#GOLDEN FLEECE IS JUST TOO GOOD | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

januaryembrs · 2 months

Text

LAST KNIGHT IN SOHO | Steven Grant/Marc Spector x reader [10]

Description: Marc finds out the truth about Dove, and pays the mortal price.

Word count: 12.6k

Trigger Warnings: okay so; HEAVY TRIGGER for drug use and overdose/ accidental suicide. guns. blood. gore. abusive relationship. poverty. HEAVY ON THE ANGST PEOPLE. suggestive tones in parts.

authors note: I'm sorry this has taken forever and a day to post, I had planned to upload on valentines day however life got in the way in every way it possibly could and so this got put on hold for few days, I hope that's okay! enjoy!!

main masterlist | series masterlist

“Boys, get down here. Dinner’s going cold.” She called up the stairs, her voice already that of a tired mother. Mathew practically skidded past her bounding down the stairs, god knows that boy knew how to eat, even if the parsnips were stone cold he would still devour them whole, “Where’s Mikey?” She yelled after him, her tattered apron tied around her waist, greasy fingerprints dragged down the whites.

“In his room,” Joey said, his bulky glasses deep in his new crossword book, “Nine down, a second chance at life?”

His sister looked up the stairs worried, her natural expression whenever Mikey wasn’t under her constant watch, before she met his gaze, adjusting fake pearls around her neck.

“Huh?”

“Second chance at life. Nine letters.” He repeated, scratching the light smattering of facial hair he had only just been able to grow. He felt her fingers deftly begin to fix the tie around his collar, the golden fairy lights wrapped around the bannister illuminating where her red nail polish chipped around the edges.

“After life?” She guessed, straightening his shirt out for him, fussing like she had always done. He shook his head, wincing as she screeched over his shoulder into the dining room. “MATHEW, PUT THE ROAST POTATOES BACK- THOSE ARE FOR EVERYONE,” She tutted under her breath. Sometimes he forgot she was only seventeen. “Sam, can you get the stuffing out the oven,”

A grunt of agreement from the second boy, before a six foot tall, moody boy shuffled past the open door with bumblebee oven mitts on which took every ounce of attitude out of him.

“One word,” Joe said, his eyes flicking over to the vinyl player that stuttered on its eighth run through of ‘Fairytale of New York’.

The tinsel she’d braided into her hair rustled, eyes identical to his own watching his mouth quirk in thought.

“You’re supposed to be the genius of the family,” She teased, her finger nudging under his chin affectionately before she released him, pecking his forehead as he passed her to go take a seat at the table. She fussed some more over the baubles hanging from the tree on her way to the kitchen, straightening out the few stragglers, her pruning fingertips brushing over the fleece blankets covering the back of the sofa, as if she needed to feel their home to remind her where she was, “How about Migration?”

“Good, but it ends in T,” He called out to her, watching his eldest brother look up guiltily where he had a dollop of mash on a spoon, his mouth already full.

It seemed their sister caught onto his greed as she sharply smacked him over the back over the head, ripping the spoon from his hand, “Pig,” She spit at him, not that it seemed to phase him too much as his eyes already set on the small beef loin, the fat dripping off the plate tenderly, “I’m going to get Mikey. Resurrect?”

His eyes lit up at the suggestion, scribbling it down in his book. The cinnamon candle burnt strongly in the centre of the table, warm and spicy, just how Christmas should smell.

It didn’t negate the fact they had all had to go easy on showers for the week, or that the house was freezing at night or that it was obvious all of their “Fancy day” clothes smelled like a charity shop.

Joseph was only thirteen and already he’d noticed how exhausted his sister seemed every day. He’s stopped thinking about it so much, seeing as she’d always been that way, but the drain on her body was clear as anything nowadays.

Joey was just a kid, but so was she.

It wasn’t long before the final two of their little family came traipsing down the stairs, Mikey’s hand tight in his sister’s. At twelve years old, he was still a dot of a boy, scrawny, practically all ribs she would say, and he was a weepy one too. It wasn’t a surprise the kids at school were so cruel, even their own father, when he bothered to drag himself home from the pub or his friends’ sofas, would say the fire had died out a little more with every kid that came out of his ex-wife. His sister was so fierce she could melt the world’s core if she wanted to, Joey was convinced of it. Matt simply was untouchable despite the kids at school taking digs at him just as often as they did Mikey, as if he knew from birth he was getting out of this hell hole, that he was made for better than this. Children could sniff out the ones among them that were struggling like a cadaver dog onto a corpse, and once they latched on they rarely let go. Then was Sammy, and well, one look at him and he spoke for himself. At fifteen he was already broad enough that the kids picking on Mike turned to deadly silence when he was around; grumpy as a mule, cold as their mother, a boy with a bitter face. His sister would rub her thumb over the scowl that marred his brow, trying to flatten the crack where his nose met his forehead, where the anger seemed to settle. She hated seeing them upset; had the unshakable need to fix them.

Joey was her smart boy, trying to fly under the radar and cause her less anguish than he saw the rest of the boys gave her. He thought sometimes, when she would come home at 2am in her clothes from the club, bruises on her arms, when she would make them both a cup of tea and help him with homework, he thought then that he might even be her favourite. They all vied for her attention, only her and Matthew even remembered their mother, it only made sense that she was the next best thing for her boys.

But she was more than just a stand in for their mom. She was their everything, even with the fights over who was doing laundry, the yelling between her and Sammy when she would have to pick him up from the station for the nth time that month for petty thievery, even when Matt started wolfing down a rogue handful of carrots that had fallen onto the dinner table and she had all but dragged him by the ear into the kitchen to go get them drinks.

They revelled in their little bubble, knowing the only thing they’d be given for free in this world was each other.

And when they had finally sat down for christmas dinner, the smoke from the DIY Christmas crackers tiny Mikey had made lingering with a sulphur bite to their nose; when Sam flashed them all a rare laugh as she read out the terrible jokes hidden inside, the paper hats falling down over their eyes as they laughed, their full tummies hurting, plates polished of every scrap, Matt ofcourse eating the left over yorkshire puddings as if they were crisps. When they’d sat in front of the TV that only had four channels and a hefty video player underneath, Joey fiddled with the only film they ever bothered to watch on Christmas Day.

The sepia scene met the soft orange of the fire she’d lit for them, every light besides the ones on the tree turned off for their movie. Joey and Mikey sat practically two inches from the screen, a somewhat stale bowl of popcorn passed between them.

They watched in awed silence as Dorothy ran down the country lane, Toto at her heels, her auburn hair jumping behind her in bunches as she looked over her shoulder.

Running away, always running away, same as she was every year they watched.

“She isn’t coming yet, Toto. Did she hurt you?” Judy Gartland fawned over her pet, the gingham dress bunching around her knees.

Worried, always worried. Always preening. Always fixing.

And by the time the twister came to rip her away from her family and send her to Oz, the girl who wasn’t Dove just yet was already asleep on Sammy’s shoulder, the grumpy boy knocking his head against hers affectionately, silently, the crunching of popcorn and the slurping of an off brand Cola the only things that cut through the sound of the movie.

Unaware, naive to what was about to happen to her.

—

Dove and Steven had a glint in their eyes that she was sure would never be wiped off as they walked beside one another, their pinky fingers clasped tightly together.

He had a dopey look on his face, not even watching where they were going as he stared at her side profile, seeing the warmth meeting her eyes for the first time in a while. Her cheeks were starting to hurt from the smiling, biting her bottom lip like she had a secret.

She would glance back at him every so often, only to see him already staring, his brown eyes softer than a cup of hot chocolate, swirling with adoration and melting at the sight of her meeting his gaze.

After the fourth or fifth time, she reached up to brush her nose gently, “Do I have something on my face?”

He didn’t even answer, he just pulled her in for another kiss, his free hand tugging at the fat of her hips, squeezing gently as he kissed her with a greed she felt high on.

She held back a whine, the hands on her body kind and loving, overwhelming, invading, saturating her with something so entirely like home she felt her face run hot.

She giggled into his mouth as he released her, her hands finding the sides of his neck, thumb running over either side of his jaw as she felt him smile under her touch.

“Steven?” He seemed dazed, eyes never leaving her lips as she said his name again, giddy like his brain had malfunctioned and slowed, “Do I have anything on my face?”

He mumbled something wordless, shaking his head slightly, looking back at her goofy smile as she waited for a real answer. As if it had only just caught up with him, his brow creased, meeting her eyes with a bit more clarity than before.

“Huh?” He asked, to which she giggled and kissed him some more. She was sure her heart was pounding out of her ribs, and that he could hear it from how closely he was pressed to her front.

“You’re staring, I thought I had something on my face,” She said, his nose brushing against hers as he dipped in to kiss the laugh lines of her cheeks, “Do I?”

Steven shook his head, his gaze fanning over the entirety of her face and landing where he wanted her the most, back to her lips that smiled at him in content.

“No, just,” He stopped himself from kissing her again, worrying he was smothering her, though some part of him knew she craved the touch as much as he did. She told him as much by the way her fingers intertwined in the root of his hair, pressing into him like a cat purring under his hand, “You make me really happy,”

Her throat bobbed, the smallest of tears springing to her eyes as she kissed him one last time. She wished she could meld her body to his, couldn’t wait for them to have a moment alone when she could take him fully if he would have her again. Truthfully, selfishly, she couldn’t give a damn about Harrow all that much anymore, her entire being hollow the moment she pulled away from him. He’d changed the epicentre of her world the moment she’d heard those three words.

He loved her.

She didn’t deserve it, but he loved her.

Shuffling away from him, not entirely unaware of how his hand was reluctant to drop her waist, how his lips chased hers, how he seemed to pout when she put some distance between them.

“You make me really happy too, Steven,” She said, her voice mellow and buttery, moving to hold his hand properly, the two of them setting off back to where Layla seemed to be fiddling with something from her backpack.

She knew she would never be good enough for him, that he deserved someone so much better, but it was difficult to hear the horrid thoughts that whirred around the abyss of her head when she heard him softly chuckle, smiling to himself as if he couldn’t believe the words out of her mouth.

Sometimes it’s not about deserve. That’s what Marc had said. And maybe she could start believing him. Because it was Marc, and Marc knew everything. Marc would know what to say, know how to soothe the feeling of rot that threatened to ruin Steven’s sweet words, his soft kisses.

Marc would fix it. Marc would understand. She was sure of it.

–

“We’re going to belay down there,” Layla explained, securing the mountaineering rope to the clasp on her waist, tightening the notch and giving the cable an experimental tug.

The two of them blanked, looking at one another in their own sets of gear that the woman had them step into with little explanation.

“I think we should be right on time, Harrow shouldn’t be too far ahead of us-” Dove started, only to be cut off by the older woman with a scoff and an eye roll.

“Belay. It means we’re going to lower ourselves down using our own weight.” Dove’s face fell in embarrassment, smiling sheepishly as Layla shook her head with a hidden chuckle.

“Right, got it.” She held her hands up, nudging Steven’s when she saw his smile widen, if that had even been possible, “Floor is yours,”

Layla hid her laugh with a cough, taking one confident step off the ledge and down into the tomb, the rope gently dropping her into the darkness.

Dove and Steven watched with bated breath, the former leaning forwards to ensure she had reached the floor safely. Her eyes squinted, not seeing all too much other than the broken steps that would have once been functional, that were half buried in sand by now.

“Be careful love,” She felt his fingers loop into her harness, keeping her safe even though they both knew she could survive the fall and much worse.

She smiled, ready to reply when she saw a flash of Layla’s torch from below, and the woman’s face returned.

“Alright, it’s safe. Come down one at a time,” She instructed, the younger woman sticking a thumbs up at her and moving back into a hard chest where Steven hovered over her.

“I’ll go first,” She said, reaching for the clip and tightening it to her harness the way Layla had.

“Wait, shouldn’t I go first? Make sure it’s working properly?” Steven said, though his voice hardly matched the chivalry of his words. She smiled toothily at him, tugging on the rope once to set it in place.

“Put it this way, honey. I can survive broken legs, but I need every bit of you to function or else I don’t know how I’m going to repay you,” It was new. It was flirty. She had a cheeky twinkle in her eye that reminded him she was able to be girlish and happy and tease him and call him honey and it all felt normal and he wanted more of it by the bucket load. He’d not seen her like this perhaps ever. He fell in love with her even more. He didn’t even think he could.

His mouth moved in an attempt to say something, his face tinging red at the implication of her words.

“You don’t have to repay me,” He murmured, feeling her fingers loop through his belt, a heat to her gaze that had his skin prickling.

“I know,” She pecked his lips one more time before they had to be parted even if it was only for a matter of a minute or two, “I just really want to,” She drew back when she heard his breath stutter, his cheeks growing all the more darker in their cherry red shade, and gripped the top of the rope the way she’d seen Layla do.

“Ok-kay,” The man stammered, his palms sweating, nose tingling with heat.

“See you in a minute,” She quipped with a deep breath for courage, stepping into the darkness as her body weight tugged against the rope.

Her feet met the sand faster than expected, stumbling a moment before she steadied herself, fingers quickly undoing the harness that sat around her thighs and waist.

Taking in the small entrance to the catacomb, she saw Layla crouched over the foot of a statue, her own torch clamped tightly in her grasp. Figuring she was conducting her own search, she chanced a look back up to where Steven’s dopey grin looked down at her, as if cartoonish pink hearts swirled around his head.

“It’s safe!” She called up, as she fumbled with the latch around her harness, “Just need to get this off-”

The wind was knocked out of her as a body crashed into her own, two startled voices filling the cave, two hands pinning either side of her, landing on her back with a shooting pain through her brow.

She groaned in unison with the heavy body atop her, feeling where his head had banged against hers.

“Guess you could say I’m really falling for you,” Steven’s joke melded with a grunt as he pried himself off her, feeling Marc huff in annoyance from inside the head.

“Huh?” Her voice was muddled, her face scrunched in pain. She barely heard what he said before he had stumbled to his knees, holding his hand out to lift her off the floor.

“I said- Nothing- Sorry love,” Steven stuttered, his hand pawing at his aching temple, pulling the girl back to her feet, “Guess I just need a bit of practice at that Belay thing,”

“A bit?” Layla scoffed, though she watched the pair with a hidden smirk, the bumbling mess of limbs as they dusted themselves off and unhooked their gear, “You okay?”

“I’m aces,” He said, turning to where Dove had dirt collecting in her hairline. Reaching a hand up to help her brush it away gently, he was distracted by the huge statue of big cat, most likely a lion, engraved into the stone, “Look at you,” He murmured breathlessly.

It was her turn to warm under his brazen words, stilling her movements, fingertips rubbing away the traces of sand clinging to her clammy skin.

She laughed with more shock than anything, though it sounded more like a choke, swallowing heavily as she braved to meet his gaze.

Her brow furrowed as she flicked a glance over her shoulder at the artwork along the wall, untouched for hundreds of years, the paint lines a thick and dark umber red as if sketched only yesterday.

Looking back to him, she crossed her fingers he hadn’t seen her flattered expression, knowing better than to be embarrassed around him yet she couldn’t deny those three words spread the heat back through her gut that he had satiated only moments earlier.

Clicking her torch back on, she threw her attention away from those soft brown eyes, back to the sculpt of the lions, the stone cracking as chalky under their years of solitude, but striking nonetheless.

“If they just sprang to life right now and asked me a riddle for passage, I’d be thrilled,” Steven said, his voice that of a boy at Christmas, “I’d shit myself, but I’d be thrilled,”

Giggling behind besotted eyes, Dove moved to head further into the tomb, stopping dead in her tracks when she saw freshly drawn initials in the sand.

Glancing back to where Layla seemed to shrink in demeanour, she gestured to the markings with her light, “Did you do these?” She asked, curious to her motives.

“Yeah,” She cleared her throat, averting her eyes to the wall opposite them where vibrant blues and sunflower yellow strokes stared back, “Yeah it’s for my father. He would have loved to be here,”

“Big history buff is he?” Steven asked, the three of them setting off through the tunnel, leading them further into the crypt.

“So much worse,” The El-Faouly woman replied with a smile, falling into step with the duo, “Archeologist with a mission,”

They all breathed a laugh, the air stagnant and musky around them, the smell of a place only the dead seemed to know the past few thousand years.

“And to him it was a dream worth dying for. And he did,” She went on, Dove’s face falling into solemn sorrow. She knew, if Layla was anything like she was, she would hate the idea of hearing an apology, would hate the idea of someone feeling sorry for her. She had barely been treading water the past day or two, fighting to stay in Layla’s good books, she feared if she were to show any remorse now it would only earn her a slap to the face.

“Did he dig it?” She asked, her face forlorn and wary as she toed the boundary between their friendship. Casting a glance back at Layla and Steven, she gulped, “So history, you could say he dug it?”

The light bulb went for both of them, Layla frowning with a defeated grin.

“That was awful,” She playfully shoved the younger woman, who took it with no bother, smiling back in relief her joke had been taken kindly, “That was the worst-”

“I quite liked it,” Steven inputted helpfully, also earning a bash to the shoulder as Layla laughed.

“Not a word from the two of you now unless it’s something useful,” She scolded, leading the way through the tightening corridor, the darkness encompassing them in something that felt like comradery.

“Did you want to hear the one about the dinosaur’s dog-” Dove started, the words echoing around them as they headed further in, only to be stopped again by Layla’s softened voice.

“Do-you-think-he-saurus rex!”

–

She stared at the house, the one she’d been born in, the light in her room long since switched out. She wouldn’t blame them if they’d taken over her room, it was the biggest one, though that wasn’t saying much. She could see it now, Mathew shotgunning the double bed the moment she left, there was more than enough room for Billie’s small cot next to him. She’d grabbed what she could the day Oz had taken her away, but she wouldn’t bat an eye if they’d sold the clothes she’d left, or even thrown them on the fire to stay warm.

No, she wouldn’t blame them for erasing all memory of her. She’d been the one to leave, not them. As far as they knew, she’d not made contact whatsoever. Her letters had never been sent, never even left the house.

She’d not seen home in three years. It was smaller than she remembered. Darker.

The duffle bag was clutched tightly in her hands, wringing the fabric of the handle between her fingers. The accelerator had been to the floor the entire way here, the blood was still caked thick in her hair, under her nails, stained parts of her skin.

Frank’s blood. She wondered if the neighbours had called the police yet, if they ever would since he kept them so isolated. Wondered if she was already a suspect in his murder.

She shook in her shoes at the thought, though that may just be the December night air.

A figure came storming out of the front door, hands in his pockets, his coat thin and moth eaten.

Mathew had never been a tall boy, not even at eighteen when she’d last seen him, especially not now at twenty. He was always thin in his face, despite devouring the most out of any of them, his eyes always tired. Though, becoming a dad at such a young age would do that to someone.

He stopped in front of her, his eyes roving over her with a grand mix of anger and worry. He looked as if he’d seen a ghost, as if he’d seen a dog returning home with its tail between its legs. Which was sort of how she felt.

“Matty-” She breathed, her exhale clear as day in the freezing night, only he scoffed at the words. He may as well have spat in her, “I don’t have time to explain-”

“What?” He growled, lip sneering in a way that looked too much like their mother, “Where the fuck have you been?”

She baulked, eyebrows furrowing in a way that she willed herself not to burst into tears. She wanted to head inside, wanted to curl up on the old, ratty sofa they’d had since she was young, wanted to feel Sammy’s head knock against hers affectionately, the only sign the grumpy boy ever gave that said he loved her, despite the fact she knew. She wanted to scold Matty for eating all the bacon out the fridge, help Joey finish his sudoku, wanted, no, needed to see Mikey, see he was okay. Last time she’d been here, she’d found him stashing pills for his friends she knew had a one way ticket to juvie or the streets.

She’d left for all of them, left to get them a better life. And now she was standing outside her childhood home, drenched in bloodied clothes, her body used, beaten, betrayed. Grace was gone. Frank was dead.

This was all she had left. Her boys were all she had left.

“I don’t have time,” She repeated, forcing the duffle bag into his hands, hoping he missed the way the blood collected beneath her nails. She’d scrubbed off what she could before she left, but she knew had it been daylight he’d notice the red ichor immediately, “This is for you,”

“Wha-” Matty looked as if he could swing for her, and she knew she deserved it. She’d left them. Her bottom lip trembled at the very thought. He said her name, only now it seemed dirty, filthy, tainted, like that name had been said by so many awful men she felt as though it was muddied even Matty when he said it, “You leave us to rot for three years, and all of a sudden you just swan in here with presents-”

“Mathew, be quiet,” She barked, hearing his voice grow louder and louder, echoing in the silent street she used to run down to catch her bus, “I have to go,”

He stopped, staring at her teary eyes for a moment, and then laughed. Loud and cruel, and she knew his vitriol was still ongoing, knew she wouldn’t even stop him if he wanted to throw a cruel hand across her face for running away.

She was such a coward. She was a liar. A murderer. But she was a coward above all of that.

“Did we stop being good enough for you, huh?” He spat, trying to hand her the bag back, “I don’t want your pity or your little presents, take it-”

“It wasn’t like that,” She pleaded, wrestling with him to keep the bag strap in his grasp, “Mathew, just take the bag,”

He shoved her away, but she didn’t relent, her mind set on getting him to take the damn money, the fucking notes that mean nothing to her anymore. There had to be at least thirty grand in there by now, probably more.

“We needed you, and you weren’t here,” Matt stumbled away from her as she forced the bag into his chest. His voice trembled in a way it hadn’t since he was a boy, since she used to bathe him with that damn toy boat, wash his hair with dish soap, “Social Services know about Mikey and the pills- they want to take Billie away-”

She stopped at that, the two of them looking at each other for the first time since she’d shown up. His eyes were watery, where hers were empty. His sister had always been strong, Matt didn’t think he’d ever seen her cry in all the years of shit she’d trodden through for them. She had always looked exhausted, as if her brain was fired up every moment of the day, as if she could go for a three day nap and it wouldn’t so much as touch her.

