollo and all these fascinating characters, but there’s just so much bad stuff tied up with them that comes up when I research.” She looks down at our feet, which are standing in the midst of a strawberry patch. We seem to have been walking, crushing sweet summer strawberries as we go, which is odd because I don’t remember getting up. “You know Rachel, I’m feeling a bit strange.”

I look at her, and see an odd blankness in her warm brown eyes. “Now that you mention it, Jane, so am I.”

“My thoughts and words are my own,” Jane says, “But there’s something up with my body. I can’t really feel it.”

“I agree, I’ve honestly gone a bit numb.” I try to glance down at my fingers, wondering idly if they’ve gotten any more green, but find that my neck won’t bend.

Jane’s eyebrows furrow. “Yet, at the same time, I feel as though I could do anything. Grow another grass blade. Grow a flower. Grow a tree. Bend the world to my will if I wanted to.”

“Or is it the world bending me to its will.” I grin at my own philosophical point, but find that the smile won’t go away. Pretty fucking inconvenient, since the next thing I was going to bring up was part of the whole serious misogyny conversation. I decide to go for it anyway. “And I’m not the only one with weird rules!” Jane nods, as if this is a perfectly normal segway, and the only extraneous thought that floats through my mind as we find ourselves walking down a hill is how unfair it is that she still has control over her neck and I don’t. “Remember when I told you about the Hunters of Artemis?”

“Oh yeah! Your friends Reyna and Thalia, right?”

“Yeah, them! They send me letters sometimes, and seem really happy, which is great.” I pause, meaning to add emphasis, when I’m hit with a great sensation of deja-vu. “Wait a second, we already talked about this, didn’t we?” I try to remember, but something in my mind is rapidly melting. I cannot find it. I cannot find anything.

“Jane?” My voice quivers, and I squeeze my eyes shut. Oh gods, please let this be a dream. For a moment, I try to convince myself that it’s the Oracle of Delphi taking over, just like she did the other day and generally does a couple times a year. But I know that I’m lying. This is not what that feels like. “Jane, where are you?” I can barely move my mouth to say the words. I can feel nothing but the frozen fear of paralysis, of lost control. When I open my eyes, this other thing in my body has brought me to the edge of the forest. “Jane? Jane?” She could be right beside me, unable to speak, and I wouldn’t know because I can’t turn my head, can’t move my eyes, can barely even hear right now.

It’s okay, something says.

“Jane?” It’s not her voice. It’s no one’s voice.

It’s okay. You’re home.

With every cut the wooden oars made through the choppy ocean water, Sabrina knew she was getting closer. She could feel it in her bones, in her brain, a little voice that whispered in her ear. It had been three hours. Her body was worn down, energy levels dipping dangerously low, when she felt something scrape the bottom of her boat.

A rock.

Frantically, she peered through the fog that had begun to surround her boat a mile ago. The island. Had she finally made it?

As if answering her call, a peel of thunder rang out, and Sabrina’s boat began to fill with rain that pounded down from the sky. The storm from her dream. She rowed even faster, then, fear sparking a renewed strength in her tired muscles.

Just as Sabrina was about to reach the shore, a massive wave crashed over her, and her boat capsized. She came back up, sputtering, holding her sopping wet bag above her head. Another wave swept against Sabrina’s face, and she found herself spitting out a mouthful of saltwater. Finally, she washed up on the shore, heaving breaths raking through her lungs.

Sabrina blinked, pushing herself up onto her elbows. It was real. She was here.

She had made it.

FROM THE POV OF ROSALIND PENDERWICK

It’s been a pleasant day so far. Breakfast with my siblings and some of the Demeter cabin (though Jane did seem a bit absent-minded). Miranda, Florien, and Rio convinced me to practice some plant magic with them for a couple hours and I built up to growing a small sunflower. Lunch (again with Jane seeming distracted, though Rachel ate with us this time, which appeared to help). Then, Skye and Jeffrey disappeared with some of the older campers (supposedly for a regular game of soccer, but the unsettling gleam in their eyes had me doubting that was all there was too it), Jane and Rachel went to take a walk in the strawberry fields, and Batty and I were left to prepare for a pegasus riding lesson. If it had been up to Batty, the latter could have easily taken up the entire afternoon, but changing into durable pants and finding a bandana can only take so long.

After a somewhat restless hour, during which I grew three peonies and Batty rhapsodized about the stable of unicorns that another demigod camp apparently has, Batty and I arrive at the stable. We’re ten minutes early, and she’s been talking a mile a minute the whole time, not stopping from before. I swear I now know as much about pegasuses as she does. According to Rachel, the teacher today is Percy, her friend, who’s very responsible “when he puts his mind to it.” I wasn’t sure how to tell her that’s actually not very comforting, but Batty looked so excited and I figured there will be plenty of other people there, so. Why not. She’s been spending so much time there anyway.

Needless to say, I very much regret my decision now.

