#im not trying to go into too many details; just the underlying structure that is what I think of when i think of them

[arsenicflame]

hey does anyone wanna bounce bellhands/they all went to pirate school together ideas with me? im trying to figure out the missing pieces of my personal set up and it might be easier with someone else!

#if youve never spoken to me before please be aware i will type a whole paragraph in response to one (1) sentence #but if ur down for that! please. #ive got like. the start and the end and a couple bits in the middle fleshed out but it doesn't f l o w #this is the problem with trying to condense more than a years of ideas into one cohesive narrative. i usually swap and change things as #and when it suits so im like. i don't know what i need in this #its just for my silly little tumblr post but #i would appreciate it <3 #i can send you what ive wrote and we can go from there or we can start from scratch bouncing ideas or u can just ask me questions #or something to help fill in gaps idk whatever works for u! what ive got is like. a fuckin mess honestly its ramblings and half finished #thoughts and just. its. a complete state and thats not even touching on whats missing (like. anything that matters in the middle basically) #nyxtalks #ofmd #bellhands #sam bellamy #izzy hands #israel hands #if you're unfamiliar with the concept: its Hornigold era stuff; jack + ed + izzy + sam all sailing under him and learning the ropes togethe #im not trying to go into too many details; just the underlying structure that is what I think of when i think of them #its probably not something anyone else cares about but i think i need it for some of the more fun 'what if Izzy went with sam' posts #i realised if i wanted to say what the divergence point was i Needed to establish all this lol #'oh yeah its when izzy chooses sam after the mutiny despite their argument' NYX WHAT ARGUMENT. you need to tell us what u mean

[fipindustries]

not a question but basically any time i remember your art exists im looking it up and down and trying to take inspiration from it. your expression work is always top notch, and the way you depict faces is the perfect balance between cartoony and well defined

oh my god this is such an amazing compliment! thank you so much!

you know, i think this has been a long time coming. im going to take this as a chance to go in depth about how my style works, why i do what i do and how i do it. do keep in mind that none of this is me saying "this is the objectively correct way of doing art" but rather just how my own process works, what I like to see in my own art.

that balance that you speak of comes from a commitment to underlying structures. what im going to call the stylization sandwich

i start with a clear, well defined solid structure, i add whatever wacky cartoony features i want on top of it (none the less strongly tied and guided by the underlying structure) and then i refine by adding as many more realistic, grounding details i want, although you can go too far with it so i gotta be careful or ill end up with those shitty "cartoon character IRL would look scary!" clickbait drawings.

(quick aside, this trend fucking sucks, its obvious the artist went out of their way to make the drawing creepy, this pretension that "actually the character would look scary irl" deliberatly misundertands the principles of stylization, its as creatively bankrupt as jokes about mario eating mushrooms)

getting back on topic, the point is that, as long as the underlying structures are solid you can build whatever you want on top of them and it will make sense

a key tool here is internalizing the way the proportions on the face work. and i say internalize because obviously i dont actually have the golden ratio memorized inside my head nor do i stop and measure and calculate all the proportions in the features. i just read a lot about drawing, i drew a lot, i tried to always keep a critical eye to what im drawing and see if it "feels" disproportionate. once you get an eye for it then you know how far you can push things before they complitely break

let me give you another example of what i feel is a botched execution of this.

if you look closely at the face on the left there are a lot of things that dont make sense. the corners of the eyebrows dip down into the eyes when usually the eyes are enveloped by the eyebrows, the way the beard grows around the nose is just not how facial hair is distributed, the mouth is too big, etc. on the left i used photoshop to reorganize the factions into something that makes a bit more sense to me

(another quick aside, the real big problem at the heart of the original drawing were not so much the proportions but the tangents, when different lines touch each other like this that is usually a big no no but that is a topic for another day)

also a lot of it is just me cheating. yeah i cheat. you ever heard how people say there is no innate talent and its all practisce and hard work. well, yeah, that is mostly true, but is also true that some people are born with inherent advantages. either taller or more predisposed to being thin or with better facial structures or better innate hand-eye coordination. i was born with an uncanny capacity to visualize stuff. i have whatever the opposite of aphantasia is. i can borderline hallucinate things if i want to. and that goes coupled with the visual intuitions i developed through practisce and training.

so first come the learned wisdom, and then comes the innate talent that helps me exploit that learned wisdom to its full potential

on top of that is corporeality, i try to draw in such a way that it conveys depth and weight to the things im drawing, certain kinds of stylizations dont care about that and choose instead to have their drawing look flat, a classic one is the UPA style

is a very fun style! very cute, very dynamic, very expressive in its simplicity. it became very popular in the 60's and 70's. personally i choose to go in a different direction. i draw in such a way that if one were to turn my drawings into 3d models not a lot would get lost in the process.

whereas other artists....