But this was worse. She wasn’t tired. Wasn’t thinking hard. His sister didn’t even look alive.

Whoever it was staring back at him was not the girl he remembered. Someone could tell him a wraith had crawled into his sister’s skin and dragged her back here with the sole mission of getting him to take the damn bag, and he’d believe them.

She looked dead. She felt it too.

“Is that-” He stopped himself, a bitter hand reaching up for a mark on her face that glinted under the moonlight, “Blood?”

She froze, and for a moment neither of them said anything.

Her breath rattled in her chest, the stickiness of Frank’s blood clinging her clothes to her skin, and he realised once he’d actually taken the sight of her in, that she smelled metallic, that she had a thousand mile stare that had not been there the day she’d left them.

“Everything I’ve done, I did it for you.” She said after a moment’s reprieve and the anger brewing in his frown wiped immediately, the words soothing his fury into a simmering guilt.

He tried to say her name again, only to have her cut him off, shoving the back into his arms with finality, her eyes blank, leaving no space for questions, for retaliation.

“Get Mikey a lawyer. Get him to rehab. Read the letters, or not, I don’t care,” But she did. She cared more than anything. Cared so much she needed to run, now, cared so much she knew every moment she spent talking was more time for him to be incriminated in what she’d done. “I have to go, it’s not safe,”

He wanted to hug her; he’d never been the affectionate one, she usually saved her cuddles for the younger ones. He wished he’d hugged her now. Wished he’d dragged her back inside, gotten her warm in front of their fire, forced the truth out of her. Anything to tell him what that look on her face had meant. Anything to make her stop seeming so dead it scared him like a child.

But he didn’t. He couldn’t, not even as she all but sped away in a car he’d never seen before, a limp he’d not noticed through his anger fogged brain as he’d stormed down their front path.

He barely caught Sammy, filling their entire doorway with his form that had only grown tenfold, if that had even been possible, since his sister left, looking like a kicked dog behind angry eyes that glinted with rare tears.

“Come on, Sam,” Matty said, brushing past his little brother, though he towered over him for a nineteen year old, heading inside their small house that had felt colder since she’d abandoned them, “We’ll sort it out in the morning,”

But Sam didn’t. He watched the broken tail lights of the car speed off into the distance, until they were no more than a sound rattling around the silent neighbourhood. Only then did he let himself begin to cry, hoping she came back for them soon.

–

“It’s a maze,” Layla said, as the three of them traipsed through the tunnels that certainly looked like they had seen better days. Dove startled a bit at the bugs that skittered up the walls as the light hit them, no doubt a little frightened themselves at the rude intrusion from the trio, though she stuck behind Layla. She’d fought demon jackals, men with guns, lived a double life but bugs were what scared her.

“It’s a-maze-ing,” Steven replied, snickering to himself, which had her giggling too, shaking her head at the man behind her.

“She means there are six paths, Steven,” D ove clarified, and he hoped the light covered the way his cheeks rouged.

“Right, yeah, yeah,” He replied, sticking his head down one of the thin alley ways to scope out the labyrinth they’d found themselves in, “Six points,”

Dove hung back as Layla went towards another one of the pathways, eyes clocking a stone surface planted directly in the middle of the antechamber, the sand laying thick over the top, yet uneven as if the stone wasn’t entirely flat.

Her brows furrowed, and she traced her finger deeper in the dust, carving out where the ridges grooved into the table. She made an almond shape, an arching line parallelling it, before she realised what the marking was, her brows shooting into her forehead.

She saw a torch flick over where she worked, felt Steven’s body press against her side as if he’d forgotten what personal space was exactly.

“You don’t think…” He started, watching how her soft fingertip swirled around into a spiral the two of them had seen a million times walking past the exhibits on the way to the gift shop, “This whole structure is-”

“The Eye of Horus,” She finished, curving around to create the iris. As if proving her point, Steven’s light reflected off the the shiny stone of the table, producing the identical symbol on the ceiling of the room, which had her nudging his hand, pointing to the light, “Look at that,”

“Wow,” He hummed, his eyes flicking between the eye and the wonder on her face as she smiled wryly at the stone, “It’s the royal symbol, protection in the afterlife.”

“I mean the resources needed to build this-” Layla added, looking between all of the corridors that had certainly not been crafted in a day’s work, nor had it been done cheaply, judging by the quality of stone that surrounded them. She stopped, her eyes wild with excitement as she looked at the two of them, “Her final avatar was a pharaoh,”

A breath whooshed from Dove’s lungs, jaw gaping, feeling Steven practically buzzing in his shoes beside her.

“A bloody pharoah,” He repeated, the joy coating his words like a kid on Christmas. He and Layla chuckled between one another, before their gaze fell on Dove, who stared at the drawing in the sand as if it would outright speak to her.

“So you think it’s a map?” Layla asked, her fawn eyes dropping to the girl who bit her lip unsure.

She nodded, gaze scanning over the drawing again, as Steven’s rough finger followed where her own hand had traced just moments before.

“Right. So the eye of Horus is also the Eye of mind, yeah?” He asked, his face now more serious than she’d ever seen him, as he thought harder, “Representing the six senses, six points.” He gestured to each of the corridors that lead away from the chamber they huddled in, “So you’ve got the eyebrow that denotes thoughts. Pupil, sight obviously.” He followed each of his words with his calloused fingers, the same ones that had been down her trousers not so much as a few hours ago. She felt her stomach writhe at the thought, “This point here is, uh, hearing. Smell. Touch. And this long line ending in a spiral is the tongue,”

She felt her eyes train on his lips as he said it, his gaze falling to her face where she stood besides him, watching every movement on his lips as if she could barely hold herself back from meeting their mouths then and there.

“The avatar would be Ammit’s voice,” Layla murmured, entirely unaware of the heated thoughts racing through the girl’s mind as she stared at the man, his own expression indiscernible, meeting her eyes with his own chestnut hues, “We should head this way,”

Layla took off towards the route the tongue pointed them to, the two of them hanging behind for a moment, unable to rip their eyes from one another.

“What’s that look for?” Steven asked, chuckling nervously as he tried and failed to pull his gaze away from her where she licked her lips slowly. Leaning towards him, her fingers found the front of his jacket as she pulled him closer, kissing him gently, though there was a subtle bite to it that went straight to his trousers as he melted.

Pulling away, she looked at him with a spritely kind of excitement, as if she loved every moment of looking at him like that.

“Did I ever tell you how amazing I think you are?” She asked, her face warm with adoration, and the words had his cheeks blazing instantly.

“You mentioned it once or twice,” He joked, both of them knowing full well the girl was known to give him every compliment she could even before they had been brave enough to admit how they felt for one another.

She snickered, pulling away from him to follow where Layla had wandered off too, looping a pinky finger in his own to encourage him to follow. Had she not, he was sure he’d be rooted to the floor, waiting for his heartbeat to slow down, or even for his cock to calm enough that he could move without feeling it press against his trousers.

He cursed himself moments later, when his brain caught up to him, that he hadn’t told her just how amazing he thought she was.

Yet Steven felt his jeans tighten again when he thought of one other way he could show her just what he felt.

The heavy panting was the only sign either of them were even there as they walked through the narrow corridor, the smallest slither of light meeting them at the end, not unlike when they had trudged into the Great pyramid. That had seemed weeks ago, when in reality it had only been six days, how her life had been flipped upside down all the more since then.

Her head rattled on her shoulders, thoughts flitting over Layla and her whereabouts as they stepped through the hallway, dust thickening in their lungs with every pant. Her ears were alert to the smallest of movements, her heart pounding in her chest, the image of that thing, the resurrected Heka Priest, replaying in her head, the screech of its rotted vocal chords keeping her arm hairs standing in goose flesh.

“She’ll be alright, won’t she?” Dove asked solemnly, her brow creased so tight she reminded herself of Sammy, knowing they had always looked the most similar out of all of her brothers. She knew, by the way Steven blanched at the sight of her worry, that she looked as guilty as she felt, “I shouldn’t have left her-”

“We didn’t have much choice, sweetheart,” He sighed, grabbing her hand tightly in his own, stopping in the middle of the darkened chamber to look at her properly. She tugged her lip between her teeth as she averted his gaze, the disappointment in herself shadowing over her chest, “We did everything we could- it’s Layla, she’s done this a thousand times with Marc. She’ll know what to do,”

Though he was more convincing himself than anything. He wasn’t so sure from the way Marc scoffed inside the headspace that she had in fact not run from undead creatures that threatened to rip her limb from limb a thousand times. Not even once. This was new territory for all of them.

She didn’t seem convinced as she nodded, her lips quirking as if she was about to say something, only for him to kiss her forehead before she could.

“I don’t think I’d be able to forgive myself if something happened to her,” She confessed, after he drew back, watching her thoughts swimming behind sad eyes, as if he could see the way she bit her tongue to stop herself from calling herself the worst names imaginable.

He stroked her cheek gently, tilting her chin to meet his gaze, his chocolate gaze warmer than summer and he smiled at her sadly.

“None of this is your fault,” He said, though she said nothing, chewing her cheek silently, “The faster we get the ushabti, and the faster we can go find Layla. Deal?”

She nodded again, and he squeezed her hand, pulling her towards the end of the corridor with a small smile.

Steven Grant was not a brave man, not by any means. But for her, he would be. He thought the same as she had, worried for the El-Faouley woman more and more with every step they took towards the tomb, his own body on high alert for an incoming attack from one of those creatures.

The end of the hallway drew near, the path widening out to accommodate an entrance, water trickling between the tiles in a silent stream, and he held her hand tighter as they navigated over the stepping stones, her boots slippy over the moss that clung to the rocks.

It wasn’t until he reached the end, where the corridor opened out, that he let go of her hand in favour of flicking his torch on. His entire body froze at the sight, satiated in awe of the tomb before him.

She hopped the final stepping stone, hands grabbing onto the wall and his shoulder for support before she followed his gaze to the room, and her jaw dropped too.

“First ones in, tomb fit for a pharaoh,” Steven hummed, stepping further into the antechamber, and he wasn’t wrong by any means. The walls were all but covered in bright paints that had yet to wash away, the tales of heroic battles and armies surrounding them like one huge mural. Solid gold plates, figurines, vases scattered neatly around the room, each one shiny and polished as if the death bed had never been touched since the day it had been sealed. Four bronze horse statues the size of her watched them enter, carefully avoiding the water that surrounded the sarcophagus in a deep pool, stepping between cracked slabs towards the coffin.

She let out a breath she hadn’t realised she was holding as she saw the sheer amount of engravings on the sarcophagus, each one proving the power the dead king had held over his people when he’d died. It was more than she’d seen even on one, more than she would ever see.

This was a wealthy, wealthy pharaoh, she realised, her brows flicking into her hairline

“Thutmose II?” Steven guessed, leading the way to the coffin, the excitement blaringly clear in his voice. He couldn’t so much as catch his breath behind his smile, “Nefertiti. It’s gotta be one of the bigg’uns, Dove,” He said, flicking a grin over his shoulder as her eyes scaled every inch of the tomb. Her jaw hung open, ignoring the dusty task of musk in her mouth, the stagnant smell of water, her eyes pure wonder of what she was seeing.

This was the stuff of movies, of adventures she read to Joey and Mikey before bed, never did she think she would be part of it, let alone with Steven Grant, a man so quiet he apologised to pigeons, who jumped at his own shadow, who missed his bus every single morning.

“Must be, I’ve never seen so many offerings,” She replied, willing her feet to hold steady as they stepped between the stones and water carefully. “The engravings, there nothing like I’ve studied before,”

“Oh wow, look at that,” Steven gawped, taking the final step onto the centrepiece, heading towards the sarcophagus with ravenous eyes, “Look at all these relics,”

She was hot on his heels, quick to hop over, and expand her search with an eagle eye as she closed in on the sarcophagus.

“Hold on, Macedonian?” Dove stopped in her tracks, clicking her torch on and nearing the engravings with wide eyes, “It can’t be right-”

“That’s Macedonian,” Steven echoed, kneeling next to her with wary fingertips. He brushed over the markings, a gobsmacked laugh coming from his chest, “Well-b-but the only pharaoh-”

She grabbed his arm with a clawing strength, head drinking in the facts before her, gently hands following the engravings as if she needed to touch it herself to believe what she knew to be true, “H-He insisted on calling himself Egyptian,” She swallowed, standing on shaky knees to behold the rest of the coffin, her heart hammering. The two of them approached either side of the king’s burial place. “Steven, I think we found the long lost tomb of Alexander the Great,”

Taking a moment, if not to catch a nervous breath, their eyes met across the top of the sarcophagus, an identical expression of astonishment on their faces.

She couldn’t help it then; she started laughing. Nervous and yet amazed, she was lost entirely for words.

“We have to open it, Steven,” She said, her chuckles dying out, a hand flying to her forehead when she realised what a desecration they were about to cause, “The ushabti has to be inside, we have to open it up, oh goodness-”

“Everything inside me is screaming not to touch this thing,” Steven agreed, shaking his nerves out through his hands while watching her also fret over the slight grave robbing they were about to commit.

“You want Harrow to get to Ammit first?” Marc snapped from the glint in the cursive gold writing across the sarcophagus’ chest. He seemed to have roused from his silent protest and come back swinging, Steven thought with a bitter huff, his hands coming up to the side of the opening.

“Alright, alright, alright,” He replied, a nervous grip settling on the cold sandstone. His eyes flicked to her again for reassurance, though she herself looked to be coming to a sobering understanding they needed to disgrace the burial sight to get what they wanted. She nodded, her hand drifting to clutch over her mouth in shock, like she needed to stop herself from protesting his actions, and with that he pushed.

The smell of death invaded her nose, choking her for a moment as the stone slid to reveal the mummified corpse of the man historians had been babbling about for decades.

This had once been a conqueror, a king, a pharaoh everyone whispered about, a man who’s name was spoken a thousand times a day on the guided tours in the museum.

And they had found him.

A plated scarab sat across his chest, one she assumed was a sister to the one they had used to find him, the one Harrow took, below it; a huge, solid battle axe with engravings the entire length of its sharp edge. An offering to a man so revered for his wars.

A shiver trickling down her spine, she looked up at Steven through wide eyes, the two of them entirely stumped for words at what they were discovering, the thousands of years they had just peeled back with one fell swoop.

“Oh man,” Steven shook his head, barely ripping his eyes away from the mummy for a moment as she moved to stand at the head of the sarcophagus.

“Where’s the ushabti?” Marc spoke again, this time from the fresh golden sheen on the axe, seeing no other offerings or trinkets inside the coffin besides the weapon.

“Well, if you’re going to hide it for all eternity, you’d probably put it in a place where the average looter wouldn’t think to look,” Steven replied, his heart a hummingbird behind his chest, almost, almost as excited as he had been when he’d been kissing her against that post.

Almost, but not quite.

She stayed silent, attuning her ears into keeping watch for Harrow’s men approaching, or hopefully even figuring out where Layla was, while Steven’s brain whirred, conferring with Marc.

She hoped he wasn’t mad at her for Steven pushing him out of the headspace, for throwing that mirror into the sand the moment he’d gotten his lips on hers. She hoped he would understand. Marc always understood.

Steven’s face smoothed out in realisation, whether he had come to it on his own or Marc had helped she wasn’t sure, but she grabbed his wrist gently nonetheless.

“What is it?” She murmured, his eyes trained on the tightly wrapped linen, an almost horrified look on his face.

“Alexander was the voice of Ammit…” He trailed off, his hand coming to rest on the corpse’s jaw, “All right, I’m gonna try something, I’m gonna do something here.”

His fingers found the lip of the cloth where the head met the body, weaving their way under and tugging them away carefully.

Dove released a shaky breath, her hand returning in shock over her mouth, knowing that this was technically known as grave desecration, let alone ruining thousands of years of history.

“Steven, oh my god-” She gagged as the smell hit her, the man beside her writhing in sickness as his fingers touched the mummified skin beneath.

“Oh god- so sorry- sorry, Mr Great,” He choked on his words, the disgust running over his skin when he touched something cold and wrinkled.

He tore the bandages with more force, the linen coming away easily, but they both shuddered hearing something crack under the weight of his hand, something she could only imagine was a bone.

Steven pulled the cloth away to reveal a perfectly mummified face, and the sight wasn’t so uncommon as she’d thought since they had two preserved in the museum. But seeing it so up close, without the temperature controlled glass, it made her want to vomit and stare in awe all at the same time.

Steven took an unsure breath, before he went even further, his fingers resting on the lower mandible, pulling back whatever remained of the lips to slip between his teeth, his other hand holding his cranium still.

She forced herself not to wince as he started tugging the mouth open; the look on his face was torture for him enough.

“All right, open up. Oh, sorry, Mr Great,” He bit out, bile rising in his own throat at the sensations beneath his hand, the jaw cracking and ripping down with a nauseating crunch. His hand reached down the gullet, and she had to turn away then when he started rooting around the throat, resisting the retch that fought her own mouth, “Oh, sorry, oh god, I couldn’t be more sorry,”

It wasn’t until she heard a squelch they both heaved, Steven’s own noises of disgust filling the tomb as his entire upper arm wormed its way into the chest cavity, and she thought he might just be the bravest man she’d ever known.

His arm twisted for a moment, before he started pulling it out, not without some resistance from the collar bones, only for it to come away with one final tug, and in his hand producing a small ceramic figure of an alligator headed woman, and two audible gasps filled the silence.

“Steven-” She started, turning to him with something warm and gooey and close to pride in her eyes, “Steven, you did it!”

She threw herself at him in a hug, ignoring every morsel of her that cringed when she imagined where his hand had been, feeling him squeeze her to him just as tightly.

“We did it, we did- I could never have done any of this without you,” He replied, nosing her hair for a moment before he pulled her away to look at her face, beaming with glee. It didn’t matter then, that he had been chased by that creature, or that he’d been shot at, or that he’d been digging around a dead man’s throat. It didn’t matter then that his life had been turned upside down, or that he was actually one man split into another, or that he’d lost his job. He didn’t care. Because seeing how she looked at him, as if she’d just watched him solve string theory or win a nobel prize, healed every wound he’d ever had.

He only needed her; only ever wanted her.

“I really do love you,” She said, and he wondered it she’d heard his thoughts, fought the urge to kiss her then and there.

Her head snapped to where they had entered the tomb, something wary in her gaze until he saw Layla appear in the doorway, looking entirely scraped up, as if she’d just been dragged through the caverns backwards.

“Layla!” Dove called, bounding over the stepping stones, “Layla, are you alright- we got the ushabti-”

“Layla, look! We won!” Behind her Steven held up the figurine, the pair of them with billion dollar smiles on their faces, watching the woman approach on shaky legs, “And the ushabti goes to; us. I had to go digging down old Alexander the Great’s gullet, but we found it,”

Dove giggled at his teasing, shaking her head, and fighting the urge to yank Layla into a hug of her own. They had done it, they’d won. Now they could get out of here and away from Harrow, she could go home, go home with Steven-

She was quick to notice the stare Layla pinned on the man behind her, something visceral and in pain beneath her skin, something raw, a wound ripped open. She knew it well, knew it like an old friend. Layla was the pure image of betrayal.

She stalked forward silently, not paying the younger woman a scrap of attention as she approached, stepping over the cobbles with not a single hesitant foot. Her eyes gleaned with unshed tears, something rageful keeping them bay.

Dove stopped still, her eyes trained on the woman, her smile dissolving into confusion.

“Layla, are you alright-”

“Can he hear me?” Layla cut her off, not giving a shit for her soft lilted voice or her concern. She only cared about Marc, Harrow’s words rattling in her head like a foghorn calling every shred of anger she’d ever felt for her ex-husband to arms.

“Alexander? No, I don’t think so, god I hope not,” Steven snickered, and Dove winced. Layla’s eyes darkened, her honey tones near black in the lowlit antechamber, and the younger woman knew whatever had happened in the moments passed since they’d parted, Layla was now out for blood.

“What happened to my father?” The El-Faouley woman spat, her hands shaking with anger, and Dove could do nothing but wait for Steven to understand that she wasn’t kidding around.

She dared a glance at the man who stood there like a lost child, whatever celebration and relief they had felt swept away in a matter of moments. Seconds.

She knew from the silence that lingered Layla already suspected something.

“I’m talking to you,” Layla seethed, stepping towards the man without a bat of an eyelid at the woman who watched whatever progress they’d made swirl down the drain like yesterday’s newspaper.

“What?” Steven murmured, a frown on his face as Layla’s hands came up to shove him in the chest hard.

“I’m talking to you, Marc,”

He barely stumbled, barely blinked, but she saw it. Saw the way the innocence melted away, and his frown became cold and distant. She saw the moment Marc took the body, and her heart dropped at the flash of guilt that glinted in the crook of his eyes as he saw his ex-wife’s expression in the flesh.

“Come on, let’s go, let’s go-” He tried to pull her away, but Dove knew it was his own brand of avoiding the subject. She’d never hold it against him, who was she to judge someone for running from responsibility, but she knew. And so did Layla.

“No,” The woman dug her heels in as he tried pulling her to the exit, her empty fist weakly beating on his wrist while he yanked on her coat.

“We have to go right now,”

“No, Marc, no,” She fought, the venom in her tone only growing. He tugged her harder, the two of them all but grappling with one another for control.

“We have to go, right now,” He repeated, eyes flicking to where Dove stood still, her hands playing with one another nervously, “Come on, we gotta get out of here-”

Layla forced his head back to her, away from where the younger woman moved between each foot, watching it play out like a tragedy.

“What happened to my father?” She said again, louder this time, and it was clear no amount of deflection would stop her from getting an answer.

“Listen to me,” Marc said with a seriousness Dove had never heard, real life panic in his tone that had her shifting to check the doorway for signs of Harrow’s men following closely behind, “We need to leave right now, I will explain everything, I swear. But we have to go,”

“Did you kill Abdullah El Faouley?” Layla’s voice cracked, because the answer would break her if it were true, if it was what she feared.

