#would u love me if i was seafoam around your ankles when you go to the beach—and nothing more? 🥺

[ofmermaidstories]

hi mermie!

would you still love me if i was a thought and never existed? 🥺

if u were a thought and never existed you’d be free to drift in and about on the breeze and through people’s heads and open windows. and eventually you’d travel the whole world like this; you’d be lifted with birds on hot thermal gusts high into the sky and you’d drift over oceans and settle in the desert somewhere until a snake disturbed some sand and sent you on your way again. you’d make your way through cities and the people that lived in them, passed on from friend to friend to a random acquaintance to a barista in coffee shop and back out onto the street again via a stressed out young mum and her toddler. and maybe she’s helped with her pushchair by an old man and you slip into his pocket when she thanks him and eventually he drives out to the countryside to visit his children and you’re on your way again, until we find each other. and i will hold u for a moment like sunlight on the back of my hand or the warmth of a cup of tea and then if you want i’ll let you out the window with some incense smoke to keep you company before a bird or a garden moth flits past and lets you sail along. so yes. i would love you as a thought, even if you never existed. i love you right now. hello, my darling. happy sunday. 🍋☀️

[perceabeth]

Wtf!! That wasn't what I meant when I said give me Aphrodite! Annabeth content?? How dare you? It's so good but i hate you for hurting me like that! Oh my god!!?!? Ahhhhh!! T-T

But seriously tho, it was really well written. I'm just (kinda) glad it's not a full fledged fic, cause i wouldn't have survived T-T

okay here's a drabble for ya! <3 i know u didn't ask i just fel tlike it teehee

Annabeth was not afraid of drowning.

Like her mother before her, she was formed of seafoam and she was formed of beauty, and standing by the beach, the golden sunlight shimmering in the waves, she was reminded of just what the salt in her blood could hold.

With a deep breath, she took one step forward. Then another. Then another.

Her ankles were wet now; wet in the way that they were submerged in the water, even as the waves came and went. In Long Island Sound, the Atlantic ocean was almost warm. It was perhaps intentional– welcoming or foreboding– but she had run out of options.

One more step; one more breath.

Her knees locked into themselves as she moved, her feet sinking into the soft sand underneath her. There was no turning back– if she ran back to land like her body was screaming for her to do, it meant she’d given up hope. And beauty with no hope was not beauty at all. 

A thing of beauty; that was what she’d been called. For a moment she closed her eyes, let the breeze tickle her hair and breathed in the scent of the ocean. In her mind’s eye, she imagined herself– foolish little girl, drunk on love and led by nothing but faith– her body swollen, pale and purple, her hair wet and her eyes lifeless. A thing of beauty.

What an ugly way to go, she thought. To drown.

The longer she stood, surrounded by waves that swayed her tepidly, the more her mind focused on Percy. He had a laugh– a throaty laugh that woke the butterflies in her belly. His hair was dark, but in the evening sun like this, it would look brown, maybe even a little golden. For as long as he wasn’t dead, he was for her to find– to laugh with, to shine with. Annabeth looked out into the water again, an opportunity to carry her closer to the boy she loved.

What a beautiful way to go, she thought. To drown.

The sand began to disappear under her feet as she walked on forth. First she had to stand on her tiptoes. Then she had nothing.

So far out into the ocean, there was hardly any seafoam left; there was hardly anything that made her. She floated along the current, waiting to be pulled under– for she must be pulled under, eventually. The water got colder as she moved further away from the coast– a warning, an invitation. As the sun sank behind her, she straightened up, letting her body pull her downwards. It had to work. It had to work.

“What are you doing?” A voice boomed only a moment before she gave into the darkness. “You don’t belong here.”

Unlike Percy, Annabeth couldn’t create a bubble; couldn’t breathe with her head underwater. She kept her eyes closed and focused on the voice– a loud, man’s voice that she’d heard before. Trespasser, he called her. The water was not her place to be.

“Lord Poseidon,” She was only a little surprised that her voice carried through the water. “Pardon me, but I am made of the same seas that make you.”

There was a pause, and then a bubble grew around her. Annabeth had all of half a second to gasp for air before the god himself manifested in front of her, floating gracefully in the dark water. Around them, bioluminescence began to glow, forming little stars to wade through.