...not so much

but yeah, ultimatly it all goes back to underlying structure. any drawing can work

as long as you have a strong foundation underneath.

PS: if you like my style i cannot reccomend enough the art of @rezuaq i feel they follow a lot of the same principles i talked about here but i could be wrong.

they have been my biggest inspiration as of the last 4 years, i shamelssly stole the design of one of their characters for jennyffer. go to their blog and give them a like

#art

[annabethwisegirl-chase]

250 Headcanons (Part 4)

I bet you thought you’d seen the last of these.  Headcanons #151-200.  These cover from Annabeth’s time in college, to her death, as well as a little extra.  You’ll see what I mean if you make it to the end of this.  

151. One of the general education requirements at the university in New Rome has to deal with an Ancient Roman history course, and how they’ve evolved over time, how things have changed and stayed the same, and how the past repeats itself, etc.  Being the good Greek demigod that she is, Annabeth spends most of the class creating edited versions of notes that contradict half of what the professor’s saying.  The myths that were so obviously stolen from the Greek tradition get the most heavy handed treatment, with Annabeth opting to continue telling it the way she knows.  After all, it’s based on her culture, so it has to be more accurate than whatever the Romans turned it into.  Since most of the tests in the class are short and long essay response questions, Annabeth ends up not doing too well in that course because of the fact she refuses to change her perspective on Rome and its history.  Her final paper in the class has about half a page about Roman history/mythology, comparing it to its Greek counterparts, before she spends the rest of it detailing where the narrative is completely wrong, citing sources like “my mother, the goddess, Athena,” and “Chiron, trainer of heroes,” and “former Praetor Jason Grace, who met this guy and said he was a dick.”  The last one, she found, was really hard to cite in APA format.

152.  Although Annabeth does have friends in New Rome (Reyna, Frank, Hazel, and the occasional appearance by Jason), she never feels quite right there.  She knows that most of the others living there don’t think twice about having her around, but there’s still an underlying prejudice with many of the younger demigods still at Camp Jupiter.  It’s enough to make her want to move back to New York after one year.  But, the credits at New Rome don’t really transfer to any other university, and Annabeth can’t stand the idea of feeling like she wasted her time there.  So, she agrees to stick it out for the next three and reevaluate at the end of it where they want to live.

153.  She spends those next three years drawing up plans for New Athens in her spare time and working with Chiron via IM on how to make it a reality.  At first the centaur seemed hesitant, because camp was never intended to become a permanent home.  But, with demigods living longer and Camp Jupiter having such a well working structure, Chiron knows he really has no choice but to give in.  Through some “anonymous funding” provided by the Olympian gods, the camp is able to buy more land and expand its borders for the creation of a new town.  The Athena Parthenos is moved to where the gates of the new city will be, and Annabeth almost hates that she’s not there to see its symbolic new placement.  Almost.

154.  At the college in New Rome, passwords have to be changed every 180 days.  It’s a supid rule, and Annabeth has to get IT to reset her account for her once because she forgets and lets it expire.  But, each year, she sets up her passwords based around a “theme” in the hopes they’ll be easier to remember.  (Although so many people are amazed at the things Annabeth can remember, passwords just don’t seem to be among them).  Her first year is pretty simple, just naming her friends and adding a number at the end of it.  The next few years have themes including favorite Disney characters, famous architects, and superheroes.

155.  Annabeth has never liked the taste of coffee. Ways to keep her going after pulling all-nighters usually include a lot of exercise and Dr. Pepper.  She also has very specific stages that she goes through whenever she hasn’t slept that are, in order: drunk sounding Annabeth, giggly Annabeth, sarcastic/sassy Annabeth, flat out mean Annabeth, and finally dead girl walking Annabeth.