“Of course not. Of course I didn’t,” And it was the first honest thing Marc had said to her in years. The pain in his eyes at the accusation said it all.

Layla sighed in short lived relief, running a hand over her face.

“But you were there,” She said quietly, and the four words cleaved Marc’s resolve right down the middle, his brow furrowing in agony, “You were there, right?”

“I was- I was there,” He confessed, Dove’s stomach turning over in anguish. She wanted to hug both of them to her in entirely different ways. Wanted to grab Layla, stroke her hair the way Grace used to when she was upset, hold her to her chest and tell her how sorry she was that her father was taken from her so cruelly. She wanted to pull Marc in, slot him right over her heart and tell him he wasn’t bad, not even now, not ever, that he was good, pure, golden goodness, just as good as Steven. That he wasn’t guilty, he was just unlucky.

“My partner got greedy, he executed everyone at the digsite. Shot me too, I was supposed to die that night,” Marc spilled out, his expression bleak, distraught.

She knew better than to interrupt, than to get in between the two of them when they fought like this. That is, until her ears pricked up with her inhumane senses, the sound of guns cocking and creeping footsteps dragging through the sand stones they had just come from, whispers between comrades that they were getting close to what they had been searching for.

“Someone’s here,” She said, before she could think better of speaking. Their heads turned to her, as if they’d forgotten she was there, Marc’s face a picture of a tortured soul. She angled her head to distinguish what the men were saying, try give her some pointers how long they had, “Harrow is getting close, I can hear his watch-”

“Who’s Grace?” Layla asked, her tone guarded, as if she’d begged the question the entire time she’d known the girl, “Marc’s not the only one who’s been keeping secrets,”

But Dove was frozen. Entirely frozen. Not so much of a breath in her chest, not even a blink.

Because hearing that name again, her name, hearing Layla take everything close to her and toss it around as a conversation piece shattered her into a million small pieces, floating down neatly into the water right then and there.

He saw it.

When her eyes glazed over, as if hearing the name pressed play on a movie she’d not seen in years, and she no longer stood there, with them, but she was transported somewhere else entirely. It was the same as when she’d been in the car, staring out that window, he wanted to yell out to her, grab her delicate face and scream Where do you go? Come back to me, take my hand and come back to me. Where are you where I can’t follow.

Because she wasn’t there, inside her own body. And she feared she would never be again.

She was back in that room, in that window sill, replaying every single night she’d spent in Grace’s room. Who’s Grace? She was opening that door, the one Frank told her not to go in, she was staring at the body, the unmoving one, the cold corpse, frozen in pain, what was once her entire world ripping away from her soul, pulling her apart right down the middle, the empty bottle staring right back at her from the bedside table as if to say ‘I won, I won.’ Who’s Grace? She wasn’t there, wasn’t in the tomb at all, she was rotting in her bed, lying still and waiting for death to take her too, because it seemed impossible that the person who had been made as her mirror image in every way but looks could be culled but not her.

How could she explain who Grace was? How do you even begin to explain to a person what every cell of your body is?

“Harrow said you let her die,” Layla said, and she knew she’d hit a home run with whatever that look on Dove’s face meant, knew that everything he’d said had been true, “He said you could have saved her and you didn’t-”

“Don’t,” It was a snarl, something unearthly and rotten, but the grief in the single word was clear as a bell, “Stop it, Layla,”

She hadn’t ever spoken to her like that, had snapped and rolled her eyes, but never had such a clear threat to her words.

The woman blinked in response, the hairs on her arms standing on end at the voice that was entirely not Dove’s coming from her throat. It was monstrous, and part of her wondered if it was Seth who had in fact taken her body, only to see the eyes she knew well staring back at her with the image of a deer at the barrel of a gun.

Vulnerable. Ready for slaughter. Ready to be laid bare on the butcher's block.

Layla thought twice before she opened her mouth again, second guessing pushing for more answers, but something in the way the girl looked told her there was a truth to it.

“And Frank?” Layla asked, watching Dove’s hands shake. With anger, Layla guessed, anger that her little secrets were being poured out on the cobbles for her precious Steven to see.

Layla was not a cruel woman, not by any means. But she despised liars. And Dove was one of them.

“You and Harrow seem to be best pals, Layla, why don’t you ask him who Frank was,” Dove hissed, and it was like Marc was looking at someone else entirely, like he was watching a mutt backed into a corner snapping at everyone who approached, like watching game gnaw at its own leg to be free of a trap, “He got what he deserved,”

And Marc didn't doubt it. Not even when he reeled back in shock at her tone of voice, not expecting it from his peaceful dove, but then again Layla had ripped all sorts of wounds open in the interest of her own search for answers.

Marc opened his mouth to reinforce their need haste, only to hear for himself the footsteps draw nearer, and the three of them swivelled to look at the direction they came from.

“They’re here,” He said with a pit opening in his stomach, right around where his heart had fallen, springing into action as Layla paced across the stones, searching for a hiding spot.

“There must be another way out,” Dove said, though she felt her brain wrestling with images of that day, that last day, the feel of the mirror beneath her fingers, the scars that to this day marred her palm from the glass as she’d driven it into his chest.

“You find it, I’ll hold them off,” Marc ordered her, backing on himself to grab the battleaxe from inside the sarcophagus. Layla followed orders without protest, heading for the small alleyway she had come from, knowing she couldn’t go back that way with those creatures lurking behind the walls.

Crouching behind a pillar, she watched them with doubtful eyes. She knew they could find her in a matter of seconds. She was beyond angry at both of them for their deceit, yet she watched Dove summon the claws of her suit around her hands, ten blades sprouting over her natural nails in a small motion.

“Get out of here-” Marc waved her off, trying to nudge her body towards where Layla crouched, only for her to gently brush his hands away, careful not to scratch him with her talons.

“Marc, I’m not letting you do this alone- you don’t have a suit-” She argued back, hating the way he was still ready to go down swinging for her, hating the way he’d brushed off what Layla had said because it was Layla and Layla had every reason to throw her under any bus coming.

Her heart plummeted even more, dragging her shame down with it, and she understood then what it was.

He didn’t believe she’d done anything. He didn’t believe something was wrong, something was wrong with her. Didn’t believe she had lied, and kept things from him, didn’t entertain the idea for a single second that she was not the Dove he thought she was.

She knew if he would ask, she wouldn’t have the heart to lie to him to his face, knew she couldn’t keep betraying the undying loyalty he had to her. Knew he would take Steven away.

But she also knew he wouldn’t ask in the first place. Because to Marc, she was innocent of everything everyone accused her of, no matter how true.

She felt even worse than before, if that had even been possible.

She could only steel her face over as Harrow entered the room behind her, the infuriating tap tap tap of his staff against the floor giving him away.

And in a split moment, twenty armed men followed him, crawling out from the corners of the room, their rifles loaded, torches trained on the two of them, the red aimpoints hovering over their chests. She tried to account for every single one of the guns and their wielders, but she couldn’t. There was just too many.

The only way they were getting out of here alive is if he ran, if he ducked out with Layla and left her here to fight alone. But she knew he would never. Not unless she were to throw her body over his, take every single round of ammunition in her suit, keep him protected until they had run dry, but even then she knew he would fight against having her in front of him.

She couldn’t just stand by, couldn’t just let him go, no matter how much she dreaded what was coming next, how much he would hate her once she told him. But maybe he could understand, maybe he would. He had killed people before, she knew he had, he never hid from that. Killed those who deserved it. He hadn’t cared, hadn’t treated her differently when Hellhound had slaughtered those men. She wished she was back in that bathtub, back in their hotel room, the room full of lavender and vanilla, wished his hands were back in her hair telling her she was going to be okay.

She wished. Because that was all she had left.

“Just you two?” Harrow asked, his voice a wisp of smoke in the dark tomb that seemed to be closing in on them as the men steadied their aim, fingers resting on the triggers, “The rest is silence. I remember the first morning, I woke up knowing Khonshu was gone. The quiet was liberating,”

Harrow pocketed the scarab that nestled in his palm, stepping carefully towards them, his damn stick tapping at the floor like death had come knocking.

“And you, little dove,” Harrow turned to her, her eyes a cold glare, twitching with every knock of the wooden cane against the floor, “The truth can be just as liberating as being rid of the voice that controls you. But maybe, you already know that.”

She couldn’t disagree more. There was nothing liberating about what she’d done to Frank. She was a woman haunted, forever tainted by that day. She was ruined, she couldn’t believe she’d ever thought she could be fixed.

“Why don’t you tell him the truth?” Harrow goaded, her insides shrivelling as she saw Marc’s chocolate hues flick to her for a moment, “Ask her, Marc.”

“Marc, I can explain-” She said, eyes locking onto where he clenched a tight fist around his weapon, Harrow's words cutting her off.

“You’re a free man. And ofcourse with that freedom comes choice.” Harrow continued, “You can choose to pretend not to see the guilt writhing under her skin like a serpent. Or, you can choose to keep dear Steven safe,”

“Safe from what?” Marc snapped, his hackles raised at Harrow’s words, as if there was ever a moment of doubt he would choose anything over Steven’s wellbeing, or perhaps it was the way he questioned her that did it.

“Safe from the woman who slaughtered her own boyfriend, maybe?”

Harrow’s tone was soft, gentle, like he hadn’t just dropped a bomb upon the room, a tidal wave of cold overcoming the space between them.

“What?” Marc scoffed, almost a genuine laugh emerging at the levels Harrow was willing to stoop to in order to get the ushabti, including making up ludicrous tales, “What kind of shit is that, you can’t honestly think I’d believe that-”

He looked back to her, expecting confusion, aghast, anything except the deep pools of guilt encompassing her entire being as she stared at him.

He went cold.

No. No, please, no.

He said nothing, did nothing, not even when she tugged a lip between her teeth to keep it from wobbling.

“Please,” She whimpered, stepping towards him with empty hands, “Please, I can explain,”

Only he stepped back, and with it ripped whatever remained of her soul away from.

His eyes no longer were warm nests of mousy brown, his expression no longer soft as he took her in, his jaw tight and feathered with hesitation.

“I can explain, please listen to me,” She begged, she wasn’t above sinking to her knees and pleading against his knee in tears, “I was going to tell you, I tried-”

“You lied to me?” Marc bit, his face empty of whatever it was that he’d regarded her with before. The hands in her hair as she bathed were a million miles away, the kindness that had shone upon her like a warm summer now pelted her like hail in a storm.

“It wasn’t like the others, I had to-” She said, her hands shaking as she dared another step towards him, only for him to take another step back, “I thought you would understand,”

“I killed people because it was service to Khonshu, or-or because people's lives hung in the balance, not because I chose to,” He snapped, drawing his hand away from her like she’d burned him with her very being, “You killed your own boyfriend? You told me you stole- you lied to me,”

“No.” Steven’s voice was a whine, a bleat of agony inside the headspace, a man who was watching the only thing he’d ever had for himself slip away, “No, she wouldn’t Marc, she-”

“Please, just listen,” Her eyes had welled now, “Please, I- Marc, watch out!” She jumped at him, not missing the way his knuckles had quivered on the axe at her sudden movement, only for her to shove past him and descend onto a figure that had been moments away from grabbing the Ushabti.

It was like a switch had flickered then, and the rest of the room was invited into their conversation.

Marc slashed at one of the men who dived for her, snapping his forearm clean in two, the rifle falling from his grasp, and she clawed at the guards wrist, ripping through tendons and flesh like it were fabric.

He heard another of the men squeal as she slashed his face, he cut down another of Harrow’s men with a swift blow to the arm, ichor spurting over his hand at the contact.

He barely even blinked an eye as he threw the battle axe at the next one in his path, though he hadn’t even felt the handle leave his palm as it hit its mark and another one of the men went down.

He knew it made him somewhat of a hypocrite. But it wasn't just the blatant lie that had caused his walls to clamp down around him. That man, whoever he was, had been her boyfriend. And Steven... If he hadn't known something so telling about her, how could he be sure she wouldn't flip and do the same to Steven.

She wouldn't. He wanted to say he knew she wouldn't lay a hand on the man clawing at his brain in torment, but Marc felt he didn't know anything about her anymore.

She had killed someone. His dove, his innocent dove, that he had spent weeks feeling like filth for so much as touching, feeling as though he had ruined her, only to find out she was just as tainted as he was. She had lied to him. She had every chance, every moment he showed his soft underbelly, to tell him the truth, and she hadn’t. He was supposed to keep Steven safe, and he was dropping walls left right and centre for someone who could have had him lined up as her next target.

Dove’s head whirled around when she heard him grunt, fearing he had gotten a barrel to the face, or even a rogue fist. She took a sweeping glance at him from head to toe, the relief tangible in her bones, seeing he was rattled and angry, but not bleeding.

She needed to set this right. She was a liar, she knew that, she was a murderer, she knew that aswell. She didn’t deserve any of the kindness she’d been shown, she’d known she was on borrowed time the entirety of their friendship. She had known this was coming any day now.

It still hurt like a bitch to be confronted with the truth. And the truth was Marc glared at her like hated her. Marc wanted nothing to do with her, as liar, a con, an actress. A whore.

She had to fix this; if she even could. She had to try. For Steven.

Dove had gotten all of one step when Harrow pulled the pistol out of his jeans.

It was like a slow motion picture from there, like she was in the back seat trying to steer the wheel, sitting front row of the audience as the movie played out in front of her.

Harrow lifting the gun at Marc’s chest, pulling the trigger once, his aim true enough that a crimson hole bloomed through the man’s sweater in seconds, spraying out of the wound and onto his outfit.

She heard herself scream, heard his name coming from her in a deafening squeal, something weak and horrified in the tone. She heard the second bang of the bullet leaving its chamber, puncturing in the gut in a second deadly hit, Marc’s body stumbling back as the wound poured faster, harder, his eyes glazed into an entirely empty concoction.

She heard herself call him again, didn’t realise until it choked through a sob that she was crying, inconsolably actually. He swayed for a moment, before the weightlessness took over and he tipped backwards on his heel, and his cold gaze fell to hers for a split moment of reprieve of what she knew was coming.

She didn’t even realise until she had crouched over where he’d fallen into the water that she was sobbing, didn’t realise until the tears started falling on his face that she was crying over him, over every word she was supposed to say to him.

She didn’t realise until the heartbeat she adored so much, the one she’d planned to spend every morning pressed up against, had stopped beating, and Dove was swept up with a feeling she despised.

In all of two seconds, Dove was all alone again, and Marc and Steven were dead.

TAGLISTS.

KNIGHT IN SOHO TAGLIST

@shirukitsune @s-u-t @ahookedheroespureheart @willowseason @imonmykneessir @acceptedbyace @broadwaytraaaaash @mythicalmo @stevenknightmarc @avery88 @fandombrackets @thelostlovedone @raythecomputerart @nyctophile-moon-child @unknownduck0 @emily-roberts @cheshirecat484 @lockleywife @strangeobsessed d @thebestrouge @0bsessedwithfictionalcharacters @dumbhxeredrose @badbishsblog @jvexoxo @sxftie-mari i @mythical-goth @cillmeslowly @wildwallflower24 @ameliashideout @moonsua1 @latenightcravingz @blackqueengold @jesfreedark @uncle-eggy @onefinnedwonder-fm @homuraak3mi @animechick555@1800-get-alife @peachipeachy @hoemadegrace @raineisms

#marc spector x reader #steven grant x reader #marc spector fanfiction #marc spector imagine #moon knight x reader #moonknight imagine #moonknight x reader #steven grant fanfiction #marc spector smut

106 notes · View notes

annadoingshitpoorly · 9 months

Text

FRIENDS IN THE DARK - Chapter 1

Ellie Williams x Reader x Abby Anderson - TWILIGHT AU

Word Count: 6.1K+

Content Warnings: Uninvited Visitors, parents being proud of you, USE OF Y/N, nicknames (from parental figure), motor vehicle accident, being chased/hunted, Ellie-Abby beef, Abby having beef with Mel, Abby in general in this tbh…

Men, Minors and general fuckheads DNI 💚

The prologue can be found here

Jackson, Wyoming. It’s a quiet town. The sort of town where nothing ever seems to happen. Surrounded by hills and woods, people who are born there eventually move away nine times out of ten, those that do stay have been there for generations and can’t escape the monotony of the town. It’s the kind of town where one is never rudely awakened. Especially on the weekend.

The morning after your first night in Jackson, the nearly eerie silence that seemed to descend across the valley is broken so abruptly that the thundering noise can only be described as strange, forcing you to wake early and not due to your body clock. But to a heavy handed knock on your front door, maybe choosing the room with the front facing window was a bad idea but you’d made your bed now all you had to do was lay in it… well a you put a mattress on the ground and had to lay on top of it, but that’s besides the point. Throwing a fleece blanket over your shoulders you peek out the open window, stood there was a girl. You lean on the window ledge and poke your head further to try and see her better, but with little success, only being able to gather that she was blonde with an extremely impressive shoulder span.

Shrugging into your jeans from the day before, you quickly get down the stairs to answer the door, the blaring of the radio from the kitchen explaining why your mom hadn’t answered the knocks. As you stand in front of the door, you smooth the creases in your shirt from having slept in it last night and pull the doorknob.

Blue eyes meet yours and a small smile comes to her face. “Hi. I’m Abby, I live across the street." She tilts her head towards a rather impressive two storey house with a vintage Chevy out the front. You pause for a moment looking towards where she motioned but thankfully catch yourself and open the door wider, “Wanna come in?” She nods and steps in as you close the door behind her. “I’m Y/N, by the way. Mom’s in the kitchen if you want?” Politely Abby nods and follows behind you as you head into the back where you push the door and find something akin to a bomb scene. Amid pots and pans, silverware and slow-cookers, stands your mother with her hair tied out of her face with a bandana and beads of sweat amassing on her furrowed brow.

“Mom. Mom! MOM!”

“Huh? OH, GOOD MORNING SLEEPYHEAD!” She turns and twists the volume down on the little portable blue radio, “Who’s your friend, doll?” At this Abby extends her arm towards your mother and shakes her hand, her grip is firm and confident, “Abigail Anderson, ma’am. I live down the road.” They continue to chat as you lose yourself in thought…

It’s the name that causes you to stop in your tracks, shattering your coherence. Wait- this is Abigail Anderson?! The same Abigail that was your first kiss in elementary school at eight years old?! The same Abigail that braided your hair at recess in the school yard? The same Abigail that always swapped half of your peanut butter and marshmallow fluff sandwich for half of her chicken salad sandwich? The same Abigail that hugged you so tight that last day of school, whose tears had made your shoulder damp and you held each other one final time before you left Jackson for what was supposed to be forever… Abigail- Abby. She’s all grown-up now, you suppose you have too, she probably didn't recognise you for that very reason just as you hadn’t clocked on to her. Looking at her as she talks to your mom, her hair is still the same dirty blonde more golden than hay-like as it had been but it is confined to a braided prison that falls over her shoulder and onto her shirt, a shirt that does nothing to hide the fact her shoulders are so toned and broad how she’s clearly built an incredible amount of muscle. The freckles up her neck are new, maybe from the summer sun. And they trail up to her ears, little golden brown flecks and her eyes piercing blue, glacial and bright. Further down her face her mouth is moving, and she’s looking at you- She's talking to you. Oh fuck. OH FUCK-

“Sorry, I lost my train of thought… what was that?” Shit. Count on you to sound so fucking ditsy, but at least she’s smiling, maybe she likes bimbos. Wait why would you think that-

“I was asking if you needed a lift to school on Monday? You’re going to Johnson-Bailey High right?” Abby’s trying to start a conversation and you can’t even think straight.

“Oh yeah, I am.” Awesome, common ground to start from again, “Are you going into senior year too?”

“Yeah! Hopefully we’ll have a class together,” She’s moving from her spot on the breakfast bar, and is dusting herself down, “well, I’ll leave you to get sorted out. Call me if you need a hand with those tables and boxes?”

Your mom is wrapping her arms round over Abby’s shoulders to hug her as the blonde girl attempts to make it to the door, and you’re left following behind the pair. “Thanks for coming over Abigail, please tell your father he’s welcome over anytime and you are too.”

“I’ll see you later, Y/N?”

“I’ll see you later, Abby. It was nice seeing you again.”

“You too, really nice.”

As you close the door you walk away as Abby waits outside the door for a few moments, mumbling under her breath, before jogging away of her own accord. Meanwhile your mother returns to the kitchen, you in tow.

“It was nice for her to offer you a lift, make sure you thank her on Monday.”

“I will, mom.” And boy you wish you could do more than just thank her.

The rest of that Saturday breezes by, from unloading the moving truck to constructing the newly purchased ikea furniture, with your hands full the whole day you never even notice how tired you are until the your head hits the pillow on top of your now put together bed, the Friday night’s mattress now having a place to rest, your phone on your nightstand and plugged in to charge buzzes with a notification just as you’re dozing off. You decide to check in the morning. Despite your tiredness and complete willingness to fall asleep, something keeps you tossing and turning. A burning sensation, like someone holding a lighter too close to your flesh. Pulling the quilt over your head eases the feeling a bit, enough for you to finally fall into a deep rest.

When you wake on Sunday morning at a far more reasonable time than the day before, you pick up your phone, finding all that's displayed on the screen is the time. You could have sworn that you’d gotten a message last night but brush it off.

That Sunday morning and afternoon follows a similar path as the previous, unpacking the boxes and shuffling around mini mountains of clothes and kitchen ware. It hadn’t occurred to you in the chaos of the past two days that you had school starting that next day, the weekend had been rattled through so quickly that both you and your mother hadn’t had time to rest - the rest that the weekend would serve you under normal circumstances, but these weren’t normal circumstances. Abby had come over around noon, said she was coming back from a jog and left you her mobile number for the morning. You had forgotten that she’d offered you a ride.