The stables are modest, made of wood and painted green, and I’ve been there several times by now. There’s a long line of stalls visible when we first walk in, but Batty skips straight to the far end, where a massive pegasus the color of a carrot pokes its head over the door and nuzzles Batty’s hair. She looks up at me with a smile that could melt anyone’s heart, and pats the horse on the nose. “Rosy, this is Queen Lotus Flower. Percy said we have a impenetrable bond.”

I look at the two of them with a questioning gaze. How can they both have the exact same puppy-dog eyes? I swear to god. The gods. All of them. “Batty, sweetheart. That horse is like ten feet tall.”

She nods enthusiastically. “I know, she’s so much taller than any other horse I’ve seen. Percy says she has the biggest wingspan of any horse at camp.”

I nod, slowly, wondering why my sister picked the biggest pegasus to fall in love with. At that moment, Percy pushes the door open. “Hey Batty! Ready for your lesson?” Batty leaves her post by Queen Lotus Flower to wrap her arms around my waist and nod. I look Percy over. He’s a few inches taller than me, with brown skin and curly hair. A beaded camp necklace, orange tshirt, and jeans. Weird arm tattoo aside, he’s one of the most normal-looking people at camp. I’ve only met him a couple times before, but, my nerves over Batty flying around on massive horses aside, I do trust him. Rachel seems to have a good taste in friends. Also, Batty likes him, and she’s still shy around a good number of Skye and Jane’s friends back in Cameron.

For the next few minutes, I watch as Percy instructs Batty on buckling Queen Lotus Flower’s giant saddle and looping the bridle over her nose. Not wavering a bit from the “lesson” aspect of all this, he steps back to let her show what she’s already learned from hanging around the stables so often, only stooping in to guide her when she gets confused. As the minutes tick by, more people show up for the lesson: three other students, and a good sized crowd of people who just like watching the pegasuses. By then, I’m seated on the grass outside the stables, soaking in the blistering sun and watching as Percy (seated atop a wiry black pegasus who Batty pointed out as Blackjack) darts around the large dusty enclosure, making final preparations for the lesson.

Skye and Jeffrey show up then, and sit on either side of me. I want to ask them where Jane and Rachel are, but they’re talking non-stop about a game they just played in the woods with some of the other campers, only switching the subject when Percy and Blackjack return and they begin discussing whether or not it should be scientifically possible for a horse to fly.

Just as Batty and Queen Lotus Flower begin a gentle trot around the enclosure, I feel a tap on my shoulder, and hear the familiar sound of Tommy’s chuckle. “She’s got a weird knack for that,” he says. I nod, grinning.

It’s been good with us. We’ve had breakfast together a few times, even played a game of basketball one afternoon. Our conversations aren’t the same as they used to be, and there’s a sense of newness that feels cold and strange every so often. But it’s good. It feels right. At least for now, this feels like where we’re supposed to be.

As Percy starts demonstrating how to take flight, I look around again. Jane and Rachel still aren’t here. They promised to come. (“For moral support!” Jane had said. “Wouldn’t miss it,” Rachel had added with a smile). I try to push it out of my head. This lesson is a big deal. Batty’s going to be flying.

She leans forward on Queen Lotus Flower’s neck.

They begin to run, moving together like a single being.

Just as they burst into the air, Batty’s euphoric smile lighting up the sky, Katie grabs my shoulders from behind. I shush her so I can lean forward and watch Batty silhouetted against the pegasus’s wide orange wings.

“Rosalind. Rosalind, guys. ” Something about the panic in Katie’s voice makes me turn around. Her usually tied back hair is loose and her clothes rumpled, giving the impression that she was dragged out of bed for this. (Some part of my brain distantly remembers her saying she was going to take a nap). Skye and Jeffrey turn around, too.

“What, what’s happening?” I reach out my hands, trying to calm her as she collapses into a squat, breathing heavily.

“Billie… found me in the cabin… had been looking for you guys… been running all over the camp… lucky I remembered about the riding lesson…”

Jeffrey leans over and puts his hands on her shoulders. She stares down at the dirt while her breathing levels.

“Katie, what are you saying? Why were you and Billie looking for us?”

She looks up, and I see that her forehead is drawn into well-worn creases of worry. “Jane and Rachel have gone into the woods.”

Something was wrong. Sabrina crouched on the wet sand, straining to see through the heavy rain. In her dream there had definitely been someone else on the island. She remembered the hunched figure, the sound of sobs leaking through the rain.

But she’d circled the shore at least twice by now, and there was nobody to be found. “Am I late or something?” she wondered aloud. Somehow, she’d gotten that dream It felt like it had been sent to her. Why did it show a person when there was no one?

Sabrina sighed and began to traipse inland, tucking a knife in her pocket. It wasn’t a big island, and she might as well find some shelter aside from her boat, which was now overturned somewhere on the beach. Circe lived here, didn’t she? There must be some sort of roof, especially if this kind of weather was standard.

Or maybe this was just a random island and there was no Aeaea and Sabrina’s dream had just been the unhinged work of her unconscious mind.