156.  The first place she starts to design for New Athens is the home she wants to live in with Percy.  It’s completed in bits in pieces, because she keeps trying to hide it from him, which is definitely a task that is easier said than done.  He keeps trying to sneak up behind her or steal her blueprints away, just to see what is taking her away from him that he knows isn’t school work.  Somehow though, she manages to keep it tucked safely away, in a tube with a pen mark down the side that she stashes with her old Olympus sketches.

157.  She will drop anything and everything to have her head and/or neck rubbed. 

158.  Annabeth also is just a really good artist in general.  Like, she’s great at proportions and angles from her years of trying to train as an architect.  But, it transfers over into other subject matter as well.  Her notebooks are filled with doodles in the corners that look way more detailed than something absentmindedly drawn during lectures.  

159.  Since her mom is also the goddess of crafts, Annabeth tries to take up knitting over a winter break, watching Youtube tutorial videos to try and get good at it.  Although she can make a pretty wicked scarf, her hats kind of look deformed.  But, that doesn’t stop her from making them for nearly everyone that she comes in contact with.  It’s therapeutic, to be able to work with her hands and continue to create things instead of feeling like she’s only tearing them down.  And making hats and scarves take so much less time than watching a building rise from the ground up.  So it definitely provides the more immediate satisfaction while she’s waiting for her more major projects to come to fruition.

160.  Annabeth cannot cook to save her life.  She made it a point to learn how to make cupcakes, but that’s as far as her ability in the kitchen goes.  Everything else ends up burnt or not completely done.  Then, when Annabeth tries to cook it/bake it longer, then it just ends up burning.

161.  Ham, pineapple and extra black olives is her pizza of choice.  However, due to the fact she seems to be the only one on the side of pro-pineapple, and her boyfriend’s insistence that the pineapple taints the pizza entirely, she just settles for olives on her half of the pizza. 

162.  Literally always cold.  It doesn’t matter that they spend the majority of the year in California, Annabeth always has some sort of jacket or sweater on her.  She walks around her apartment with a blanket wrapped around her shoulders and sleeps with her socks on because she swears that it keeps her warmer.

163.  Annabeth is that person who always dresses up for class.  Well, not necessarily dresses up, but is careful to make sure she looks professional at all times.  Literally the second she gets home though, it’s goodbye pants and hello oversized sweatshirt.  If there are going to be any plans to go out to eat dinner, or hang out in the city, those have to be made between classes or immediately after she walks through the door.  Because the second she changes out of her clothes, that’s it for the day.

164.  The first year that Percy and Annabeth live together brings back a lot of the bickering from their younger days.  And sometimes, that bickering can spiral out of control and have them in full on fights.  The argument that crops up the most definitely has to do with household chores.  Annabeth is used to having a certain level of cleanliness.  It helps her to stay focused it there’s not a huge mess everywhere.  Percy, on the other hand, does not seem to be quite as phased by it.  Fed up, she decides to try and institute a chore wheel, but it ends up causing more problems and neither of them pay much attention to it.  But, they never think to take it down off its place on the fridge.  So, it stays there pretty much the entire time they live in that apartment.

165.  She owns three calendars.  One is a little planner that she keeps in her backpack, one is hanging up on the wall by her desk, and one is huge and actually sits on her desk.  Although the same information is written in pretty much all three, the constant reminders and hope of seeing it makes it more likely that Annabeth will complete a task that’s set out for her.  Everything is also color coded.  School assignment due dates and tests are in red, family events are in blue, social events are in green, appointments are in purple, demigod related things are in orange, and anything else that might pop up is in pink.

166.  Annabeth gets a job her second year of living in New Rome working at a cafe.  She has to be up way too early for her liking, but she always has been an early riser so it’s not too hard to make the adjustment.  Besides, it means that she’s done with her shift by the time her classes start, giving her ample time in the evenings to work through her homework as well as her plans for New Athens.  She walks around all day smelling like coffee though, and it’s enough to make her never want to get near the stuff when she finally quits a few months before graduation.

167.  Growing up at camp, Annabeth’s used to eating pretty healthy.  However, that does not mean she can’t inhale junk food like the next person.  Her favorite non-healthy snack has to be chocolate covered peanuts (specifically, Goobers, but she’s not super picky on that).  On the flip side, she doesn’t really like peanut M&Ms.  Despite the fact that people have tried to convince her they’re basically the same thing, she’ll have none of it.  She claims that the candy coating gives the M&Ms a completely different flavor and basically refuses to eat them.