Pushing past your mothers relentless teasing of ‘oh you’d be so cute together’ and ‘such a pretty couple’, you finally get her to back off with a sharp “Mom. I don’t know if she’s even into girls.” With your mom now quelled at least partially, you hide in your room opting to sort through the boxes of your personal belongings.

By the time books are on the shelves and the majority of your clothes have been tucked away into the closet that sits to the left of your bay window, it’s late. Like super late, 11:45 isn’t that late you tell yourself initially but then remember that you should be up at 6:30 at latest… Deciding that you’d be best sleeping immediately you text Abby as you crawl into bed to check that her offer of a ride still stands and much to your relief it does. With clothes for the morning on the desk beside your full and definitely heavy backpack, you feel confident enough in your preparations to set your alarm. Abby will pick you up at 8:00AM with that thought in your mind you drift into a contented sleep, small smile on your lips.

The alarm sounds and your phone vibrates on the nightstand, you wake with a most unhappy groan spewing from your mouth. You definitely should have gone to bed earlier. Steam and hot water provide your achy muscles a modicum of relief as you soak in the spray of the shower, the water pressure is definitely better here. Getting dressed, you look outside the window relief rushing over you as the morning is misty and overcast but for the first time since Friday night, it’s not raining.

You greet your mother as she comes out of her bedroom, dressed in her casual wear. “There’s some cereal in the cupboard and milk in the refrigerator, but I’m going to get groceries after talking with the doctor.”

“Are you not feeling good?” She shakes her head, yawning while trying and failing to speak at the same time. “You’re trying nursing again?”

“Hey! I’m good at it, plus it’ll pay more than waitressing or being some retail assistant.”

“Fair.”

You sit at the table, scrolling through your phone. While checking your tumblr a knock at the door snaps you from your passive scrolling, the digits on the corner of the screen read ‘07:53’. Abby likes to be early. Noted. Leaving the spoon and bowl to clatter in the sink, you snatch your backpack and throw it over your shoulder before yelling a hasty ‘Bye Mom!’ to your mother through the front door from the front porch.

Abby waves at you from the bottom of the driveway, her posture is relaxed as you open the car door and drop down into the seat.

“Hey, you ready to go.” The blonde looks to your face firstly then to the backpack at your feet and finally back to your face once more, meeting your eyes.

“Ready as I’ll ever be?”

She smiles at your answer but doesn’t mention why as one hand puts the car in drive and the other pulls at the steering wheel. Her stance never changes from the calm, confident and collected aura she exudes. The small talk she makes is pleasant, the little tidbits of information the two of you exchange quickly help you re-establish a bond and the twenty minute car ride goes by in what seems like a blink of an eye. Her dad hadn’t remarried since her mom had died, she was captain of the lacrosse team, she’d broken up with her boyfriend 3 weeks before you’d arrived because she found him cheating on her. It was nice to talk to someone other than your mom, and boy did it help that Abby was easy to talk to.

Pulling into the large gates and red brick walls that bordered the grounds of Johnson-Bailey high school, Abby parks the car up in a section set aside for the seniors. The school looks much less intimidating than it did when you were younger, the brick carries on from the walls and makes up the exterior for the front school building but the extensions and external gym building juxtaposes the classic red brick with their stark white and metal make up. Hundreds of grumpy teens and even grumpier teaching staff mill about the front of the school, reluctant to be back to normality following the summer break. It feels normal. Normal is good.

Abby waves goodbye to you as the assistant principal singles you out and pulls you over. Standing next to the finely dressed lady (‘Miss Dandridge’ she had said) is a very pretty girl, thick curly hair tied back from her face and light makeup enhancing her dark features. She introduces herself as Nora, and your personal ‘buddy’. Despite the forced friendship aspect of the introduction, Nora is extremely likable as she makes small talk and gives you a quick tour of the school building on your way to your joint home room. Opening the door, Nora heads to the back of the room and sits in the spare spot next to a familiar blonde.

Following the lead of Nora you move further into the classroom and find a seat next to a tall Asian boy with the floppiest black hair you’ve possibly ever seen. He leans over and offers you his hand, “Jesse. You new?”

Taking his hand, thankful for him approaching you first, “Yeah, Y/N. I’ve just moved back.”

He smiles, “Well, it’ll be nice to have a fresh face ‘round here. Jackson’s a bit shit, to be honest.”

You laugh at his seeming ‘down to Earth’ness and continue talking with him until the man that had previously been sitting at the teacher’s desk gets up from his spot and the scraping of chalk against black board alerts you to his shift in demeanor.

“Good morning, Class S-1. I hope you had an enjoyable summer, I’ll be your home room tutor and your English teacher. My name is Mr O’Bri-”

The door opens and a girl comes in a heavy blush on her face as she rushes past and sits down at the desk directly in front of you and Jesse and as she scurries around, fixing herself in the seat Mr O’Brien locks eyes with the girl. “Dina, see me after first period.”

“Goddamn it…”

Aside from the initial interruption of the Dina girl, the period passes swimmingly. And the one after that, and the one after that. The day continues smooth and steady as a drumbeat and lunch rolls around before you have time to realize. Following the stream of students into the cafeteria, you look around and spy Nora and Abby sitting beside some other people in letterman jackets around a circular table in the corner, after a small amount as you approach the table. Abby gives you a smile as you approach, pull a chair out and sit down. You breathe a sigh of relief as Nora introduces you to the rest of the table, a few guys and a couple of girls. There’s a tension you immediately pick up on a few side glances between Owen and Mel, deciding to ask Abby about it on the ride home at three thirty you keep your voice down and occupy yourself with the mystery meat in a hamburger bun.

The lunch is pleasant and the company is definitely the cause of it being so. As you find yourself walking back to class with Manny, the brown haired boy keeps you in chat as you head towards the physics classroom. Manny sits behind you as the teacher instructs you to sit along the benches each row separated by gender.

There are no familiar faces in the room, but as class drags on you feel a burning sensation at the back of your head. That’s familiar, but you can’t place why or where from. Looking back at the rest of the class, green eyes meet yours. They’re burrowing into yours as you struggle to break the contact. You finally snap back to reality with a nudge from Marta who’s sat beside you. You clear your throat and try to ignore the churning in your stomach as you can still feel the pine needle eyes stabbing into your back. As the bell rings, you rush to your final class. Throwing the notebooks and pens haphazardly into your backpack, charms around the zips clinking together in your attempt to make a quick get away. You don’t notice as one of the button badges on the front of the bag pops off as you fling a strap over your shoulder. But she does. Her eyes lock onto the cute little smiley face pin. Long fingers wrap around it and slip the accessory into a jean pocket.

By the time the final bell rings to signal the end of the school day, you’re relieved to say the least. The flushing of students towards the front of the school and out to the parking lot sweeps you away until you’re in front of Abby’s car, waiting for her to show up. To be fair to her, she had warned you that would most likely be running a bit behind the rest of the student body as the coach would be looking to talk to her. And as it was currently twenty to four, she was turning out to be correct. Nora walks past and waves as she hops into her car, a little green fiat. Abby can’t be too far behind as Nora was a part of the lacrosse team too. Scrolling through your phone, enjoying the screen time for the first time since lunch, you get lost in the endless dopamine hits the silly little TikToks give you. You’re completely in a world of your own when a poke to your arm shocks you. And there she is. Staring you down once more, is the green eyed girl from Physics.

She says nothing as she sets her longboard on the ground allowing herself to slide a long, bony hand into the front pocket of her baggy jeans, the belt seeming more of an accessory than a functional piece of clothing as it does nothing to support the denim laying loose around her thin hips, you get your first good look at her the auburn shaggy bob she has frames her face nicely if not causing her to appear a even more gaunt than her skinny, pale frame already is, the freckles across the bridge of her nose and up her cheekbones are comparable with constellations. Pulling her hand out of the pocket you see she’s holding something, something small and sentimental. She holds it out for you to take, “here,” she says and you take it hesitantly from her. You meet her eyes again, they’re still looking at you with as much focus as when you had your first encounter. You give a soft, nervous smile, “Thanks, where did you-”

“WILLIAMS. FUCK OFF.”

Abby’s voice booms out across the empty parking lot. You turn on your heel to look at the blonde as she moves at great speed towards you and the other girl, Williams… it must be her last name. As Abby comes to stand between the two of you, the slight warmth to the auburn girl’s eyes vanishes. She backs up and pulls the skateboard away with a slight yank of her leg, one foot rests on it allowing her to rock back and forth giving an air of arrogance to the smaller girl. “Easy! Down girl,” this elicits a guttural rumbling from Abby, “I was just returning something.” Abby lunges towards the skinny girl but you grab the blonde’s arm and pull her back. In comparison to Abby this strange girl was akin to a rag doll, small and frail looking in your eyes. The skater girl takes this as her chance to back up and she does.

“Watch it, Williams. You better fuckin’ watch it.” Abby calls out after her as she moves away towards the backgate of the school.

You reach out and meet a muscled shoulder with your hand as your touch causes Abby to snap back to reality. She opens the passenger side door for you and lets you get in before hopping around to the drivers side and sliding in. The journey home is quiet and tense. Turning your head to face the blonde, she answers your question before you even finalize it in your own mind. “Nobody, nobody good anyways. She is trouble. She will always be trouble.”

“Why’s that, Abby?”

“Bad breeding, at least in my opinion.”

She clicks the knob for the radio and music starts wafting through the car easing the tension as Shania Twain comes out from hiding in the speakers, as the karaoke begins any tension is washed away with the titters and giggles of pure unadulterated fun.

Abby drops you off at yours before pushing on towards her own home. opening the door you find the house empty and devoid of life, letting your backpack lay up against the breakfast bar you spot a yellow sticky note on the worktop, ‘Got some groceries. Snakes Snacks are in the pantry. Got an interview for the hospital. Love you, Mom.’ With a fistpump of celebration, you poke your head into the pantry only to see it much fuller than nine hours ago. Thank god. Grabbing a cereal bar you go upstairs and get stuck into your homework, this keeps you occupied for a few hours until eventually the front door opens, closes and the scuffling of shoes being cast off and relegated to a corner tells you your mom is home. “Sweetheart! I brought take out!”

With a fist pump and silent cheer, you close your laptop over and chuck your history textbook to the end of your desk. The Oregon Trail can wait, you’ve got chinese food to eat. “Comin’ now, mom!” You yell whilst running down the stairs, stepping into the kitchen you see your mom holding a plastic bag with several takeout boxes inside. “You grab plates and I’ll get some drinks, then we can have a TV dinner and you can tell me all about your first day?” Your mom suggests as she is already head and ears into the refrigerator, poking around for some cans of soda.

The flickering of whatever late night chat show is on the screen makes for ambience as you spill the gossip of the day to your mother, her face is nothing short of comical as you tell her about the tension between Owen (your mom laughs heartily at the description of him you give, of his hair being a dirty blond hedgehog with his eyes being too close together, like an opossum,) and Abby. The strange girl that had returned your pin. You even mention joining one of the clubs at school.

“Sweetheart,” your mom starts, “can I talk to you, adult to adult?”

You nod and panic flashes across your mind and definitely across your face, but your mother doesn’t seem to catch it and looks relieved.

“I’m glad you’re being so open. I was scared… I was very scared about coming back. And when your dad…”

You keep quiet, letting her ramble and fumble through her words as you watch as she becomes more and more lost in her mind before you wrap your arms around her, comforting her, soothing her worries, bringing her back to earth with a few words,“I know, mom.”

She sobs into your arms, tears wet your shoulder leaving your t-shirt damp and darkened on one side. She cries long and hard until she eventually falls asleep, grip on you loosening as your mom loses consciousness. You wiggle out of her grasp, take the blanket from the back of the couch and throw it over her, placing a kiss on her forehead you move to the kitchen and do the dishes. The street lamp light doesn’t reach this far around the side of the house but the moon is enough to at least not leave you to stare into an abyss of total darkness, the tree line starts about two hundred and fifty yards from the back porch and you watch as a fox pokes its head out from the brush. It makes its way across the portion of grass that makes up your backyard before stopping dead in its tracks. The dishes are forgotten as you watch the small canine look around panicked. It quickly sprints back into the green foliage and it disappears from view.

Getting back to the dishes, you finish the chore quickly and choose to make your way to bed, turning the TV off on your way while making sure your mother hasn’t woken up. She hasn’t.

Returning to your room, you see that you’ve left your laptop open and your books are still scattered about the desk. Taking one look at the half finished homework, you close the laptop and stash it away into your backpack. “That’s enough of that,” you mutter under your breath.

Stripping and getting dressed again for bed, you crawl in under the covers and settle down for the night. Turning over onto your side you see the curtains in The corner of your room flutter as though there was a light breeze, it’s then that you notice the window cracked open a few inches. “Fuck me…”

Feet meeting the cold floor you scuttle across the room and close the window completely, good and tight. Hopping back into the warmth of the various layers of quilt and blankets, you’re asleep as soon as you close your eyes.

The days in the valley town turn to weeks with nothing strange or startling to really speak of. You seem to be getting more forgetful lately. Your things are seemingly shifting about your room. You’re probably just being silly and misplacing things, at least that’s what you’ve been telling yourself.

The high school lacrosse season has started and Abby had tried her best to rope you into joining the team, but with the absolute disaster that was tryouts you’ve come to the realization that sitting on the bleachers cheering on your friends (new and old) is definitely the best place for you.

Abby had let little tidbits of information slip, about how Owen was her ex and left her for Mel and how she’d later come out as bisexual as a result of the relationship disintegrating. The confirmation that she was into girls had you internally kicking your feet, punching your fists and screaming until your throat was so raw that it could bleed, but you decidedly keep that to yourself. The little crush that had completely taken over your mind, Abby crawling into every little crevice that wasn’t taken up by school or the various relationships you’d been establishing or reestablishing.

You’d grown close to Dina again, her boyfriend Jesse by extension. Dina is… talkative to say the least, occupying most of your AP math class with her chittering, and you’re yet to meet this elusive Ellie you’ve heard so much about from her venting and seemingly never ending gossip. From ‘oh my god! Ellie and Cat from S-3? They kind of had a huge argument-’ to ‘Ellie is ditching class again, I’m surprised she hasn’t been kicked outta here by now, that’s what happened to her back in Boston!’ Based on what you’d heard, Ellie could only be described as a badass juvie escapist. And that’s how you’ve come to be sat in Jackson’s only diner, The Clay Pit BBQ, on a Friday evening after school waiting for ‘Ellie’ and Jesse to show up.

Dina sits across from you in the booth as you take in the cringe worthy old western themeing that seems as though it was plucked from a young child’s bedroom or a roadside tourist trap. A milkshake is sat in front of Dina with her admitting to herself more than saying to you, “I really shouldn’t be having this… lactose intolerance is a big thing with my family,” you nod at her more to quell her than to actually provide any opinion on her predicament, while a large cup of water and a plate of fries in front you. You both thank the waitress and begin to eat until a cough and playful punch lands on your shoulder. Jesse. You scooch further into the booth, the old faux leather squeaking underneath your movement. But as you turn to look at the others it’s not Jesse that’s sat beside you but the ‘Williams’ girl. The one that had returned your pin and the dots line up in your head. Dina had always said about her ditching to go skateboarding, and under the table is the same longboard as she’d made her escape on weeks prior.

“Ellie, this is Y/n.”

Dina turns to you now, “Y/n, this is Ellie.”

The air fills with a heavy tension, Dina and Jesse both look between the two of you and to each other as though having a silent conversation while Ellie keeps looking at you, as though trying to read you. Green eyes meeting your own eyes with such intensity that a heat begins to spread up your neck and it takes Jesse kicking the auburn haired girl and jolting her out of her trance-like state before she sticks out her hand. “Hi?”

‘Is that all she’s going to say’, you think to yourself as a laugh escapes your lips outwardly and you shake her hand. “Hi.”

Ellie doesn’t eat much but orders an apple cobbler and attempts to make small talk, despite the encounter starting off stale and almost jumpy as the ice breaks you find yourself relaxing into her company as though you’d known her as long and as well as you had the other pair, but you can’t seem to shake a niggling at the back of your mind that there was something off about Ellie Williams.

As the evening continues you settle into a comfortable chit chat, and discuss this and that, what’s there and what’s not. Everything under the sun. Until the waitress from before approaches your table to tell you that they’re closing up for the night and you gather your bits and ready yourselves to leave. As you stand outside the diner, you realize that your phone had died and with the only way to contact your mom dead as a doornail, Jesse asks you something you hadn’t planned for, “How’re you getting home?” You give a huff of frustration and shrug your shoulders, “I’ll walk it’s only a half hour anyways, I can take a shortcut through the woods. Dina pops her head from around Jesse's side and pipes up, “Are you sure, I can’t carry everyone but Jesse can walk home if you want to get on?”

“No I’m fine, genuinely! Besides, you both live on the other side of town.”

Ellie shuffles her way from inside to stand beside you.

“I can walk her home.”

“But Els, you live-”

“Dee. I’ll walk her home.”

Sensing the finality in Ellie’s tone and probably wanting to avoid being the cause of a scene, Jesse and Dina hop onto her minty vespa scooter, and the tall boy waves a long limb as they pull out of the street and down the road out east.

“Ellie. I appreciate the sentiment but I think a bit of alone time would be good for me?” You tell her, its the honest truth but not the whole truth. Internally you’re screaming. ‘Why would she do that? Dina said Ellie lived near her. Why would she offer to walk you in the completely opposite direction to where she needed to go?’

“Oh…” She looks disappointed but quickly fixes her face, “I- I guess I’ll see you round then?”

“Yeah, see you at school?” She lets go a small smile at your good natured teasing.

“Yeah…”

You part ways as she sets off on her skateboard, quickly picking up speed as she propels herself forward, following the same road as Dina and Jesse had just gone down. In a flash of flannel and beaten converse, she’s gone and you start the trek home.

The late evening twilight turns to night it seems as you set off and you are left with a predicament. Either brave the dark of the woods and be home fifteen minutes faster, or take the long way round and stay in the safety of the luminous orange of the streetlights… Taking one look at the storm clouds beginning to form in the western sky, you quickly make up your mind. Woods it is.

Pulling the purple hood up over your head as the occasional spitting of raindrops turns into a gentle pouring, getting past the small saplings and shrubs that make up the treeline you breathe out a sigh of relief at the umbrella provided by the canopy of the tall ancient pines. A thick, choking mist is rolling in, concealing the ground from your vision. The trek is tedious, those people that came before you and also opted for your choice of the protection of the trees have left a somewhat easily traversable path between the roots. The silence of your surroundings that during the day would be comforting is anything but as full darkness takes hold. The only sound is the trodding of your feet against pebbles, leaves and twigs. The half moon peeks out from the clouds occasionally amid the rain, the slivers of light it gives off let you know you're still on the right path and spur you onward.

Snap.

Loud and clear.

The hairs on the back of your neck stand up.

The cracking rings out over the pitter patter of rain on the leafy surroundings.

It’s what causes silence to break and it dawns on you why the woods had been so silent before. They were afraid. The birds, the deer, and the elk. The moose, the eagles, and horses. They were all afraid. And doing their best to stay out of the way of the local apex predator. You had walked head first into the lion's den. Panic sets in as you pick up speed, feet propelling you forward over tree roots and through branches.

Run.

You have to run.

As you run the backpack on your shoulders jostles around, keyrings making clinking sounds with each step. Another creaking noise pulls your attention back towards your surroundings as you attempt to focus on something aside from your labored breaths and the blood thundering in your ears. The same sound comes from behind you again. “Fuck.” It sounded closer than before, ‘where’s it coming from… holy shit… I’m not ready to die…’ Fear has you whipping your head around to the direction you think the sound had originally come from. You hear a follow up rustle as if it knows what you’re thinking. ‘Shit.’

You feel like an antelope in a nature documentary. Meager, mortal prey for a wild, powerful, immortal predator. All common sense is thrown out a shattered window, basic human necessity drives you. The animalistic need to escape courses through you. Instead of sticking to the path, you run straight. Jumping over logs, and avoiding puddles. Your sneakers are going to be destroyed, your hoodie is flailing about as your arms pump back and forth. A glimmer of hope in the darkness appears ahead as the rows of trees begin to thin, the tawny light of a streetlamp. Through the rain and the mist it’s hard to determine the exact distance left, the orange tones bleeding through the weather like paint through a cup of water. The trees are skinny and short, saplings and bushes as the ground turns to soft green grass beneath your feet, you don’t stop until your feet hit hard tar. A road now under your feet.

Your legs burn, your head is light.

The glow of the streetlamp above you fills you with warmth as the adrenaline fizzes out and your breath comes back to you. Lungfulls of damp, cold air rake through your chest.

Just letting the relief flood your mind, you feel the warmth of big wet crocodile tears tracing down your cheeks. You remain unmoving as the rain continues to soak you, you haven’t felt more alive than at this moment in an exceedingly long time. The surreal nature of your escape has you standing in the middle of the road, head reeling. As you close your eyes and take another deep breath, you fail to see the lights coming around the corner.

Your ears hurt before anything else does, the screeching of rubber on tar. Cold metal throws you several yards, searing pain in your shoulder, up your neck, and down your side. Above you is a girl. The light above her head like a halo is the last thing you see as you collapse in her arms.

I hope you guys enjoyed the first proper chapter, I wanted to keep it a little longer but felt that this was the best place to cut it off.

If you wanna be added to/removed from either my TLOU tag list or the tag list for this series (FITD) drop me a message!

Tag list: @moonlightdivine @hi2647 @jasmine-gazaille @mortallyfurryjellyfish @soft-and-lush @viswifetotallyreal @chrry1ovr @paleidiot @sawaagyapong @macaroni676 @godswlwwarrior

#abby anderson #abby anderson x reader #tlou x reader #tlou #ellie williams #ellie williams x reader #Ellie Williams x reader x Abby Anderson #tlou twilight au #twilight au #werewolves #vampires #Friends in the Dark

231 notes · View notes

past-the-pines-by-the-shore · 3 months

Text

I keep seeing this narrative that Zeus saved Thalia’s life and not Jason’s, and I’ve decided to come back from the grave to offer my two cents (that no one asked for).