There was a small grassy hill set aside from the sand, which Sabrina crawled up with the determination of a dying warrior. Something was pushing her back. An invisible force, a last crumb of survival instinct, plain old fatigue, she wasn’t sure. But something wanted her out of here, and it pushed back harder and harder as she climbed.

She let out a cry of frustration, clawing at the ground, at the air, at whatever this goddamn thing was, and found a renewed burst of strength that pulled her to the top of the hill. Once there, the force that pushed back ebbed a little, like it was giving up. Sabrina let herself relax, and simply took in the view for a moment.

The hill she lay on top of gave way to a deep valley, sprawling and green. In one corner, there was a cluster of trees that looked healthy and comfortable, despite being on a random Greek island in the middle of the ocean. A modest garden lay next to it, somehow appearing unaffected by the rain, and a narrow river wound around the whole scene.

There was also a house.

Sabrina wasn’t sure what she might have expected from the lair of an infamous Greek enchantress, but it wasn’t this.

She hauled herself up on the hill and started down, rushing through the rain onto a wide wooden porch. There was a large stone vat of something dark and crumbly, with a heavy looking staff of sorts leaning against it. The door to the house was short, and Sabrina heard it scrape on the floor when she pushed it open.

The scene awaiting her was surprisingly cozy when she stepped inside. There was a fire in the hearth and rows upon rows of little viles arranged on a set of shelves beside it. A broom leaned against the wall. Sabrina looked around, noting the way that the rain didn’t make any sound as it thrashed against the roof and window, and the almost drug-like stupor that threatened to take over her brain, whispering that everything was fine, she was safe, nothing bad could happen to her.

Sabrina had encountered hypnosis before, and it only ever made her more jittery.

There was an open hatch in the floor with stairs that lead into darkness. She followed them down, feeling the air grow cooler with every step. Sabrina was quiet, taking tiny steps on her toes, and wincing when one of the stairs creaked. She didn’t know what was down there, and she didn’t want to find out the hard way. But there were no arrows flying up from the space below, no sounds of footsteps or slashes of swords.

Sabrina stepped onto a dirt floor and let herself exhale, shuffling along until her toe hit something hard. Only seasoned reflexes made her reach for the knife in her pocket instead of crying out in fear. She knelt down and squinted in the darkness, trying to see what she’d hit.

A leg.

She frowned, shaking it until she heard a low growl. “Stop that.” She stopped.

“Who are you?” Sabrina leaned closer. If they hadn’t killed her yet she was probably safe.

Instead of answering, they reached out a hand. Sabrina could see a gold ring on the thumb that glinted in a little sliver of light that had crept down from the room above. “Pull me up,” the figure said. “I’ve been paralyzed by the witch.”

Helping the stranger sit turned out to be no simple feat. They were tall and muscular, wearing a cape and a heavy metal chest plate. “The witch?” she questioned, propping them up against one of the cellar’s dirt walls. Her eyes were beginning to adust to the dark, and she could just make out their sharp chin sticking out as their head lolled back.

The figure made a noise. “The witch, the sorceress, the woman. Whatever you want to call her. I figure she sent you down too?” They snorted. “Good luck. I told Zeus not to sent mortals, but does he ever listen? You’re gonna die.”

Sabrina tried to piece together what she could from all this. The witch must be Circe, unless she’d wound up on an entirely different island. And if Circe was going around paralyzing people, then something must be going on. She must be hiding something. As for the person in front of her, Sabrina wasn’t sure who they were. By the way they talked about Zeus, and casually said “mortals,” she’d guess some sort of god? As if that narrowed it down. She’d have to be careful.

“Why did she paralyze you?”

Another weird gutteral noise. “She didn’t like my offer. It’s not the first time this has happened.”

She was growing impatient. Why’d he have to be so vague? “What?”

“Yeah, I don’t know why he always sends me. I don’t think he trusts me. He’d rather me stay her paralysed in the basement of a witch than come back home.”

Sabrina let out an exasperated sigh. This wasn’t working and she needed answers. A whole coast of people with mythology-shaped holes in their memories awaited her. “You’re going to need to be a little more specific. I don’t think we’re on the same page.”

The figure sounded confused. “What do you mean? Don’t you know who I am?”

She leaned forward and inspected them in the darkness. “No. No I don’t.”

They slid their eyes down to her face. “I am the god Apollo. I came here for Circe and she did this to me.”

“What? Why?”

The stairs creaked behind Sabrina and she felt a long nail drag up her back. “I just want to be left alone,” said a voice as deep and powerful as the smell of red wine. “You don’t mind, do you?” Before Sabrina could grab her knife and turn around, before she could even scream, strong arms had surrounded her shoulders and a hand was clamping a damp cloth over her nose and mouth. Shock made her breath in, sharply, and she smelled the sweetness of sleeping drugs.

A heartbeat, a brief struggle, and Sabrina Starr was gone.

#cruel summer fic #cameron writes #the penderwicks #penderwicks #camp half blood #camp half-blood #rachel elizabeth dare #jane penderwick #rosalind penderwick

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