168.  There’s only one movie that Annabeth has ever cried at: Dinsey’s Hercules.  And, it didn’t even start until she was in her teens.  Even in college and beyond, she spends the entire film pointing out things that the movie got wrong.  But, the last ten minutes of it has her tearing up every single time.

169.  Annabeth is a Slytherin.  She also thinks that the people who combine houses (Slytherclaws, Gryffinpuffs, etc.) are just lying to themselves to make them feel better.

170.  Annabeth and Percy end up adopting two dogs from a nearby animal shelter.  They definitely went with the intention of only getting one, because their apartment was still small, and they were super busy all the time.  But, they couldn’t decide between two and ultimately decided to just get both of them.  Since there were two, each of them decided they got to rename one each.  So Otis and Aramis Jackson were added to the clan.

171.  Annabeth’s eyesight starts to get really poor during her sophomore year of college.  She dealt with it being slightly fuzzy, too stubborn to get her eyes checked out, for more than a year before finally giving in.  While she thanks the gods that she’s allowed to get contacts from the get go, her back up glasses have large, black frames and she feels sufficiently like a dork when she has to wear them.

172.  They’re juniors in college the first time the question of marriage is seriously discussed.  It’s Christmas break, and they're spending a weekend at her dad’s before Percy’s family flies in to celebrate the holiday.  Her stepmom meant it as a joke when she asked when they were getting married, and everyone--including Percy--looks stunned with Annabeth answers: “the summer after we graduate, that Saturday in the weird week where July becomes August.”  She says it without even looking up from the piece of chicken that’s she cutting, and is genuinely confused at everyone’s expression when she does look up.

173.  That same night, after everyone goes to bed, Percy asks her if she was being serious about what she said at dinner.  Annabeth responds in the affirmative, explaining how she felt like it went along with the whole idea that she wanted to be married young.  And, she wants to change her last name before she makes her mark in the mortal architectural world so that when she becomes a sort of “brand,” she’ll be restricted from doing that.  Since everything in their life happens in the summer, it only made sense that they’d get married then and she picked the weekend closest to the middle of their birthdays.  He acts all offended for about half a second, claiming that he can’t believe she made all these plans without even asking her to marry him, but they’re both a little too giddy at the prospect of actually getting married for them to believe it’s actually genuine.  Their laughter only grows when Annabeth gets down on one knee and asks him to marry her, slipping his college ring onto his ring finger to keep up the charade.

174.  Technically, they get engaged twice.  The first time, when Annabeth proposed with a college ring and it’s the time that she swears is the official start of their engagement.  The second time takes another year to crop up, and they’ve already started planning their wedding when Percy slides the engagement ring onto her hand.  It’s the second time that he swears is the official start of the engagement.

175.  In high school, the running gag was that if Percy didn’t graduate, then he couldn’t come to New Rome with her.  Of course, it was a ridiculous thing to say, because they both knew that no matter what happened, she would not be leaving him behind.  In college, the running gag becomes that if he doesn’t graduate, then he won’t get to marry her.  Of course, it proves to be just as ridiculous as their old gag, and not just because they’ve already put their deposit down on the venue.

176.  She designed exactly four structures for New Athens before deciding it wasn’t worth trying to do it all on her own.  She would go insane.  So, Annabeth handed over her designs and basic outline of the town to the Athena campers living at camp.  Those campers team up with the Hephaestus cabin to work on the city, careful to make sure each of Annabeth’s designs--including the house she made for herself and Percy--go into the final construction of the city.  It’s not ready to move into when they graduate college, but it’s closer than anything Annabeth could have achieved on her own.

177.  When they graduate from college, it’s a huge ordeal.  They have their friends from both camps come out, Percy’s family flies in, Annabeth’s family (including Magnus and two of his friends) shows up, and most of them end up crashing in their tiny apartment.  It’s cramped, and you can’t walk two steps without stepping on someone at night, but it’s great.  They have a barbecue after the ceremony, and the entire day is spent laughing and reminiscing on the various instances that made everyone doubt either Percy or Annabeth would end up as college graduates.  All through the day, Nico keeps shooting her strange glances, like he suspects something, but never voices a concern.  The party lasts for an entire weekend, and when people finally start leaving, they all express excitement at reuniting again in New York in a few months for the wedding.