Zeus absolutely did not save Thalia. She was never meant to come back out of that tree. Ever.

It was pure coincidence that Luke poisoned the tree and Ananbeth decided the Golden Fleece would save it. It wasn’t an action that was ordained by the gods, it hasn’t previously been foretold in a prophecy. It was simply a demigod solution to a demigod problem. Equally, no one at camp thought that the Fleece purging the poison from the tree would bring Thalia back, at all.

I definitely agree that Zeus turning Thalia into a tree was a deliberate act to prevent her going to the underworld. Though I would argue that this was as much (if not more so) to spite Hades as it was to stop Thalia being sent to eternal damnation in the underworld.

But to say that he saved Thalia’s life and then let Jason die is giving Zeus entirely too much credit. Jason is a proven hero who was good friends with Nico, and died at a point in time where the sting of Zeus breaking The Pact had mostly worn off. There isn’t any concern that he’ll be sent to the Fields of Punishment. Thalia, at the time of her death, had only done with this one big act as a hero, Nico and Bianca were still in hiding, and Hades was clearly pissed about her existence.

If Hades gets Thalia’s soul then he’s won. If Zeus smites the monsters that are attacking her, then Thalia lives but that runs the risk of her destroying Olympus when she’s 16.

Zeus wanted to contain her.

Trapping her spirit in a tree stops Thalia from ending up in the Field’s of Punishment, yes, but it does not save her life by any stretch of the imagination. And I’m a little tired of people pretending that what Zeus did was an act of kindness. It was literally less than the bare minimum. He was saving his own skin just as much as Thalia’s.

#I can talk about the dynamics between Thalia Jason and their Parental figures all day long #like I have so much I could say #but I cannot deal with this rhetoric that Zeus saved Thalia #he absolutely did not #the man was protecting himself and spiting his brother #stopping Thalia’s trip to the field’s of punishment was a secondary effect #I don’t think hades would have sent her to the fields of punishment anyway #felt so passionately about this I’ve posted for the first time in two years #yikes #thalia grace #pjo zeus #jason grace #percy jackson #hot takes #rant over #for now

84 notes · View notes

pretty-little-howtown · 2 years

Text

Untitled Percy Jackson Headcanon

Percy x ChildofApollo!reader

Genre: Fluff + Angst

Warnings: gn reader, slightly implied bi reader there’s one statement

Word Count: 16,950

You’d been at the camp a year longer than Percy, and as a result, you never really interacted with him

Honestly, you were a bit exhausted constantly hearing about him.

When Percy made it to camp he was all people could talk about, ‘this new kid battled a Minotaur and survived’ oh wow how special of him. We’ve all battled monsters to get here too, he wasn’t that special. Go on a quest and survive, then we can talk

(You refused to admit to anyone that it was kind of impressive he survived a Minotaur)

Needless to say, when he was revealed to be the son of Poseidon you doubled down on your opinion

Now, beating a Minotaur seemed less impressive. Whenever anyone brought it up you just said ‘He’s the son of one of the big three, of course, he was able to beat it’

Will would always tease you because for some reason he believed everything you said was a cover. He believed that in reality, you found him really impressive and more than a bit attractive. You’d always retort, saying he’s mistaking you for Annabeth

Percy, on the other hand, paid a lot of attention to you from the get-go. Not that he was arrogant or anything, but he found it a little strange that you were able to dismiss him so easily when he suddenly made the top of everyone's radar for any reason under the sun

As a result, he found out tiny little things about you. You would produce small orbs of light as decoration for the camp sing-along, or use the same orbs to light the broken bed light of one of your siblings.

He noticed you and Will were quite close, closer than you were with your other siblings, and you’d often help him out in the infirmary before he could even ask as if you’d pre-empted it

He found out you go on a lot of quests and bring back the newest CDs and records for you and your siblings to enjoy.

After some serious digging, he found out that before Asher got his loom, you’d be the only one who let him braid your hair to practice his foresight

He made sure to keep you in his memory

You spent most of your time training with others in the Apollo cabin, but fighting skills were the one thing you lacked

You’d spent most of your last year at camp neglecting swordsmanship in favour of archery. It paid off you were the top archer, and no one could beat you

Deciding it should be this year's training focus, you gathered the courage to ask Clarisse for help

Everyone thought you were insane, you thought you were insane

The first few months were gruelling, it was like being in the military. She would harshly punish you for small mistakes

But, as a result, you gained better swordsmanship skills as well as becoming friends with Clarisse which came as a surprise to a lot of people

Okay, friends might be a strong word, but she respected you more than anyone

However, it did lead you to be directly asked by Clarisse to go on the quest to retrieve the golden fleece. The official statement from Clarisse was because you were excellent at interpreting the Oracle’s prophecies, and having you give up-to-date interpretations as she went would be useful.

There were more obvious choices if that was the real reason she took you , but you decided against arguing

Needless to say, you're surprised to see Percy with his brother and Annabeth show up on the quest

You may have been surprised, but you weren't furious. You had to hold Clarisse back from ripping all their heads off.

Furthermore, you did your best to reason with her once you calmed her down. ‘Clarisse, please be a little more reasonable, they can help out with the ship. Yeah, it’s all well and good we’ve got an undead crew, but who’s to say we couldn't use a little more hands-on-deck.’

She agreed to let them stay and help with great reluctance

You could tell all three of them hated being at Clarisse’s beck and call, so you tried to help as much as possible

You stopped to stare out into the vast sea watching the setting sun when Percy leaned on the rails next to you also staring at the sea

You muttered a hi before awkwardly staring back at the sun, as the last beams of the sun ebb away you see the CSS Birmingham on the brink of collapse

Percy had managed to pick up on how you froze and came up next to you gently holding your waist, ‘is everything okay?’

You looked at him with a strained smile, ‘yeah I’m fine, sorry for worrying you. I thought I saw something, but it’s probably nothing’

Percy let go of your waist still sceptical, but he assumed it was best not to press besides you’ve been on more of these quests than he has, if you said there’s nothing to worry about then that’s that

As he walked away, presumably to Annabeth, you took a deep breath willing the heat in your cheeks to go away before following him from a respectable distance

When you arrived, everyone was in a panic running around trying to save the ship

Tyson is trying to fix the engine whose temperature is flying out of control and for a split second you freeze again seeing the same image you saw minutes ago in real-time

Before you have time to react, the ship blows, and you lose consciousness

Once you regain consciousness and find Tyson and Clarisse heal them both as best you can

Clarisse complained how none of her wounds were healed: ‘what kind of Apollo kid are you?’

Despite this Tyson still smiled brightly and thanked you

Healing was not your forte

The three of you make your way to Polyphemus' island to retrieve the fleece

The journey is spent defending Tyson from Clarisse’s constant insults and retorts until you lose a temper you didn’t know you even had, yelling, ‘Quite frankly, if Tyson hadn’t been there to try and fix the engine both us and the ship would be blown to smithereens. You always think you can do everything alone, but honestly, a little teamwork wouldn’t hurt you, Clarisse.”

Clarisse shocked didn’t say a word to either you or Tyson the rest of the way

After a trying ordeal, Percy Annabeth and Tyson sent you and Clarisse back to camp half-blood to complete your quest

You took the time to hammer home a lesson about teamwork and how it doesn’t cost much to be kind, much to Clarisse’s chagrin

You worry the whole time Percy isn’t back

You along with everyone else receive his message about Luke poisoning Thalia’s tree, and you feel the vail lift. It seems Luke was never anyone's friend

Despite the news of Luke, a party is still thrown after Thalia is healed and no longer a tree

You see Annabeth rush over to Thalia and you take your chance walking over to Percy

‘I never got the chance to thank you,’

‘For what?’ Percy stood a little perplexed

You release a small amused sigh, ‘for helping us. We wouldn’t have done it without you, so thank you, Percy.’

There’s a beat of silence and Percy speaks

‘So I’ve survived two quests now, are you impressed yet?’

Your eyes went wide, and you asked about how he knew what you’d been saying, to which he replied he’s been keeping a close eye on you.

‘That’s slightly creepy,’ you laugh, ‘but yes, you impressed me. You’ve far surpassed my expectations Percy Jackson’

The two of you smiled and carried on talking well into the night

The more you talked with him, the more you started to like him

You certainly underestimated how unique he was at least in terms of his personality, you found him charming

You couldn’t keep your eyes off him and were beyond sad to have to part with him

You sneaked back into the Apollo cabin hoping you wouldn’t wake anyone up, least of all Will

But lo and behold he was waiting for you with a wicked smirk ready to comment on the moment he’d witnessed through the window

‘Don’t say a thing.’ You passed him and went straight to bed and Will followed

When you were about to tuck yourself in and go to sleep, Will whispers in your ear ‘I knew you liked him’ with the biggest grin

The whole cabin was woken up by a particularly loud bang and an even louder yell

The next 6 months were split between your usual duties, training and Percy

You had no idea how you would approach him because you didn’t like him, you just wanted to get to know him better.

‘For the purposes of being friends’: a statement you had to repeat to Will often

Thankfully for you, Percy had already set out a plan to talk to you

Annabeth was sick of him ranting and regrettably made him a comprehensive ‘Guide to making friends with your crush’. He furiously denied he liked you in any such way

Step one: Ask you to train with him

You of course jumped at the opportunity to interact with him

The training was intertwined with flirty banter and frustration. You couldn’t beat Percy, or Percy couldn’t beat you.

It started out just sword training, and you also taught him how to use a bow. He wasn’t very good at it

One time you tried training with your powers trying to beat the other that way

The both of you went a little overboard: Percy drenched everyone in the training area, and you blinded a good portion by accident, but the two of you made a pretty rainbow, so was it really all bad?

You and Percy would hang out together a lot, but when you weren’t together you would always seek each other out

Percy noticed that you’d watch the sunrise by the lake nearly every morning

You noticed Percy would often take a swim in the lake at sunset

Anytime the whole camp was together you’d always somehow end up next to Percy and on the rare occasion you weren’t, there would be googly eyes lots of googly eyes

Everyone in your cabin picked up on it EVERYONE

Will was the worst offender, ‘I knew you liked him, all that talk about him not being the least bit impressive was just a cover-up. I knew it from the very start!’

You noticed how Percy would go out of his way to help his friends out and how he always did his best to lift them up

You saw he had a fun teasing friendship with Annabeth, very similar to your relationship with Will

The 6 months go by quickly and in no time you get sent on your next quest

You go with the gang to retrieve two more demigods, Nico and Bianca.

You rush over to Percy as soon as you and the others catch up with him

He was injured, and you stayed with him as everyone else fought off Dr Thorn

He just stares at you for a really long time, and you think the poison really must be getting to him

‘Your eyes are so bright’ he whispers, and you barely hear him, but shush him saying he needs to conserve his energy and that you need full concentration to stop the poison from spreading as fast at the very least

‘They’re so pretty,’ he continued and heat shot up to your face, ‘I never really noticed how pretty they are and when the sunlight hits them at the right angle they look like the sun’

You scolded him with your heart beating faster the more he talked

You erected a protective dome around the two of you when you saw silver arrows rushing through the air

You weren’t sure if the arrows were friendly until another barrage split the manticore’s thorns in half

You stared in awe until you heard Percy choke and realised you’d lost your concentration

While you shift your focus back to Percy, he sees Annabeth fall from the cliff, it crushes him to see someone so dear to him possibly fall to her doom.

Thalia introduces the hunters of Artemis as well as the goddess herself

She immediately recognizes you as her brother's child and scolds you for your lack of healing abilities

Despite her disappointment, she provides the medicine necessary to remove the poison from Percy

You have a small conversation with the hunters alongside Bianca

You had to admit you were more than impressed, there was so much you could learn from them, you were enchanted by their skill and Bianca seemed to be reacting in the same way

Soon Artemis emerged from her tent, Percy following, and announced the hunters were to stay in camp half-blood while she went to slay a beast that could defeat the Olympic gods

Behind her, you hear the voice you only ever imagined you would hear

The man had a bright, familiar aura around him that comforted you

Your eyes went wide as you realised who was standing in front of you

Your father was actually genuinely in front of you, you couldn’t speak, only continue staring stunned

No matter what he tried, you remind motionless cursing yourself that this was your father’s first impression of you

Still shocked, you managed a confused and shaky hello. Apollo just smiled. It wasn’t a condescending ‘you're really weird smile,’ it was a popper fatherly ‘it’s going to be ok’ smile.

He gave all of you the sun chariot so that you could get back to camp

You got on and waved Apollo goodbye as Thalia took the reins.

However, she forgot that it flies. Her extended freak-out led to you taking over mid-air as the poor girl curled herself up in a ball.

While getting ready for capture the flag, you sense Percy’s low mood

He confesses that he’s worried about Annabeth and Mr D refused to let him try to rescue her

You did your best to reassure him that Annabeth will survive, and he’ll see her safe and sound very soon

You walked Percy over to the armoury, still reassuring him

Both of you got your armour on, and you picked up your trusty bow, admiring its curves

Percy uncapped riptide inspecting it while subtly glancing in your direction, you were enchanted as well as enchanting

He watched you slowly run your fingers along the bow top to bottom, then you gently grasped it slowly and delicately stretching the sting and slipping yourself in between

You abruptly turned around to face Percy, and he hurriedly looked away from you, awkwardly clearing his throat

For the entire game of capture the flag, a tense face-off between the hunters and the rest of camp

Michael, fed up with Percy and Thalia’s bickering, split the Apollo cabin into three defensive fronts with the strongest archers being the last line of defence

As one of the camp’s best archers, you were stationed high up in the trees looking down ready to snipe, anyone, you needed to out

You knocked your arrow alongside your siblings, ready for the hunters to come through

You held your position, hyper focused on the ground you expected the hunters to walk through

Suddenly, your vision morphed, and you saw the image of Zoe holding up camp’s flag after taking out the distracted Thalia and Percy

You quickly told everyone to stay put and expect the unexpected and ran back to where Thalia and Percy were still bickering

“Stop it !” you yelled at the two of them, “Your bickering isn’t helping anyone, Michael already set up the Apollo cabin as a perimeter and the Ares kids are on the front lines as usual. Sort yourselves out!”

Percy gulped, eyes wide, but reluctantly allowed Thalia to take control

But it was far too late, the Ares cabin put up a good fight but the hunter’s wiped them out

You heard arrows whoosh through the air, you all stood in wait hoping most of the hunters would be knocked down by the arrows and various other cabins scattered about

No such luck, only a small portion were knocked out by the time they reached the third layer of defence

You waited to hear the distinct sound of piercing arrows, but you heard nothing and Zoe with a small but deadly number of hunters behind her hurtled into view

You knocked your arrow aiming straight for Zoe, she skilfully jumped out of the way continuing to run towards you

Thalia and Percy had occupied themselves with the other huntresses while you charged at Zoe

You took out a small dagger you’d strapped to your thigh and charged

Once close enough, you dropped to the ground, skid along it cutting her calf

Still skidding, you dropped your dagger, replacing it with your bow and knocked two arrows firing them simultaneously at Zoe

You hopped that was enough of a distraction for her to turn around and fight you, buying your team some time

She turned around, facing you directly, and picked up her bow

You saw the tip gleam as she released it, you shot to the side out of the way of the arrow that buried itself in the ground

She knocked the next arrow, releasing it in your direction

You let out a hiss as the arrow skimmed your shoulder, leaving a deep dash in its wake

You gritted your teeth and knocked two arrows, waiting for Zoe to fire

When she did, you ran up a tree, using it as a springboard to get you to higher ground

You let the two arrows loose midair both hit their target Zoe’s thigh and upper arm

You landed on the ground ready to fire more arrows, but it was too late

Zoe was proudly holding the flag in her hand, smiling triumphantly

You hadn’t noticed that with each arrow she fired, she was inching closer and closer to the flag

Your hits were futile as by the time they happened the flag was close enough to Zoe she could easily reach it

You felt a strange mix of admiration for Zoe and loathing for yourself, how could you let something like this happen?

A loud sound snapped you out of your thoughts; turning towards it you saw Thalia and Percy arguing once again

This time about whose fault it was they lost

You watched as they humiliated themselves further in front of the hunters of Artemis

Taking a deep breath, you walked over and got in between them once again

“For crying out loud,” you whispered. “If you want someone to blame, blame me. Zoe was right in front of me and I let her get away, now can you put this argument to bed? We look more pathetic than we did before.” You sighed exasperated

Percy barely registered your words, what really got him to stop was seeing the injury on your shoulder

He reached out gently, touching the side of the cut

His heart leapt into his throat when you winced, “that looks awful, are you gonna be ok?” He asked

“Course nothing I can’t heal,” you grinned, but Percy looked at you in disbelief. “Ok fine, I was just gonna ask Will to do it.”

Despite your reassurances all Percy could do was focus on that the wound as a result he walked you all the way to the infirmary and straight to Will, personally

He refused to leave until he heard Will say it’s not that serious

It all seemed to be a chain reaction because the whole ordeal ended in Will teasing you even more

“I see Mr. Jackson taking personal care of you, he must like you a lot”

You replied, “He does not like me. Not in the way you’re suggesting, at least,”

“But you like him in that way, don’t you?” Will knew the answer, he just wanted to make you say it

“Perhaps.” Will jumped up and down whilst yelling that he knew all along. “Could you be any louder?” you yelled at your brother, “There’s definitely something there, but I’m still trying to figure it out.”

Will nodded and said he would respect your thought process, but he wouldn’t refrain from teasing you about it from time to time

“I always thought you’d end up with a woman,” he remarked.

You laughed and replied, “me too.”

The conversation ended and Will focused on healing the wound

As he bandaged it, Zoe walked in demanding to see you

When she got to your cot, she talked about how she just got a prophecy from the Oracle to rescue Annabeth and that you impressed her so much she wants you to join her on the quest. “I would be honoured to fight alongside you.”

You nodded furiously, it was an offer you couldn’t refuse

Zoe smiled and informed you they would be leaving at first light tomorrow

You walked back to your cabin and stepped inside only to find Percy bouncing his leg up and down sat on your bed

You greeted him and asked if everything was ok

He told you about how it’s unfair that he doesn’t get to go, how of course the reason he wants to go is to help save Annabeth

“Percy, I would love to sneak you into my bag, but I don’t think there’s enough space”

You did your best to try reasoning with him. You told him how his worry for Annabeth might make him act without care for his own life, “and I care about you too much to let you rush into danger without thinking.”

You finished by promising him that you will bring Annabeth back safe

He still didn’t like being left out and argued he would be fine, but as soon as you looked at him incredulously he stopped talking

“I care about you too, so you better come back and it better be without any wounds.” He said, pointing to the bandage

“No fatal wounds,” you replied, and he nodded his head

You hugged him tightly and walked him out of the cabin door, smiling

At the crack of dawn, you picked up your bag and rushed out the door

You had to weave through your siblings, but you made it on time

Zoe informed you Thalia and Bianca (I’m sorry I had to replace Grover) you would have to go without Phoebe

When everyone set off to leave, Zoe stayed behind with you, offering you to join the hunters

You thought back to the conversation with your Will and told her you need time to think, so for now you have to decline

At the Smithsonian, you saw Percy run towards the group, and you mimicked everyone’s expression

Out of breath, he told everyone what he’d overheard. Everything seemed to confirm dreams he had about Annabeth replacing Atlas and how Luke’s skeletons were now targeting him

Zoe’s face was red and her brows furrowed

Before she could yell at him, you stepped in between the two

You calmed her down by making her look at the silver lining of the situation, Percy gained some valuable information even if he did it without consulting anyone

Before she could argue back, you all heard a loud roar

The battle with the Nemean Lion was arduous as nothing could pierce it’s fur

You and Percy shared a look as Percy came with an idea, having no clue what he was planning you nocked an arrow in your bow and held it ready

Percy fed the lion astronaut food and in its disgust it held its mouth open for you to shoot an arrow into its mouth, finally feeling the beast

You gave Percy the lion’s pelt. He of course argued that you should have it

“Nah, it’s not really my colour,” the both of you laughed at your statement. “Seriously though, take it. You figured out how to beat it, it’s yours.”

In return, Percy thanked you for covering for him, “I didn’t really say it then, but thank you for saving me from Clarisse’s wrath and now again from Zoe’s.”

Zoe joined you and Percy. She questioned how Percy managed to find them despite her covering their tracks

Without thinking, Percy said she must have done a terrible job because the group left a massive bread crumb trail for him to follow

You looked down at the floor, heaved a sigh and Percy stopped talking, realising why it was so easy for him to follow the group

You defended yourself, saying you thought Percy might be the fifth member of the quest. It bugged you how the Oracle’s prophecy would be so inaccurate

Zoe accepted your judgement, saying she should have expected an Apollo kid to be able to interpret the prophecy so easily. “There’s still room to join us, you know. Of course, you would have to leave your boyfriend.”

Your heart rate picked up and your jaw dropped. You quickly shook yourself from the shock, “Nope! He’s not my boyfriend!”

“Even better, the offer still stands.”

Percy looked at you in shock. He couldn’t quite believe you were actually considering leaving him.

For a split second, he imagined what it would be like to date you. He snapped himself out of it remembering that you two weren’t dating even if he in his imagination the idea was nice

When you finally lost the skeleton men tailing Percy, you shared a fire with a homeless man

No one took much notice of him, but there was something familiar in his eyes

They seemed to look at you with love, but also scrutiny to some extent. Despite his drab clothing, his skin seemed to glow

You stared at the man for a good while before Percy dragged you away

You were peacefully sat on the train next to Zoe when Percy came over with the same homeless man from earlier

The man soon revealed himself to be your father

You smiled, remarking you knew there was something familiar about him to which Apollo replied “Nothing can escape you can it. You’ve grown up very smart, y/n.”