A thing of beauty, she repeated, letting herself be mesmerised by the sight. Only the ocean could create such a thing.

“Do not confuse the sea for seafoam, Annabeth.” Lord Poseidon warned. “What is on the surface has little to do with what lies in the depths.”

“I apologise, Sir.” Annabeth said. “I simply needed your time.”

“And my time is valuable.” 

“Not as much as mine, Lord Poseidon.” Annabeth really hoped he wouldn’t kill her for saying it. “I have only one lifetime.”

“Is that what you have sought me to say?” Poseidon almost looked tickled by her. His beard picked up by the corners of his lips. “That your time is more valuable than mine?”

“Any mortal would think it, Sir. I am only voicing what is already known.” Annabeth said. “And in my limited time on this earth, I found– I found your son.” She was mortified by the sound of her voice breaking. How many times had she practiced it in the mirror before? “Only to lose him months later.”

“My son…” Poseidon thought about it for a moment. “He is perhaps the only reason you will live to tell this tale, young lady. I don’t usually encourage children to summon me.”

“I believed in you, Sir. I believed in your love for Percy. In his love for me. You would not let me drown.”

“And if your belief had led you astray?”

“I should be thankful I’d be dead before I learned it.” Annabeth gave him a small smile. Poseidon studied her with the same intelligent green eyes he’d passed down to Percy. A school of fish swam past her legs, pausing, for a second, around Poseidon as if to pay their respects before being on their way. Annabeth swallowed. “I’ve looked everywhere that the eye can see, Lord Poseidon. I can’t find him, and I’m starting to fear the worst.”

“You know the rules, Annabeth. Gods are not supposed to help heroes–”

“He’s your son, Lord Poseidon.” Annabeth begged. “He’s your son. It’s a god who brought us into this madness. I don’t know who, how, why– but even within our world, something is wrong. You have to see it. Demigods don’t disappear. There’s no trace of him.”

“I cannot offer you any help, Annabeth.” Poseidon repeated, gentler this time. Around them, the current stopped tugging at her as hard. “It is not my place.”

“No.” Annabeth shook her head, feeling more and more desperate with every passing second. He was her last hope. Nobody else seemed to care. Poseidon raised his eyebrows.

“No?”

“No, Sir.” Annabeth doubled down. She was drowning. This was no way to go. “You must help me. You must. I can’t– I can’t go back up there. It’s been two days and I have nothing.”

“I’m afraid there isn’t much that I can do, Annabeth. I can’t find that which does not want to be found.”

“My time is running out.” She said. “And as a mortal, time is all I am given. It’s hope that we find, in our short time on earth. Hope, Sir. Hope that keeps the heart light and the hearth warm. Hope, that we look for in each other, in the seas and in Olympus itself. Hope, who is so powerful that she is imprisoned in a glass cage. To look at and to hold; to never let go. By leaving me now you are opening the jar. He is the son of the sea. He is the saviour of Olympus. He is Percy Jackson. How can you deny me my hope?”

For half a second, there was a shift in Poseidon’s features. For half a second, her head broke out of the surface and her lungs filled themselves with new air. Then the moment passed and the sea god’s expression returned and Annabeth was dragged underwater again. 

“I’m afraid I simply cannot help, Annabeth.” He waved his hand and the bubble of air around her began to shrink. Her last breaths were numbered and she kicked towards the surface. “But from the bottom of my heart– it is my only hope that you hold onto your guiding light. Belief so pure is rare; it would be a shame for you to lose it.”

Annabeth broke out into the surface, taking a large gulp of air. The night sky above her was inky, leaking into the water she floated on. The current changed directions suddenly, carrying her back to the beach.

It was only when she was on dry land again that she realised she was crying. A thousand profanities fell onto the tip of her tongue, but she knew better than to say them. Even Percy’s love couldn’t shield her from the sea’s wrath. Coward, she thought at the waves.

Hope was a flickering star that floated in the ocean, and she’d been spit out. Stubbornly, she set her jaw and glowered at the ocean. She would find him, she swore silently. She would find Percy and see him home– all she had was time and hope, and that made her a force to be reckoned with. She was made of what floated on the surface– of courage and beauty; where the light glimmered and the waves danced. The depths were murky; gutless and tucked away.

Annabeth was not afraid of drowning. She was made of seafoam and in the dark– she would shine.