178.  They decided to move back to New York after graduation.  Although Annabeth liked being close to her family and the safety of New Rome, neither of them felt they were truly at home.  So, two weeks after graduation, Percy and Annabeth pack as many of their belongings as they can into their car, and drop off the rest with Frederick, who promises to mail them soon.  It’s a long trip that’s only supposed to take four days, but because they’re who they are and constantly need breaks, monster attacks, and a weird case of car sickness from Annabeth, it ends up taking them almost twice that long.  Percy ends up having to drive most of it because Annabeth is exhausted or has a headache for most of the trip, and spends as much of it as she can sleeping.

179.  Since they don’t have an apartment when they move back to the city, Percy and Annabeth move back into his old room at Sally’s until they find one they like.  It’s still small and not in the best part of the city, but it’s theirs and her dad insists that he doesn’t mind helping them out a little.  At least, it’ll do until Annabeth’s job becomes more than just an internship and Percy finishes up with the final three courses that he has to take in order for his teaching license to be compatible with New York’s teaching requirements.

180.  She’s never been good at taking medication.  It doesn’t matter if there’s people there to remind her to do it, or if she puts post it notes up everywhere to try and get herself to take it.  It’s just one of those things that slips her mind.  It was the case when her stepmom put her on medication for her ADHD, and now, it’s the case with her birth control.  And it’s hard for her pills to work if she never takes them.  Which might be why she finds out she’s pregnant a little over a month before her wedding day.

181.  She absolutely does not want to invite any part of their godly family, and insists that they won’t even show up if they are invited.  But, Piper convinces her that it’ll be a slight if they don’t get invited to it, so Annabeth eventually relents.  Her invitation to Hera though has to be mailed a week later by Percy when Annabeth insists that it got “lost.”  However, due to the fact that Hera is the goddess of marriage, he vetoes her in saying that it’s asking for trouble if they don’t have her come.  Everyone is surprised when most of the gods RSVP with a yes.

182.   I keep seeing people saying Percy and Annabeth’ll get married at Camp and I’m like... no.  Okay here we go.  They get married at Montauk, and there’s this place called like the Navy Beach House or something, and it’s super nice and expensive but Frederick insists on paying for it because he knows that this is what Annabeth wants.  And he hasn’t really felt like he’s been able to really give her anything she wants before, so this is something that he goes all out for.  Also keep in mind, mortals can’t enter camp, and there is no way that Percy and Annabeth would get married without Sally, Paul, and baby Blofis around.  They want it to be a small thing, but of course, what Percy and Annabeth want and what usually happens end up being in complete contrast with each other.  It’s another huge party, with people from both camps coming in, basically all the gods showing up in human-esque form, the hunters of Artemis showing up (but they kind of have to, since Thalia’s in the wedding), in addition to the mortal sides of both their families.  The gods put up a protective border for the day, because that many demigods in one place would definitely draw monsters.  And Aphrodite has been waiting for this day since Percy and Annabeth were eleven, so no one is messing it up unless they want to deal with her wrath.  It’s great, but there’s so much preparation and planning and hugging relatives that it seems to go by in a blur.  Annabeth is sufficiently disappointed when the only piece of wedding cake she gets is the piece that Percy smashed in her face.

183.   She manages to keep the whole pregnancy thing a secret from everyone (except she’s like 85% sure Sally knows something’s up, and Nico definitely knows.  Turns out he can sense new life just like he can sense people dying and that’s why he gave her the weird looks at the graduation).  It’s during the reception that she just writes “I’m pregnant” on a napkin that she passes to Percy before walking off to go greet more guests.  The look he gives her when she finally makes eye contact again is priceless.

184.  She changes her last name to Jackson as soon as she can after they get back from the honeymoon.  Piper gave her some grief about it, claiming that it was giving into the patriarchy or something, but Annabeth didn’t care.  She finally was officially a part of a family that was going to be permanent and that was going to be there for her, no matter what.  Changing her last name to symbolize her belonging to that family was 100% her choice and something she’d decided on doing not long after her and Percy started talking about getting married.

185.  Annabeth wanted to get her master’s directly out of college and was even accepted into a program.  However, she decided to delay it due to the fact she was the idea of working, going to school, and taking care of a newborn seemed next to impossible.  Annabeth knows she’s incredible, but she’s not that incredible.  It actually gets pushed back a lot farther than she meant to, because all of their kids kind of end up being born back to back to back.  Eventually, she is able to go back to school when the youngest starts kindergarten, and gets her master’s degree, before going on to achieve her doctorate as well.