You stood in shock while Percy covered for you in the form of distracting him with the directions to where they need to go

With enthusiasm, he leads all of you there

On the way, he pulls you aside and tells you Pan should be somewhere close to where you’re headed and to call on him whenever you needed his help

He gave you a small wooden flute to call him when needed

“How do you know? I thought he was Hermes kid” you questioned your father

“Oh, we never found out who his father is. We both keep tabs on him just in case,” he smiled

Before he left, he told you to heed the prophecy because it is absolute, and can’t be changed. “Trying to will only lead to more sadness.”

It doesn’t take long for the skeleton warriors following Percy to find your group again

They fired bullets at Percy, which you snipe out of the air, freeing Percy to strike one down

You go to high five him, but before you can it reforms

You all do a double take but continue fighting

Bianca seemed to be the only one who could defeat them, but there’s only one of her and too many of them

You think back to the flute and ask Percy to cover you while you play it. The Erymanthian Boar defeated the skeletons and took you all right in the middle of the Junkyard of the God’s

You were surprised to see Ares and Aphrodite there, until you remembered who you were talking about and who mostly uses the Junkyard

Suddenly you were very uncomfortable

Aphrodite looks between you and Percy “my my, looks like I don’t need to add any spice to your love life. I almost feel sorry for you. It’s going to be a long, uncertain ride for the both of you before you reach the end. You feel something for both the Athena girl and the child of Apollo over there, don’t you?” She teases, pointing over to you talking to Ares. “However, you like one a lot more than the other, it’s going to take you a painfully long time to figure it out.”

Percy frowns, his heart beating fast, he asks, “which one do I like more? Who do I end up with?”

“I can’t tell you that otherwise it won’t come true,” she teases again giving his nose a small boop

Percy started at you red-faced as you rejoined the group

You asked him if he was ok, and he rubbed the back of his head and gave you a sheepish grin

Your heart skipped several beats and your palms were sweaty

It was an image you never wanted to forget

Aphrodite gently rested her head on your shoulder and seductively whispered in your ear, “I can’t tell you how this ends if you want.”

You gulped, tempted but shook your head

Aphrodite picked her head up from your shoulder and walked around to face you, running her hand along your arm

She looked you up and down, “Do you know what? I respect that.”

You looked around the junkyard as a form of distraction from the intense stare you were receiving from Aphrodite

A glimmer grabbed your attention, you walked closer and took out an electric guitar shaped like your Father’s lyre

You took it thinking of Michael, who would absolutely love it

Zoe then called out, reminding you that it’s in a junkyard, so it’s most likely broken beyond repair

You put it back with a sigh

In the same breath, Bianca takes an action figure that then awakens a defective Talos

At that moment, your vision morphs, and you see Bianca go inside the Talos’ foot defeating it

While everyone was trying to stop it in its tracks, you try to figure out what this means

As soon as you figure it out, Bianca is climbing into the giant’s foot, you yell out, but it’s too late she drives the Talos into electrical wires disabling it but also sacrificing herself in the process

You whisper with tears in your eyes, “The second part of the prophecy has been fulfilled.”

After convincing a group of naiads to take you to the Hoover Dam, Percy starters reciting facts and jokes about it with Thalia joining in while you and Zoe started in awe as they explained it’s one of Annabeth’s favourites

They must be really close, you thought. It was sweet, but your heart sank slightly knowing you’ll never have that close of a relationship

You shook the thoughts out of your head and focused on the quest

All the time Percy was separated from the group you were worried, it’s exactly what you were worried about in the first place

Percy joins back at the worst possible moment, you were prepared to chew him out about running off on his own when you realised you were stuck on the Hoover Dam

Instead, you took to giving him as massive hug, asking him not to run off a second time

Meanwhile, Thalia was praying to her father in the corner, who then sent a metal angel to rescue the group and carry you off to San Francisco

Another problem comes in the form of Dr. Thorn manipulating Thalia into using Ophiotaurus' power

You and Zoe tried everything to stop her, but in the end it was Percy who was able to stop her and also take care of Ophiotaurus, sending him far away. He did, however, have to sacrifice the lion’s pelt to his father in order to do it

The next nail in the coffin of your possible relationship with Percy came in the form of him meeting Annabeth’s parents

They got along so well that Dr. Chase, which you had to admit was incredibly impressive, gave the group his car.

All Percy was doing was being himself, there was no way her parents were going to let a golden boy like that go

Zoe then came up behind you and whispered, “the offer is always open.” You gave her an exasperated look, and she smiled slyly and moved on

Much to your dismay, the misery continued. Before you coil say anything, Thalia called the driver's seat and Zoe called the passenger seat next to her, leaving you with Percy in the back

You looked out of the window, trying to avoid any sort of conversation with Percy as you processed your feelings

It was like the universe was sending you every sign that you shouldn’t even think about anything more than a friendship with Percy, but your heart was pulling you elsewhere

You turned around to face him with a sigh

Without missing a single beat, Percy asked you if you were ok

You brushed it off saying you were just tired but with your answer ensued another awkward silence

One, only Percy seemed brave enough to break. “What was Zoe whispering to you earlier?”

“Asking me to join the hunters, again,” you told Percy exasperated

“Are you going to?” he asked in a gentle, almost hesitant tone. He was preparing himself for the worst

“I still don’t know. I know I have every reason to join, and it really seems like the universe is telling me to, but my heart wants to stay.”

Percy was somewhat relieved to hear your response. It gave him time to try to change your mind

“If you want my opinion. I think you should stay. You’d be leaving so many people behind. So many people that care about you. I think they would be upset to see you leave,” Percy paused, “I know I would.”

You looked at each other. His eyes were pleading as he gave you a tight lipped smile. It was like a movement of understanding had passed through the two, for you. You finally made your decision. Percy’s word were all it took

Before you could reply, however, a lightning bolt struck the car.

Thalia of course blew up in a fit of rage at her godly father

You tried to argue that it might have been an accident, but Thalia was adamant it was her father

The rest of the climb had to be done on foot

When you got to the top of the hill, you were met with the formidable sight of Ladon

You try to get past him, but he notices you and his protective instincts kick in he starts attacking all of you as you try to defend yourselves

You fire your bow several times at the dragon, but it does virtually nothing in the grand scheme of things

In the end it clawed your back, leaving bleeding gashes behind, and it managed to poison Zoe

At that point, you called everyone over to you and erected a protective dome of light

The dragon got closer and reached one of it’s heads towards the dome, but soon after it was lying on the ground passed out

You didn’t waste any time and ran to a safer place away from the dragon

When in safety, before continuing, you had to take care of the wound on your back

Percy watched you as you rub your hand together, he asks what you're doing and all you reply with is “generating heat”

Soon he sees you placing your glowing hands behind your back directly above your wound

He then heard a painful scream escape your mouth, and he realised you were cauterising your own wound

You fell forward and Percy caught you in his arms, you weakly smiled up at him and asked him how he was coping

Percy was truly impressed, after all the pain you’d been through your first instinct was to ask how he was

He replied, “I’m the one who should be asking you that.”

“I'll be fine, it’s nothing I haven’t done before. Although, the wound is a lot bigger than I’m used to. Could you pass me some ambrosia?” you asked, your voice shaking slightly

He passed it to you, still holding you in his arms and helping you drink it

You took your last gulp and started to get up out of Percy’s arms. He protested and told you to rest some more

You shook your head and made your way over to Zoe, told her that you wouldn’t be able to heal her completely, but you could slow down the poison

She nodded her head, and you used your healing abilities to slow the poison

You suddenly have a vision of you and Percy holding up the sky as a battle rages around you

You hurriedly ask Percy to repeat what happened in his dreams, then you ask Zoe to repeat the prophecy

With your vision as the linking puzzle piece, everything was falling into place

Percy smiled, your contracting face was insanely cute

You finally stood with a triumphant grin that Percy returned, making you feel even more confident

You looked Percy in the eye when you told him they all need to take Atlas’ place just temporarily, you trailed off and your face dropped

You turned to Zoe with a sombre expression and said “it’s been an honour fighting alongside you, and it will be until your dying breath,”

Zoe smiled widely, “does that mean you accept?”

You shook your head, now Zoe’s face dropped. Tears pricked your eyes as you choked out, “the last line of the prophecy.”

She took a deep breath, let go of your hand and nodded understanding what was to come

“I understand, the prophecy is absolute. If I am to die but the hands of my father, so be it. Let's go.”

You made your way to the palace, you and Percy looked at each other and ran to take Artemis’ place who was now free to fight

You looked forward to finding Mount Othrys slowly rebuilding itself, spelling possible doom for Mount Olympus

Your heart broke when you heard Zoe’s scream, assuming the final part of the prophecy was fulfilled

Suddenly, you were blown backwards and end up with Percy on top of you

You let out a shaky breath, your heart picked up its pace yet again, and you asked what happened

Percy explained that Artemis had pushed Atlas back under the sky

“You were right about the prophecy. You’re amazing.” He grinned at you and your heart melted

“Thanks, but I think you can get off me now.” You told him

Percy scrambled to get off you, awkwardly clearing his throat

You watch as Thalia battles Luke, pushing him into a chasm and Percy runs over to free Annabeth from the bindings

Artemis gives Zoe a place among the stars and then turns to you

She asked you what your ultimate decision in terms of joining the hunters was

You told her what you told Zoe

She sighed, “a shame. Despite this, you have earned this.” She handed you a moonstone necklace

“Use this to call on the hunters in a time of need. However, it is only for a single use. Chose wisely,” Artemis remarked before she left

Percy provides transport to mount Olympus, and you can’t help but smile the whole time at the sensation of riding a Pegasus

The meeting of the Gods was tense from the start as they were debating the great prophecy trying to figure out who the child was

Thalia then pledges herself to the hunters to everyone’s surprise, effectively eliminating her as the child of the prophecy

That left only Percy, Ares, and Athena both suggest the Gods kill him preventing the prophecy from happening

Artemis spoke up on his behalf, stating that Percy is a hero and if they kill him they are no better than the Titans

It’s put to a vote and Artemis’ words convince many of the Gods to spare Percy

Apollo then invites the group to a party among the Gods, who were you to refuse

At some point, you're persuaded to perform for everyone

You get up on stage and give the performance of your life before returning to camp

Percy goes to Nico to tell him about Bianca’s death and Nico blames him completely

You take a deep breath, step up and put the blame on yourself

“I saw what was going to happen in a vision, but I chose to do nothing. I knew the prophecy was absolute.”

Nico enraged threw the figurine at you splitting the earth in half before walking away

You and Percy both look at each other wide eyed

His father is Hades, you thought

“A child of the eldest Gods,” you whispered to Percy

The break from camp was one of the best

You and Will travelled to visit each other’s parents, so you spent the whole time with each other

Your mothers got along spectacularly well and took a shine to each of you

You returned to camp a few days earlier than Percy and in the meantime started teaching some new Apollo kids archery

Percy walked through camp after his unfortunate accident with Mrs O’Leary as well as the meeting with the council and Grover

He sees you and several other Apollo kids performing “Stacey’s Mom”

You sang the chorus as some Apollo kids clapped while others accompanied you with various instruments

You must have amassed quite the crowd, as the whole camp seemed to applaud when you finished

You spotted Percy on the outskirts of the crowd and ran straight towards him, wrapping him up in a massive hug

You had a short catch-up where Percy told you about meeting Rachel and his fight with two Empousai before running off to tidy his cabin for inspection

You let a small sigh out, going to check if your cabin was clean

During the games next morning, you see Percy and Annabeth disappear between the rocks

You tell Will and Clarisse overhears, telling you that was the entrance to the Labyrinth and how Chiron believes Luke might use it as a springboard for invasion

Once the games finish, you go back to your cabin worried about what that might mean

All of a sudden you hear a faint knocking on the door to your cabin, no one else seems to notice, so you go towards the door and open it

Annabeth is standing in the doorway and asks you to go on a quest into the labyrinth with her

Shocked, you ask her why, and she explains Clarisse had personally recommended you

She wanted you to come with her on her quest, but you’d already been snatched up by Zoe. “Clarisse’s words not mine,” she clarifies

When you, Percy, Annabeth, Grover, and Tyson enter the labyrinth, you’re all confused. The walls keep shifting, and it seems like there’s no clear way forward

You end up leading the group through it, mostly guessing and hoping for just a bit of divine intervention

Sadly, you get your wish

You end up in a small Roman-Style room with the minor god Janus, who offers you a key

Annabeth takes it after scolding you, “this is where guessing leads you.”

However, he keeps a hold of Annabeth forcing her to make a choice

Fortunately, Hera appears. You all look mildly shocked, and she just looks at you and says, “you wanted divine intervention, so here I am. What do you wish for?”

You blurted out the first thing that came to your mind, “it would be great to have some sort of map.”

She looked at you incredulously and scoffed, “I can’t give you something you already have,” and disappeared

You left the room and found yourself in America's most notorious prison

Inside you find an hundred handed one being held captive by Kampê

You managed to free him, although Tyson did most of the work

Despite his sympathy for your plight he still refused to join, and you had no choice but to leave him behind

After Percy’s deal with Geryon goes awry, he tells the group how he managed to pierce all three of his hearts and defeat him with a single arrow

While everyone applauded him, you knew something wasn’t quite right

Unless Percy was doing some side training with someone else, he was not skilled enough to shoot like that

You brushed it off, saying he must have improved a lot since the last time you trained

Eurytion makes good on his deal and frees everyone

While everyone was getting ready, you overheard Percy trying to convince Nico not to resurrect his sister

You walk over, filled with terror and a little anger, “I hope you're not thinking of bringing back the dead?”

He glared at you, hell fire raging in his eyes

You tell Nico the price you pay for bringing someone back from the dead isn’t worth it

He yelled back and the fire grew hotter

“And why should I listen to you? If you actually did something, I wouldn’t be doing this, would I? It’s not like you would know what it’s like, you’ve got your annoying brother!”

You held back the tears in your eyes as he ripped his gaze away from you

Summoning his sister's ghost ready to resurrect her

When she comes into view, his eyes soften and begin reflecting your own

She greets him cheerfully but as soon as he mentions bringing her back she shakes her head, “You have to move on Nico, I’m the one who let Percy know of your plan. I was hoping he’d be able to stop you”

Nico’s lips were parted and a look of disbelief crossed his face, “if Y/N had done something you wouldn’t be dead, that’s why I’m bringing you back!”

You winced at his words, but Bianca gave you a sympathetic look and continued, “you can’t blame Y/N for that. The prophecy was absolute, there was nothing that could be done.” Before he tried arguing back, she told him of their fatal flaw as Hades’ kids: holding grudges

He said his last goodbyes and though significantly less angry, he still refused to come with you

It was good of Eurytion to allow him to stay for a short period of time

He gives you a further favour in the form of a spider automaton that leads you all to Hephestus’ forge

You all swiftly get back on the road

You held back your tears as best as you could, but the dam burst

You sobbed silently behind the rest of the group

Percy heard a faint sniff and came up behind you, asking why you were crying

Your younger brother died when getting to camp half-blood, and you thought it would be like Orpheus, you get to the underworld and all you have to do is walk about with him without looking. But it was far from that, Hades price was soul for a soul and seeing as you didn’t know that, the soul he demanded was yours. You were prepared to give your life for him, your brother's spirit didn’t agree, he defied Hades in protecting you and was obliterated, no Asphodel Fields, no Elysian, not even Tartarus. You barely got out alive, and you’ve got the scars to prove it.

Percy envelops you in a massive hug, and you cry a little but pick yourself up relatively quickly

Annabeth joins, and it gets a little awkward, she doesn’t really know how to approach the subject

In the end, she admits that she heard the whole conversation, and she’s really sorry you had to go through that

Still sniffling slightly, you thank her

Percy’s heart sings, you were becoming friends with his friends, and it’s all he could ask for

Grover looks back and says he senses Pan, so Tyson goes with him, leaving you with Percy and Annabeth

You carefully stepped into Hephestus’ forge

Your jaw dropped when you saw Telekhines slaving away clanging metal and building something

Annabeth puts her finger to her lips, and you follow her lead around the forge

When you look behind you, Percy was far down the corridor you made eye contact with him

Eyes wide, you jerked your head towards Annabeth

He shook his head, pointing at something

You glanced at Annabeth, then walked over to him. He pointed at a large metallic head being placed on a large metallic torso

“You don’t think-?” you whispered. Percy just shrugged his shoulders

You carried on watching, they were adding legs to it when one of them saw you

You grabbed Percy’s sleeve to run away, but by that point the creature got reinforcements and started running after you

Annabeth looked back at the now ensuing chaos and was furious, but ran to help nonetheless

Percy and Annabeth were slashing left and right with their swords as you fired your arrows

Percy then yelled for the two of you to leave and warn Hephaestus

You tried to call Annabeth away, be she wouldn’t go

Instead, she got closer to Percy and placed her lips on his

You stared, heart slowly breaking

You saw Annabeth kissing Percy

They were hiding behind a rock when Annabeth grabbed him by the collar and brought him up to her lips

Percy’s eyes went wide in shock before settling down and closing, he seemed to enjoy the whole experience

Your heart broke

There was no way Percy liked you back, not now that he knows he’s got Annabeth

The more you through about it, the more it was obvious your subtle attempts at letting Percy know you liked him were probably just annoying to him

The last thing you hear before fleeing with Annabeth was the sound of rushing water

The journey back is done in silence with the occasional sniff from Annabeth

Every time you sigh and try to comfort her

Once out of the Labyrinth she starts sobbing, she slumps against one of the entrance rocks

“Annabeth-“ you sigh

“No!” she says abruptly, “I don’t want to hear anything from you. You caused this. You got caught and now Percy is dead!”

“You don’t know that,” you breathe out.

“Yes I do!” she continues to yell, “I bet you knew it was going to happen and did nothing, just like with Bianca! Why didn’t you do anything?”

You took a deep breath trying to control your ire, “I didn’t, actually. That’s not how it works. I can’t just summon the future, and he’s not dead.”

Annabeth stared at you with a mixture of disbelief and fury

“Prophecies might seem random and vague, but they always make sense,” now confusion was added to her mix of emotions.

You racked your brain for a good metaphor, “it’s like a poem. It might take you on a little detour, a separate journey within the poem sometimes, but it’s to throw you off to confuse you. Prophecies are, by and large, in chronological order. Losing a loved one was last on the list.” You carried on going through the parts of the prophecy that were and were not fulfilled

She looks you up and down her face contorted in disgust as she scoffs, “absurd” and storms off

You stayed in your cabin processing everything

The first couple of days were tense but fine, you were sure Percy was going to come back any day now

The subsequent ones were substantially harder

You spent a lot of your time writing really sad poetry, listening to really sad music, playing really sad music etcetera

You avoided Annabeth like the plague, and you weren’t obvious about it

The only people you saw were your cabin mates, mostly Will, and Clarisse because you knew she wouldn’t ask why you were upset

You spent a large amount of time in the infirmary with Will, helping him out

You got more practice in properly bandaging wounds as well as strengthening his hymns at times

As the days went on you started to doubt yourself and the guilt had set in

Soon, all your siblings knew why you were upset and what happened between Percy and Annabeth

When you finally left your self-imposed isolation, it was for Percy’s funeral

During the whole service, Annabeth was glaring at you

You stood next to Will with your head down, refusing to look at anyone

He rubbed your back and pulled you into a side hug

As his shroud burned, he emerged in front of everyone

Your first instinct was to run towards him and wrap him in a hug, but you stopped yourself as soon as Annabeth ran up to him

Will just continued to hug you as you watched the exchange with a heavy heart

Annabeth made a huge scene, and you rolled your eyes

As you set off back to the cabin, Percy called your name, and you turned around

You took a very deep breath in before talking to him, trying to make everything seem normal

When you faced him, Percy noticed you were still frowning and asked you if you were ok

You brushed it off as just being worried about him, but he didn’t quite buy that

Something else was happening inside that head of yours that you refused to tell him about

He also found it weird that you hadn’t given him a bone crushing hug yet, instead you had your arms wrapped around you, your hands clutching at your arms as if you were holding yourself back

Thus, he took the initiative and almost threw himself on to you, hiding his face in your neck

You stumbled backwards and as you hugged him back he whispered “I missed you”

He untangled himself from you and told you he got a hint from Hephestus, and he knew how to navigate the labyrinth

Percy then asked you to come along and find Rachel

You tried to convince him that you were better off staying, but he insisted

He said if Annabeth was the problem, he could make her apologise

You looked at him confused, worried that he’d figured out it was about her kissing him. He clarified it’s because she yelled at you

“Right, yes because Annabeth yelled at me”

Before you could protest, he took you by the hand and walked off with you

You looked back at Will, and he looked back with a sympathetic expression

When you finally got Rachel you were a little relived, at least you wouldn’t be the only person third wheeling the Annabeth and Percy love show

She leads you effortlessly through the labyrinth, with Annabeth right next to her

Percy was glued to your side, it was almost like the Gods had made him stick to you to run salt in the wound

Percy on the other hand refused to leave you alone until he saw a marked improvement in your mood

He was alive, so you could stop worrying, he even got Annabeth to apologize which was like picking blood from a stone, but you still seemed miserable and because he couldn’t figure out the reason he settled on trying to cheer you up

He cracked jokes which you gave a small smile, he persevered the whole journey

In the end he settled on just being near you, he hopped it would comfort you as much as it comforts him

As you walked along the path, you felt something brush against your hand, you glanced down and noticed every so often Percy’s hand would brush against yours almost like it was seeking you out

Despite the events of the past couple days you decided to keep this moment for yourself, a small spark of hope in the dim darkness that maybe, just maybe Percy did like you

Before long, the four of you were captured by Luke’s forces and Percy was forced to fight one of his brothers

The fight against Ethan is short, Percy beats him easily but refuses to kill him, infuriating Antaeus

With trickery and wit he manages to defeat him and you all escape after he calls Mrs O’Leary

Ethan, however, disappears as soon as you're far away from the arena, you express a sense of foreboding to the group

You quickly reach Daedalus’ workshop and camp’s new swordsman trainer was in fact Daedalus, the downside bing he refused to join camp as he had already made his bed with Luke

As the empousa that disguised itself as Nico’s helpful ghost appears, Daedalus orders you all to flee, but luckily Rachel is able o get everyone back into the labyrinth

When you do, Percy finds a tunnel, but when he tells you to wait you shake your head and say you’re going with him

“There’s no way I’m letting you go in there alone”

You walk down the tunnel and arrive at a golden sarcophagus containing Kronos in Luke’s body

You think back to the prophecy almost immediately, and when Ethan pledges his allegiance to Kronos you're certain you're nearing the end of your journey

Rachel storms in just in the nick of time when Kronos spots you she throws a hairbrush at him and for a moment it seemed like Luke was himself again

This small distraction allowed Nico to summon a wall of black stone, giving everyone time to escape

After Annabeth and Percy’s argument, you finally set off to find Grover and Tyson

During the whole journey, Percy was next to you once again, and he got super close like hugging close

He’d initiate touch more often, either his hand would brush against yours or he’d gently guide you by the waist in front of him

He’d joke around and be more flirty, and it made your heart hammer, but your brain confused, maybe he was just doing all this as your friend ?

Something didn’t feel quite right about that, but it had to be, there’s no way he liked you, him and Annabeth kissed they're basically a thing now right ? Right

You finally got to the Carsbald Caverns, where you saw Tyson watching over an unconscious Grover

When Grover wakes, you enter the final resting place of Pan. He convinces a reluctant Grover to pass on that he has passed away

He dissolves, leaving a piece of him with everyone, and you make your way back to camp

When you get back, camp is deep in preparations for Kronos’ army, you rush to your cabin mates asking Michael what he needed you to do

You took the camp’s best archers with you and stationed them on important vantage points around camp as per orders

You perched yourself on the highest point, watching over a large portion of camp

Your focus was sharp as you shot any monster in your field of vision

But it seemed like every monster you shot down 10 appeared in its place

You were exhausted, and you didn’t notice one climbing up towards you

It started clawing at your leg tipping you off balance, you only just managed to hold onto a ledge and safely bring yourself to the ground

In the rush to get down, you lost your bow and had no choice but to use your sword

You prayed to the gods that your training was enough

You stood in front of the creature with the hit of your sword squarely in the middle of your body waiting for it to strike

You managed to block the first couple blows but as it started attacking faster you found yourself only blocking some

The creature struck your left shoulder then going for your leg which you managed to block it tried again and managed to scrape you

The fight carried on with blood dripping down your leg and arm, but you were ale to cut the beast’s head off, felling it for good

You readied yourself for another attack but found there was none

You limped your way towards the crowd of people consisting of your fellow campers, you were so close but your leg gave out at the last minute, and you toppled to the ground

Percy ran up to you and helped you up, getting you to the infirmary where you were bandaged up ready for dinner

Soon you found out Grover had used Pan’s gift to him and driven the creatures away as well as about Daedalus’ sacrifice

At dinner Will made doubly sure you were ok and that you hadn’t tried cauterising your wounds again; you reassured him that you did no such thing, certainly not after his hissy fit

The rest of the table laughed, for now camp was at peace

Once you gave your offerings, Chiron came up behind you and in a gentle voice asked you to go up to the attic

You nodded and headed straight up weaving thought the various furniture and cobwebs, trying not to get caught or stumble

Suddenly, you heard a voice boom through the silence:

“You will return to the seat of a brother's power, whose prized weapon a thief did dishonour, the man was burned by his misdeeds, the weapon has been lost to the trees, the bow of light shall find its owner, else once again it shall destroy its holder,”

You left that attic thinking about the Oracle’s vague words before reporting back to Chiron

Your quest had been issued

On your way back to your cabin, Nico came up beside you

You stopped walking expecting the worst but what he said surprised you

“I’m sorry I was a brat. I know Bianca’s death wasn’t your fault and I overreacted. She was my sister, and she died, I didn’t know what to do, I’m sorry.”

You smiled and thanked him for the apology, “if anyone understands, it me.”

Your parting for the summer was bitter-sweet, you weren’t going home this summer not properly

You had a week to spend with your mum, but then you were given a quest that if you succeeded at might turn the tide and help beat Luke

When you and Percy said goodbye, he left you with a small ring with a sun engraved into it and a chaste kiss on the forehead

Will saw everything and teased you about your reaction, and you retort with ‘shut up Will, I saw your reaction when Nico touched your hand’ and the subject quickly ceased to be discussed

You and your mum had a really close bond, so spending the week with her was so refreshing

Sadly because of that she also knew you like the back of her hand and forced you to tell her all about Percy but you also dobbed Will in about Nico. She kept that in the memory banks to tease him with when he came to visit

You cooked food for her every evening for the week when she came home from work, and you’d made sure to clean up the house a little while also enjoying some TV

You told your mum about the quest you were sent on but not so much as to put her in danger

She of course was super worried, but she always would be

On the last night she bid you goodbye, and you set off into the night hoping to find Apollo’s bow (now watch me make up a bunch of fake mythology just for a fanfiction)

Legend has it Apollo’s childhood bow was stolen from him but when the thief tried using it Apollo felt it and used the bow to burn his skin. The thief dropped it somewhere in the wilderness, and Apollo was never able to recover it. He placed a curse on it, only allowing one chosen child of Apollo to use it.

Camp found out about it because there had been reports that one of Luke’s lackies had tried using it and, just as the thief's, his skin burned.

Your job was to do nothing but retrieve it for safekeeping at camp

You stayed in the modern city of Delphi, researching more about the ancient seat of your godly father’s power

You discovered that the bow was stolen from your father’s temple right from under the Oracle of Delphi’s nose

The only thing you had left to do was to think like the thief

You got onto the site with a group of tourists and ‘got lost’ in the temple of Apollo. From there you ran in the first direction you could think of, and you ended up in a dense forest just behind the amphitheatre

You thought you’d felt a strange tingle and believed that maybe because you were an Apollo kid you might be able to sense it

You stood in the middle of a forest with your eyes closed looking like an idiot while nothing happened for a good 5 minutes before you gave up

You kept searching the forest until you noticed the light seemed to change as if it was purposefully trying to guide someone away from something

You traced the beams of light back to their source, stepping into a clearing with a gleaming golden bow situated on the ground

Immediately as you picked it up you felt its weight, you could barely lift it and would need some serious strength training to use it

You felt a strong push to use it, as if it was telling you to shoot an arrow from it

You stared at it and without thinking lifted it up in front of you, grasping the string

You quickly shook yourself of the haze as you remembered the consequences of using it when not chosen by Apollo

Divine wrath induced blisters weren’t exactly something that can be healed

You walked out of the cleaning, thinking about how you were going to transport the bow back to camp

You looked down and realised it had transformed itself into a long, rounded gold necklace charm (think Amenedeil’s necklace from Lucifer) that you added to the chain already around your neck

After sending an Iris message back to camp you sat down reading more about the bow and it’s properties

You wanted to find out why Luke wanted it so badly

Looking through old texts, you concluded that being able to shoot arrows from miles away still wasn’t its most impressive power. The bow was capable of shooting flaming arrows as well as its standard ones

You could easily imagine how an exploding arrow could completely turn the tide

The bow could also heal whoever uses it at extremely fast speeds but if you weren’t strong enough to use it you would explode

it’s last significant powers were that of teleportation and shapeshifting, which you assumed it did automatically as it shifted into the charm that is now on your necklace

When you got back to camp, the bow shifted its appearance once more into its true form with a golden flash of light

You and the rest of the Apollo cabin were given responsibility for the bow’s safety

Everyone agreed it should stay as the charm on your necklace to prevent anyone from being tempted to use it and be subsequently turned into ashes

So many of your siblings wanted to try to shoot it; you had to scare them off with warnings that ranged from your hand will rip off as soon as you try to lift it, to, if you try to use it you will explode

From the day you got back, you had strange dreams about using the bow

In one of your most vivid dreams, you stood in the clearing where you found the bow. You gently lifted it off the ground, admiring it’s fit in your hand. You lift it with ease, positioning yourself at a 90-degree angle to where you wanted to shoot. Retrieving a golden arrow from the quiver, you took a deep breath in and released it when you breathed out, only to have the arrow disappear into the sky with no way of knowing where it landed

You went straight to Asher with the dreams, seeing if he might be able to decipher them, but he dismissed the dreams as you probably wanting to use it really badly

You didn’t want to argue

You woke up, after another dream of using the bow's several abilities, you noticed a small golden envelope on your night stand.

You broke the seal and began reading: it was a poem about you and the bow, encouraging you to try it from the only person whose poems could be this bad. Apollo.

You went into the forest, to a similar clearing you found the bow in, and prayed to your father, hoping he would answer. Truthfully you didn’t expect him to, that letter could have easily been a prank by the Stoll brothers

To your surprise, he actually appeared, saying that he’s already broken one rule by contacting one of his children he might as well break another

He explained how, over years of being lost, the bow had developed a consciousness of its own in a way. He no longer picked who used it, the bow picked for itself

Despite your concerns about not being able to match the strength needed to actually utilise the bow, he encouraged you to use it with a ‘if you were not able to wield it the bow would not have chosen you.’ He placed a hand on your shoulder, ‘I think it has finally found a worthy owner.’’

He told you that once you mastered the bow, a bond would be formed, and you would command the bow much like he did in days past

You parted ways with your father and headed back to camp

Percy noticed you heading out of the woods, and any thoughts about fulfilling a prophecy rushed out of his head

He ran towards you, enveloping you in a tight hug that you wanted to reject until you realised it was Percy

After the hug ended, he scolded you for not answering any of his iris messages. You explained to him that you were on a quest to retrieve Apollo’s bow and that you were encouraged to use it, but Apollo himself

‘Well, Perce, you’re just in time to watch me do something incredibly stupid.’

‘Since when was I ‘Perce’, ‘Oh, sorry Percy. I wasn’t thinking.’ ‘No! No, I like it.’

Percy strongly disagreed with your plan, but understood you could never have any surety if you didn’t try

You tried lightening the situation with a joke and Percy didn’t appreciate the idea of you being blown to bits that the joke suggested

You stood in the same clearing you met your father in with Percy

As you lifted the bow into the air, it felt a lot lighter than the first time you touched it.

The bow seemed to effortlessly mould into your hand as you gently gripped the handle

You noticed a quiver of celestial bronze arrows appeared on your back.

You nocked the arrow and as you pulled the string back the arrow turned to light

Percy noticed that in your hands not just the arrow, but the bow, seemed to be made of light. The bright string gently kissed your lips and nose

You took a deep breath in, summoning the courage and strength to actually wield the legendary bow and aiming for the sky

You let out a slow breath; you let the fingers gripping the bowstring to relax and free, the arrow which leapt into the sky

You stood frozen to the spot, watching the arrow travel further waiting for and explosion or burning to rack your body, but you were fine

Percy’s heart leapt just as far as the arrow when he saw you were unharmed

He ran up to you once more, gripping your waist and spinning you around in a circle

Before you had time to process what was happening, Percy placed you on the ground and pressed a quick kiss to your lips

Your lips tasted of mango lip balm, and he wanted more, but he knew he couldn’t

You just stared at him dazed, Percy kissed you. PERCY KISSED YOU

Alarm bells were going off: what did it all mean? Did he like you as well? No, that would be ridiculous

‘Sorry, I um…’ Percy stammered. ‘I got swept up in the moment,’

‘Of course, makes sense it was a very emotionally charged life, or death situation makes sense.’ your heart dropped hearing his words, but you didn’t have time to focus on them, Chiron needed to be notified. The chosen Apollo kid was in camp half-blood!

You and Percy ran up to the big house and told Chiron and Mr. D, they were both elated (well Mr. D let out more of an approved grunt than anything else)

You took both of them out to the archery grounds and shifted the charm back into a bow. The quiver appeared like magic behind your back once again.

Nocking the arrow and pulling the string back, you closed your eyes imagining an arrow of fire flying towards the target and setting it on fire

Everyone gathered around you as they saw the arrow turn to fire

You released the string, and it hit bullseye, setting the whole target on fire

You let loose a second arrow, this one exploding the target before it could be burnt up completely

There was one more thing you wanted to try that would probably freak everyone out, but you were on fire and too curious not to try it

You popped your head through the gap between the bowstring and the belly with the upper limb over your left shoulder

You look out a small dagger and cut your palm

Everyone gasped, Percy was about to run to you to yell at you for what you were doing before he realised that the cut was healing by itself

The bow transformed back into a charm on your necklace and everyone applauded and lifted you up above them

You beamed while crowd-surfing, relieved and more than proud in your abilities

You don’t even have time to properly catch up with Percy as you're swept off to the war council and Percy and Annabeth go to the Oracle

When they come back having heard the prophecy the war council is in shambles and Clarisse storms out yelling about the Ares cabin refusing to fight

You had no idea anything could discourage and Ares kid from fighting

Annabeth recited the prophecy, everyone was in agreement that it was about Percy, but something didn’t seem quite right to you

You kept quiet, not knowing what was so off

Later you saw Percy walking to the training grounds, and you caught up with him, asking him what happened

He gave you the rundown of the situation with Annabeth and Grover, and he just wanted to sit with Mrs O’Leary and forget about everything

The two of you started searching for her when you spotted her scampering away into the forest

You both ran into the forest after her, finding Nico and the council of elders discussing grover with Juniper defending him

Afterwards, Nico has a conversation with you and Percy about gaining the same advantage as Luke in battle he seemed very pushy about it towards Percy and very reluctant to have you come with them

This made you more determined to tag along

In the end, Percy relented, and you all travelled to Luke’s mum’s house

The entire trip was weird

Upon entering Ms Castellan’s house, she greeted both Nico and Percy as Luke, assuming you’re Luke’s partner

She talks openly about everything to do with Luke’s life. How he ran away to protect his mother and how he needed his mum’s blessing to become a host for Kronos

When you tried to leave, she seemed possessed before returning to normal

You dismissed the occurrence but couldn’t ignore the fact the goddess of the home stood outside the house

She provides lunch and gives a slightly ominous statement. No matter what side she takes you can not forget her, she is the goddess of the home

Then she takes you to Percy’s mum and his stepdad Paul has a small freak-out finally believing Sally about the supernatural

Sally keeps giving Percy a look that you can’t quite place after you introduce yourself

Sally then takes him into another room, looking at you very sweetly in contrast to Percy who was trying his best not to make eye contact with you

When everyone was out of earshot, Percy’s mum started relentlessly teasing him about his crush

‘They’re very pretty, aren’t they? And a child of Apollo, well it certainly makes sense they quite literally glow. My Percy you have chosen well!’

You on the other hand had a small conversation with Paul, finding out he worked at the school Percy went to

The two of you had a lovely conversation about Shakespeare that mainly focused on his sonnets, but occasionally you’d discuss one or two plays

You were in the middle of a conversation about how Iago is presented in Othello and how much of a genius villain he really is when Percy and his mum walked back in

Paul joked that you might need to give Percy some English lessons

With introductions over and jokes out the window, Sally reluctantly gives Percy her blessing to bathe in the River Styx

This time you were the one to take Nico and Percy to Central Park, testing out another one of the bows powers

There Percy felt Grover, who altered them to the death of Pan as well as Morpheus’ appearance worrying you all

Grover opens the passage to the underworld, and you trek down to the river

While on the Nico changes the course from the river to Hades place betraying Percy who fights Nico when he finds out, but the furies disarm him and take everyone to Hades throne room

Hades reveals the truth about Nico’s past, and you just look at him resentful, ‘I hope it was worth it, Nico. I hope you’re happy’

Truthfully, Hades didn’t know what to do with you, he hadn’t planned for an extra person in the deal with his son

He recognized you instantly, the only other child of Apollo that dared venture into his realm and twice at that

For your tenacity, he rewarded you by giving you a head start before he sent the furies to rip you apart

You immediately ran for where you assumed the river Styx must be from myths and the limited time you spent in the underworld

It was the most logical choice given that if Percy had escaped, that’s probably where he’d be heading

You grasped your father's bow, sending a tirade of fire arrows raining down on the furies, enough to confuse them and slow them down

You made it to the river with only a minimal amount of scrapes that had easily healed themselves

You saw Percy with another figure by the bank of the river, and you drew another arrow ready to shoot the traitor

Percy was quick to stop you, explaining Nico had no idea of his father’s plan and helped bust Percy out of jail

You and Nico waited anxiously on the banks of the river for Percy to resurface, surely it can’t take this long

‘Look, I’m sorry, that’s why I didn’t want you to come. I didn’t want you to get involved. I know for a fact Percy would have maimed me if something had happened to you.’

You were still angry at him but accepted that his words were coming from the heart. You sighed and replied, ‘look, I get it, but chasing the past will only end in more hurt. Besides, as his kid, you should know that his deals are always naff.’

Nico just looks at you confused, and you told him the story of your brother and suddenly your previous warning made sense

While in the river Percy had two voices pulling him in two different directions, yours and Annabeth’s

Only one however would lead him out of the river

He reached towards your voice and suddenly he was back in camp

He was swimming in the lake with you looking down on him from the bank

He started to swim away but you held him by the hem of his shirt smiling

“Come on Percy, you can’t stay in there forever”

You pulled him out keeping your hand on the small of his back

He was overwhelmingly happy with your presence next to him

Still holding the small of his back you leaned in

Percy suddenly rises from the water with a gasp, you help him out, all while insisting on how he managed to anchor himself and if he’s truly alright

He ignores your main question, opting to answer with ‘I promise I’m fine,’ blushing profusely

Despite being attacked by Hades and his worker bees, with Percy’s new strength, he rips through them with ease.

Percy tells Nico to try and convince his father to fight for the right side, and you leave the underworld with him

You listen as Percy explains his plan to save Olympus, just smiling at him.

You bite your lip and say, ‘you know we still have a traitor in our midst, right?’, ‘yeah but I’m working on a plan for that’, you look at him almost breathless, the boy doesn’t cease to amaze you

‘What’s that look for?’ the look you give him leaves him breathless. It’s like you're admiring him, but not as a leader or a friend, but something else entirely

‘Nothing,’ you bite the inside of your cheek to quell your smile as much as you can, ‘let's get to the Empire State.’

The atmosphere is tense, especially as Percy almost collapses after Hestia shows him a vision of Luke

Hermes brings a message from Athena warning to keep an eye on the rivers. However, he also brings with him admonishment towards Annabeth for not preventing Luke from hosting Kronos

Percy is about to give Hermes a piece of his mind, but you stop him, stepping forward instead, ‘Quite frankly sir, your son is not Annabeth’s responsibility and furthermore Annabeth is in no way in charge of other people’s actions. Your son’s stupid decisions are not on her!’ you took a deep breath before continuing, ‘But neither are they on you. Luke, for better or for worse, has made his choice. All we can hope now is that it’s not too late to turn him to the side of good and if that fails stop him from destroying the world.’

Everyone including Hermes was speechless

Hermes gulped, nodded his head and left

It was Percy’s turn to stare at you with awe. You argued with a god and won, not just that but the god that created your father's beloved lute

There isn’t a single thing Percy didn’t love about you

Now it was your turn to blush

The tender moment is interrupted by Michael yelling your name and informing everyone that Manhattan has been put to sleep. The invasion has begun

Percy splits everyone off in all directions like the true leader he is

He looks at you ready to send you off to your cabin mates, but you interrupt, ‘Don’t even try it, I’m staying with you,’ He knew better than to argue with you, plus it made him feel a lot more confident

In the end, you Percy and Annabeth go and help your fellow Apollo campers and manage to get Kronos to retreat, giving the campers time to regroup

You saw Michael Yew still on the bridge when Percy collapsed it and got your cabin mates to search for him

You settle in for the night but find it really hard to sleep despite the fact you provided small night lights for yourself and all the other Apollo kids

You thought you’d talk to Percy, but he was asleep, not peacefully, but you figured some sleep is better than none

You walked to the makeshift infirmary where Will was changing a campers bandages while they were asleep

‘Can’t sleep?’ he asked. ‘Clearly,’ you replied. After a couple beats of silence, you spoke again, ‘you should get some rest. I’ll take over for a bit.’

He looked at you incredulously, ‘What? You are literally the worst healer we have.’ You choked, ‘yeah, but I can change bandages!’

‘Can you?’ Will asked and you both burst out laughing. He handed you a gauze and told you to place it over the wound before he helped you wrap the bandages round the camper's leg.

‘Yeah look at that shoddy work, definitely not leaving you here unsupervised,’ you chuckled at his remark. ‘Besides, the chosen one needs more rest than the medic.’

You gave him a gentle shove, laughing slightly.

‘So,’ he pipes up again. ‘You and Percy, any developments?’

You smiled gently, looking at the ground. Lately things have been pretty good, but you still can’t get the thought that he likes Annabeth more than you. I mean who wouldn’t, she's smart; she’s got beautiful princess curls she actually knows what she's doing fighting with a sword. Plus, she’s a hell of a lot more helpful in this mess of a war. You kinda feel like you're just tagging along, more of an onlooker than an active part.

‘I think the lack of sleep is getting to you Y/N’ Will laughs, and you laugh with him. He never fails to reassure you and make you feel better.

The world might be falling apart, but at least you’ve still got Will. Not to mention all your friends and your other brothers and sisters.

When Thalia woke Percy up to speak to Prometheus, he had a small panic because he couldn’t see you sound asleep in the cot next to his, but before he was able to worriedly search for you Thalia drags him to the meeting

Even though you're not next to him, he feels you encouraging him, telling him not to give up.