186.  They have three kids: two boys and a girl.  The first two were not planned.  The only reason they did decide to have a third was because of the whole ‘rule of three.’  Despite the fact that Annabeth proved it was a stupid law on her first quest, something about it still seemed safe.  So, they had one more.  It becomes a tradition for the next two kids that whenever Annabeth finds out she’s pregnant, she just writes it on a napkin and slips it to Percy at the end of dinner, before taking one of the kids to another room in their apartment.

187.  It’s after their second kid is born that New Athens is completed and they’re able to move back into the safety of camp borders, while still living as functioning adults.  It’s kind of a difficult commute for Annabeth for work, but she doesn’t care.  She likes living in a home she designed with her family.  And knowing their safe is worth the trip she has to take every day to get to the firm she works at.  When Annabeth got to take Percy around the house the first time after it was done, and explain the intricate details of it all and why she designed things certain ways, she was couldn’t stop bouncing on her feet as she walked.  They totally make out like teenagers in their newly finished kitchen before remembering that their kids are being watched by a few of Apollo’s kids in camp that probably should be relieved of their babysitting duties as soon as possible.

188.  Their youngest gets Percy’s water powers and he can’t properly control them until he’s about eight.  However, that doesn’t mean that his emotions don’t set them off.  Annabeth loses track of the number of times she gets doused in toilet water (to which Percy can’t help but laugh every time) and his siblings find themselves getting water from the faucet shooting straight at their faces every time there’s an argument.

189.  There are family Halloween costumes pretty much every year until their oldest is ten.  Some of Annabeth’s favorites include the Incredibles, Batman, the Scooby Doo gang, and the Addams Family.

190.  Due to the fact that both Percy and Annabeth are ADHD and dyslexic, all three of their kids have ADHD.  Only their daughter is not diagnosed with dyslexia and there are definitely tears of joy when Annabeth first hears her daughter read through a sentence without stumbling any more than any other child learning to read. 

191.  When each Jackson kid is six, they receive a plastic sword to begin learning to sword fight.  Granted, it probably seemed overkill, but all three of them definitely do still have a potent smell.  So, it’s necessary for them to learn how to fight.  After proving that they are capable of handling a blade and not hurting themselves (or pulling it on their siblings for the fun of it), they are given a real weapon, made especially for them by Tyson.  

192.  Board games, card games, and puzzles aren’t actually a thing that can go on in the Jackson household because everyone is so competitive about it.  Pieces go “missing” from puzzles because someone took it so they can put the last piece in.  Cards get traded below table tops to help someone win a hand.  Board games usually get tipped over “accidentally” when someone gets up to go to the kitchen for something to drink.  

193.  Annabeth falls asleep more at the kitchen table than she does in her own bed.  She gets wrapped up in some new project and insists on it being perfect.  So, even though she swears she’ll only be up for fifteen more minutes, there’s no telling what time Annabeth will actually pass out and Percy gave up trying to wake her up to come to bed about a year after they got married.  It just seemed that when he would wake her up, she’d murmur something about being awake enough to keep going and that she still definitely had five more minutes of work time left in her.

194.  She’s totally that mom who frightens teachers and coaches a like about her kids.  Like, when they make a mistake getting onto her kid for something that wasn’t their fault, or they take them out of a play when they’re clearly the best player on the team, Annabeth loses it.  She ends up banned from her daughter’s volleyball games for a year.

195.  When they take their kids to Disney for the first time, Annabeth is just as excited as any of the Jackson spawn.  She spends the entire time describing the inspiration for the facades of the buildings, as well as how the forced perspective is working.  She spends weeks planning their days down to the minute, factoring other potential plans for extra wait times, shorter wait times, etc. but ends up ditching all of it as soon as she rides Dumbo for the first time.  No one really understands why, but that is her ride.  They have to ride it first the two days they go to the Magic Kingdom during that trip.

196.   It’s not uncommon for either Percy or Annabeth to be asked to go out and escort a halfblood to camp.  Typically, they go as a team on the weekend, after dropping their kids off with Sally and Paul or letting them stay in their cabins at camp.  However, after getting a call from Chiron about a halfblood near by, Annabeth opted to take on the mission by herself.  After all, she’d be heading back close to camp’s borders at the end of the day anyway.  It only made sense to find the demigod and take them back with her.  But it wasn’t one demigod that she found.  There were three.  All kids under the age of twelve, and all looking absolutely terrified and banged up from a long journey.  There’s a rushed warning about something following them, and Annabeth decides then and there that it’s probably better to take them back to camp now instead of convincing them to hang out at work with her for the rest of the day first.  True to their word, there’s a cyclops on the trail of the three half bloods, who is ruthless in its attempts to hunt them down.  It destroys Annabeth’s car, and they’re but a few hundred feet from the protective borders of camp when she tells them to run and she’ll hold it off.   And it’s almost poetic, in a way.  When she’s turned to call directions to them, the cyclops knocks her to the side with a blow she didn’t see coming.  It sends her knife flying out of her hands, but she knows that she has to stall it in order for the kids to get to safety.  And they do.  They make it.  But Annabeth doesn’t.  She’s a month away from turning forty one when she dies.

197.  There’s a weird murmuring when Annabeth goes into the Underworld, and a few of the guard spirits seem to click excitedly when she arrives.  Despite her better judgement, she decides to go in front of the judges, to see if there is any sort of reward waiting for her on the other side.  Maybe she’ll get Elysium, or maybe--if she pleads her case hard enough--she’ll be able to wait for a few dozen years before Percy shows up so they can make the decision together.  After all, it was never a conversation that had popped up before.  Whenever they got close to the topic, they’d quickly find something else to talk about.  It definitely took her by surprise when she made her way in and found that she’d been granted not Elysium, but the Isles of the Blessed.  Her third life had been completed.  It’s then that she’s granted the memories of the first two lives as well before being ushered on.  In each of them, there are two common elements.  The first, there’s always a demigod present.  Somehow, the Greek gods continue to plague her life in each of her three incarnations.  The other, the boy she falls in love with is always the same.  Different names (except for his first and last lives, a fact she finds amusing), different parentage, slightly different personalities but the same goofy grin and same quick wit.

198.  Her first life found her as a princess in Ancient Greece, with parents who claimed she was more beautiful than Aphrodite.  The claim was considered blasphemy, and she was chained to a rock to be eaten for her parents’ words.  It seemed unfair, but she was too prideful even then to try and beg for her life from the gods.  So, she kept silent and faced her fate.  But her fate never came.  Instead, there was a boy--a demigod--who carried Medusa’s head that turned the monster to stone.  They married and lived happily ever after.   Seriously, depending on what version of the myth you read, Perseus and Andromeda are described to look exactly like Percy and Annabeth so fight me on this.

199.  Her second life had her as another Greek demigod, born in England.  This time, she was a daughter of Apollo.  Her mother had died when she was young, leaving the girl to become a charge to an aspiring artist during the early years of the English Renaissance.  He taught her how to paint and how to play the lyre, which she found that she was rather good at.  A soldier heard her playing, and quick banter made the girl find this soldier interesting.  Due to who her father was, she was talented with a bow and arrow, so she cut off her hair, ran away from her home, disguised herself as a man, and joined the army.  It was foolish, of course, and she died not long after by throwing herself in the way of a sword that was meant for the soldier she cared for.

200.  One of the privileges of being in the Isles is that she can travel through the Underworld, but it comes with stipulations.  It can never be for too long, she can’t look for people she used to know who chose to stay in the Fields of Asphodel, she can’t speak to demigods that come down for a quest, and the Fields of Punishment are completely off limits.  She uses this slight freedom to visit Daedalus when he’s working, often offering up tips for the redesigns he’s doing and to play catch with Cerberus.  As much as she enjoys the relaxing after three taxing lives, it does get a little lonely, even in a perpetual paradise.  There are definitely some happy tears shed when she finally reunites with who she can only call her soulmate.

#likes #annabeth chase #i onLY HAVE 50 LEFT #THE NEXT SET WILL JUST BE LIKE LITTLE FACTS KIND OF #I'M ALREADY BRAINSTORMING SOME #ONE DEALS WITH PEANUT BUTTER AND ONE DEALS WITH BANDAIDS AND ONE DEALS WITH HER YANKEES HAT #also it'll probably have some rp things to pop up in the next one as well #OKAY I'M EXCITED THE END