He walks back with Pandora’s box, telling himself over and over that they’re not giving up. Your voice in the back of his mind telling him there’s always hope

When he sees you sound asleep in your cot, he can finally relax a little and falls asleep again

When Percy wakes up, he simply grabs you by the wrist and takes you to Central Park with a few other demigods

You and the other demigods fight Hyperion’s monsters, while Percy battles the titan on his own

You take out the monsters with ease. You might not have Percy’s strength, but your bow had served you well

Its healing properties essentially keep you from being injured, the only thing you had to deal with was the pain that accompanied your wounds. Sadly, it would often stay a little longer than the wound itself.

You quickly got to higher ground and flipped off a statue spinning in the air as you released three arrows at the same time, all exploding on impact, finishing off the rest of Hyperion’s monsters.

You got Grover and the rest on standby as you went over to help Percy#

He got behind Hyperion and fired an exploding arrow, making him turn around.

‘Come on! How have you not crushed us yet? We’re bugs compared to you, and somehow we're still better. You’re Hyperion! Is that the best you can do?’

You taught him long enough for Percy to create a hurricane, dousing his fiery aura to allow Grover and the others to seal him inside a maple tree.

Sadly, there’s not much time to celebrate as the Caledonian Sow starts wreaking havoc.

Sadly, you make the unfortunate mistake of the flying pig, it attacks you first

Thankfully you're saved by Percy on blackjack and while he’s trying to escape the Sow as you’re shooting it down

In the end, Percy calls some automatons to destroy it, and they finish off the Sow.

You both fly back to the empire state and to your dismay see that the campers have been significantly pushed back by Kronos’ forces

Just in the nick of the Party, Ponies save the day.

Percy comes with you to see will and try and heal some more of the wounded

Will mutters about not needing two terrible healers, but you ignore him telling Percy to give nectar to the wounded as she cleans their wounds ready to be expertly dressed by Will and the other healers.

Percy does as he’s told, all the while looking at you as cleaned everyone’s wounds

He thought about all that you did today, it was amazing to see you in your element. There was no doubt you were one of camp’s strongest

‘What’s that look for?’ you teased him, repeating his own words

Percy just laughed and replied, ‘nothing, just looking at you’

You started to giggle and he giggled along with you

‘There’s something we need to talk about’ you said

‘Oh no, that serious tone is never good.’ you gave him a withering smile

You went for a ripping off the plaster approach, “I don’t think the prophecy is about you. Not fully at least. I don’t think it would be that much of a stretch to assume the battle is for Luke’s soul?”

Percy on the inside was relieved that it might not be about him, but he still can’t take the possibility off the table

However, something still nagged at him. He replied, “that makes no sense.”

You told him about the vision after you woke up. You saw Percy hand Luke a knife and he looked like he was debating what to to with it

“Maybe the decision is whether or not he sacrifices himself. Think about it, he's the only one who knows where his weak spot is and if he dies our big bad goes with him.”

Percy sighs, he wants to believe you but he can’t, “that still leaves the elderly gods part. He just doesn’t fit the bill.”

Your whole body tensed, “I’m not saying I’m correct but just consider it please.”

Percy replied without thinking, “I can’t! It’s such a big stretch and I can’t take that risk. Honestly, you’ve been so spot on before, it’s a wonder you're not now.”

You started at Percy. Anger was crossing through your veins. You sighed sharply running your young along your teeth, “leave, just go. We can finish this later.i think we both need to cool down. Maybe next time you won’t be so rude.”

Later, Percy rushes back to the hotel everyone used as base and ran straight towards you, embracing you in a hug

You were surprised considering yesterday, but you allowed him to carry on

With unadulterated joy, he said that the prophecy wasn’t about him

You asked how he knew, and he told you the whole story about how Rachel flew in on a helicopter, but it failed and Annabeth had to get into the cockpit and safely land it

‘I see, You’ll believe Rachel when she tells you, but not me. Good to know.’ you started walking away, but Percy grabbed your wrist

He apologised, admitting there was no excuse for his behaviour. He did believe you deep down, but on the surface he felt hurt that another thing was out of his control. At least when it was him, he could do something about it.

You forgive him and tell him that he’s doing his best. He’s doing so well he’s literally been dubbed the leader of the entire camp, an achievement in itself

In a moment of silence, your eyes met. It was almost like your breathing was in sync. You looked at his locks, tracing each small hair down to his face. His beautiful sea green irises reflected what looked like admiration but also relief

Before you could analyse them further they were ripped away from your gaze, fixing themselves instead of a large sound.

Clarisse seemed to be leading the Ares cabin

You get a sinking feeling in your stomach, Clarisse is stubborn as a mule and there’s no way she’s changed her mind

Everyone else around you cheers and ‘Clarisse’ charges into battle tearing thought the enemy lines until she’s met with a drakon that strikes her down

You all rush over to her ready to carry her off to the infirmary when another Clarisse appears, one you all recognize as the real one.

She takes control of her cabin and leads it to victory, beating the drakon single-handedly, earning her father's blessing

Selina fessed up to being the spy and how she was threatened by Luke making his case for redemption thinner

Soon you Percy Grover and Annabeth make your way to Olympus to set up more defences, accompanying Grover to the gardens

While Percy was convening with his father in what could be described as the stupidest plan ever, your own father came up to you

He told you how brave you and your siblings were. He also spoke of your ingenuity with his bow and declared you it’s owner

After he said this, he took your right forearm into his hand

With a slight burning pain, just before the crease appeared a small, pale yellow half sun surrounded by arrows

You thanked him with a huge grin, constantly glancing at your new mark

“There’s no need to thank me, you have proven yourself worthy of welding the Golden Bow. May your aim always be true”

You quickly hurried to rejoin Percy, who was recovering from nearly being obliterated by his father for sitting in his throne, and both share your good news

Your celebrations are cut short, however, when Thalia announces Kronos’ army is at Olympus’ door

You, Percy Thalia, Annabeth and Grover are all separated from the rest of camp and Hades undead army, fighting Kronos’ vanguard alone

You quickly shot an exploding arrow at the vanguard, effectively cutting Kronos’ forced in half

You and Percy exchanged a grin before joining back into the fray back to back.

You covered Percy and the others with a barrage of arrows as you all followed Kronos, trying to prevent any further destruction of Olympus

Thalia is crushed under Hera’s statue but urges all of you to keep moving

Ethan gets into the way of your group and as you're about to shoot an arrow at him, Percy stops you

By some miracle, he convinced Ethan to help Olympus instead of Kronos

Sadly, he soon killed for his betrayal by the titan

After Kronos angrily wipes the vision of Typhon being beaten, Annabeth tries to reach out to Luke one more time in hopes of him regaining his senses

She succeeds somewhat, but Luke struggles to keep control

Percy had intended to kill Luke himself, but your warnings about the prophecy not being about him repeat inside his head on a loop

Finally, it all clicks in place. IT’s about Luke

He gives Luke Annabeth’s blade and Luke choses to save Olympus by sacrificing himself

When the Gods return, everyone is given a reward: Annabeth is made Olympus’ architect and your father of course requests more statues of himself; Grover is given the final seat on the Council of Cloven Elders and all the fallen would be awarded Elysium

You were glad Michael would have peace

You stood back, content all of your friends efforts were rewarded, however, your father wouldn’t waste an opportunity to praise you in front of all the Gods

He beamed as he spoke of the Golden Bow finning a worthy owner after centuries and the mark on your forearm begin to glow indicating to the Gods you were the owner in question

You were bestowed with a golden Laurel wreath and declared the slayer of beasts

Of course, this was all an elaborate excuse for your father to shower you with gifts, most of which were poems about every fight of yours he witnessed

However, the most significant gift was Apollo’s blessing, allowing you far greater power over light including the ability to turn invisible and “just for fun” the ability to play all instruments

He went off on one, how normally your eyes would turn brown if they weren’t already and the hair would turn blonde with orange stripes in it, but he quite liked your eyes and hair

“They remind me of your mother”

So instead you got golden highlights accompanying your new powers

Finally, it was Percy’s time to shine. You were excited for him, wondering what kind of reward he’d get for all his bravery

What you didn’t expect was immortality, you stood staring at him wide-eyed

You wanted to be happy for him, but secretly hoped he wouldn’t take it

Then you wouldn’t be able to tell him about your feelings for him

He probably wouldn’t be allowed outside Olympus, you’re not stupid, you’ve seen the Hercules Disney film

Percy was shocked to say the least, he never thought he’d do something so spectacular as to earn immortality

For a split second he was tempted to take it, but he looked back at your sad face and realised, there’s no way he could

Instead, he makes a list of demands, that if anyone but the God’s chosen hero were to make they would be smote

But thanks to those demands, Percy made the camp a better place

For one, Nico would finally have his own cabin, along with the kids of the minor gods

When everyone got back to camp, your siblings planned a swift celebration

The music was pumping, and you felt each and every note

It was euphoric, every beat every note pumped through your veins like never before

You grabbed a spare guitar ready to give the blessing a test drive

Everyone looked at you shocked as you felt the melody ripple pleasantly through your body

Everyone cheered nonetheless when you placed the guitar back down again

You joined the crown once again dancing your heart out before your arm was grabbed, and you were pulled out

Percy was leading you away from the crowd and grumbled when he heard whooping front the direction he dragged you away from

He kept going until you got to the lake, the setting sun reflecting peacefully off its waters

Percy took both your hands in his and looked you in the eye summoning his courage

‘I really like you,’ it was out in the wind and all you could do was stare flabbergasted

Your heart was leaping for joy but your brain was holding it back because it didn’t make sense

“I thought, but you… you and Annabeth… in the labyrinth, you- you kissed’

Percy wasn’t expecting that to coke out of your mouth, sure he was prepared for rejection but somehow this was worse

‘I-yeah I guess we did I kinda forgot about that,’

You stood there still shocked as he continued trying to figure out what everything meant

‘I forgot because I kinda figured everything out while in the River Styx. I- wow never thought I’d have to say this, I honestly thought I’d take this to the grave, it’s a little embarrassing. You were what grounded me to this world, I could feel you pulling my shirt at the small of my back and holding me there until we nearly kissed. At that moment I was no longer confused, I knew it was you I wanted.’

‘So that’s why you avoided my question’ Percy nodded shyly

You bit your lip thinking, processing all the information

You moved closer to Percy parting your lips slightly and grasping the small of his back

You gently put pressure on it

Percy gasped smirking you asked ‘and that’s where your weak spot is isn’t it?’

He hastily nodded blush dusting is cheeks as you brought your lips closer to his

‘While we’re confessing things, that week where I was shut in; I wasn’t sick. I was upset about you and Annabeth and wanted to avoid you. The angry states you got from my siblings were because they knew I liked you’

‘Oh’ it was all starting to make sense now that the dots were out together for him.

You stayed like that until the last rays of sun fell over the horizon

‘Hey water boy ,’ you smiled at Percy’s dumbfounded face. ‘Are you gonna kiss me or not?’

He did not have to be told twice

He slammed his lips down in yours

You reviled in the feeling of his lips on yours finally getting to feel what you’ve longed for

You felt warm sparks fly out of you and as you parted with Percy you looked around finding your bodies surrounded by small yellow sparks

‘That’s new,’ you smiled, thanking the Gods and mostly your dad for helping set the mood.

Extras

A/N: Oh my goodness, this was way too long. It was 37 pages of a Google doc, and I probably should have split it into parts. Also, I am the queen of putting the keep reading in awkward places (Hi future me, the keep reading was deleted because it turns out that’s was ate the text I had to re paste)

Edit (03/07/22): I didn’t realise I forgot to copy a whole chunk of the story from the word doc. It’s now fixed between the Empousa (sp?lol) and Percy’s “I missed you” was where the gap was

Edit (05/06/23): I was made aware by an anonymous user that I used she/her pronouns in the section with Percy’s mum. This has now been rectified. As a result I did remove the line about a wedding. I was unsure of how to reword it in a gender neutral way so opted to remove it entirely. I also noticed while making this change I used ‘girlfriend’ instead of partner in the section where they visit Luke’s mum. The same user notified me of an issue with the hunters of Artemis section. I was unaware of what they meant. I looked through any instance i mentioned the hunters or Zoe and removed “You told him Zoe was probably more comfortable taking girls, considering she’s one of Artemis,’’ hunters.” Again I was unsure of how to word this in a gender neutral way so opted to remove it. I have replied to the full ask and is under #untitled Percy Jackson headcannon for anyone who wishes to read my initial response. I believe that’s all the mistakes rectified. If not please tell me and I will fix them

2K notes · View notes

words-after-midnight · 1 month

Text

Finally making progress on this "new" (actually very old in concept) chapter of Act I. Here's a (very unpolished) scene featuring weirdly suggestive marshmallow roasting + general suggestive (mutual) roasting. I often miss Gabriel's young and relatively unjaded self, so it's been nice to spend some time with that version of him in some of these early scenes.

Tagging my beta readers if interested, even though I feel lowkey bad for bestowing this cursed content upon you (but I'd also feel bad for not showing you a new scene lol): @ananarchie @sunset-a-story @catchingbigfish @joeys-piano

cw: suggestive (as mentioned)

The third night, unseasonably balmy, finds Jeff and I sitting alone by the campfire, Daphne and Kyle having hit the hay uncharacteristically early. Apparently, they thought we wouldn’t notice the both of them slipping into Kyle’s tent – which, to be fair, I didn’t notice until Jeff pointed it out, but I can’t believe they didn’t think he’d notice. He notices everything. It’s one of many things about him that I’m both baffled by and deeply envious of.

I watch him roast a marshmallow with the precision of a surgeon, his features bathed in the soft glow of the flames. He’s fresh from a shower, still wearing the plaid fleece jacket, but with – visibly – nothing underneath above the waist. His hair, warm and glistening in the light of the fire, hangs damp and wavy to his earlobes. He doesn’t seem to notice me staring at him, but I know he does. Like I said, he notices everything.

I force myself to break the spell. “How are you wearing that?”

His sharp focus doesn’t waver. The marshmallow’s flesh is now of a deep, golden brown, the burn spread more or less uniform across its surface. “Hm?”

I laugh softly. “The jacket. It’s like sixty degrees out.”

“Fifty-six and going down,” he says, in that haughty tone that drives me crazy. “I checked.”

“Sure doesn’t feel like fifty-six. Especially with the fire.”

I watch as the corner of his lip lifts into a smirk, the light and shadows accentuating that perfect little dimple. He finally looks at me, then, in mischievous playfulness, eyebrows raising just a twitch. “Would you like me to take it off?” he asks, feigning politeness.

I inhale sharply through my nose as the familiar, fluttering burn of desire settles deep in my core. My every nerve is burning to touch him, to close the distance between us – barely log-length, yet impossibly great – but this isn’t the time or place. With a forward jut of my chin, I redirect him to the marshmallow. “Are you trying to char that thing?”

He cackles. “Stop backseat roasting.”

“Says the backseat fucker,” I mutter, shaking my head.

“What was that?”

“You heard me.”

Pulling the jagged stick from the fire at last, he slides the marshmallow from the tip and tosses it to me in a fluid motion, leaving me scrambling to catch it – it lands in my palms scalding, nearly black and oozing burning, sticky goo. I wince.

With an amused grin and a quirk of an eyebrow, he says, “Too hot for you?”

I shake my head, trying to recover the marshmallow from my palm as intact as possible, though most of the escaped liquid remains smeared on my skin. “Just right,” I say, popping what remains of the marshmallow into my mouth as I watch him install another onto the roasting branch and set it aflame. It melts white-hot and bittersweet on my tongue.

“Good,” he says, sounding awfully pleased with himself. “Eat that and calm down, yeah?” Teasingly, and with a quick, smoldering glance in my direction, he adds, “Maybe, if you behave, I’ll show you something later. How’s that sound?”

My stomach flutters in heady anticipation. “What is it?”

He smiles into the fire, the flames slow dancing in his eyes. “It’s a surprise.”

#libaw #snippet #amediting #new scenes #writeblr #minors dni

23 notes · View notes

esre13 · 17 days

Note

Despite being an Acheron simp buuuuut

Aven x reader, where they both had a sort of lucid dream, Aven and the reader swapping bodies but they can’t really control it and has been watching the other’s lives like that.

In Aven, the reader kind of learns that he’s part of the IPC but important information like his name and position are censored, at most they know he’s a gambler who’s miserable despite acting like he’s happy.

In reader, depends on whether you want to change their identity or not, Aven learns that they’re traveling from world to world mindlessly(no they aren’t the Trailblazer) and just like for the reader their name was censored.

Anywho after the fourth dream (could be any amount u want) they finally meet in a situation where they both fought each other, doesn’t matter who looses, they mumbled their introduction towards one another.

Do what you want with the ending 🥀

omg i thought of something right away but its not really the best lol

The Trailblazer always fascinated Aventurine, they seemed so reserved at times that made him want to explode, at least give him a little snit bit of YOUR life! The same would go to the Trailblazer, they would want to find out about how Aventurine spends his time besides gambling his life away, but you already knew that, didn't you? Aventurine goes to bed with thoughts of you while the Trailblazer dozes off while holding a huge trashcan plushy and sleeping on a skibidi toilet pillow that said "I HAVE SKIBIDI TOILET RIZZ" on the back.

You hoped to wake up to watch the new episode but was abruptly stopped by waking on in a TOTALLY ripped body, only to realize that your standard white t-shirt and shorts were changed to black and gold sleepwear. Your room, filled with trash and skibidi toilet merch was covered with golden fleece and some cute blonde bear plushies. You stared into your now rich gold phone only to see heterochromia eyes looking back at you. You had blue and pink eyes???? What??? The you realized, you were hot, but not any hot, AVENTURINE hot. You got up from 'your' neat bed and stares into a mirror. You were Aventurine... But why?!?!??! All of a sudden you get a showered of messages to texts yelling on why you aren't at the IPC or your not taking interviews with anyone.

Aventurine works at the IPC??? You thought as you went crazy to get up and get ready, only to change your mind since if you had to change any clothes, you would have to see the body of Aventurine, you couldn't do that with your friend, can you..? (Throwing his "friend" line back at him heheheh)

Aventurine wakes up in a cold sweat, only to realize his beautiful room, adorned with gold was now a skibidi, trash haven. He looked down at his hand only to see ones that resembled yours. He felt ecstatic, he jumped around then he looked at what notifications you had on your phone. He immediately puts it down when all he sees is "SEASON 1252165321 of SKIBIDI JUST REALEASED!! ITS SOO GOOD." or "RIZZES YOUR MOM VERY CUTELY" all over your pages. He frowned and then changed your clothes since he didn't mind seeing any part of you, heck he was living his dream, his wonder, and now his answer! He got outside only to realize you weren't greeted with being the "Trailblazer" here.. They called you by a name, one that he rolled off his tongue because he just seemed to enjoy it. A little too much that he ended up sending a TEXT to HIMSELF to remind him to call you that.

Of course he walked around as you for the whole day, not wondering if you had to go through any problems what so ever, he was interested in living as you and wanted to stay as you for longer. It was as if he wanted you to himself.. And this was the only way he could do it. So he lived as you for a day, having the most fun, making taking a shower or two.. But he felt happy.. he was going to ask you to be his eventually, but for now, he'll just have you to himself for just this one day..

You will forever be intertwined by this one connection!

#hsr #hsr x reader #hsr aventurine

27 notes · View notes

tagthescullion · 7 months

Text

Spies, Traitors, and Chocolate Pranks

Fandom(s): Percy Jackson and the Olympians

Rating: T

Summary: Percy Jackson's come back from the Princess Andromeda with the tragic news of Charles Beckendorf's death. A meeting where nothing is solved and fingers are pointed everywhere leaves Travis and Katie upset after snapping at each other.

Words: 3544

AO3 link

“Let's move on," Percy said. "We've got other problems. We've got a spy."

Michael Yew scowled. "A spy?"

Travis side-eyed his brother.

After a few years, they’d got used to people trash-talking Luke, and if he was honest, most of the time, it was well-deserved. But whenever talk of a spy or an informant came up, it always ended up with the rest of camp distrusting the Hermes cabin.

What’s more, after Chris’ return, proving Luke wasn’t the only child of Hermes on Kronos’ side, Travis had felt himself doubting his own siblings at times. Second glancing at little movements, or paying extra attention to their complaints.

Percy went on to re-tell his conversation with their older-brother-turned-murderer-titan. It appeared Luke –or Kronos, or whoever he was– used a pendant shaped like a scythe as a communication device.

That both reassured and worried Travis.

On one hand, such a piece of jewellery wouldn’t go amiss in the Hermes cabin. Everybody would know who had that, and would’ve tried to steal it –teasingly or not– on at least one occasion.

On the other hand, he was sure he’d seen a pendant like that at some point. He didn’t remember when, or who owned it.

No, he told himself, shaking his head. We must all be thinking the same. Nobody saw shit, but now that it’s mentioned we’re sure we have.

Silena chose that moment to redouble her sobbing.

As Annabeth ran to comfort her, Travis couldn’t help but feel a stab or irritation.

It wasn’t that he didn’t care. Quite the contrary. He adored Beckendorf; he was a good guy, always down for a prank, he took things lightly, he was quick to offer a helping hand or optimistic words, and slow to lose his temper.

But lately, Travis had realised he’d lost the ability to process grief with tears or screaming or a general morose attitude. Every time they heard of a new demigod dying, or going to the other side, or leaving to never return… he just, well, he moved on.

It was awful. He felt awful. But he hurt so much, he just couldn’t care openly anymore.

He saw Connor raise a hand self-consciously.

“We've suspected there might be a spy for years, right? Somebody kept passing information to Luke—like the location of the Golden Fleece a couple of years ago. It must be somebody who knew him well.”

Perhaps unconsciously, or perhaps because she was their leader, Connor’s eyes turned towards Annabeth.

Travis sent him a warning look, the last thing they needed was people thinking they were pointing fingers at people to avoid scrutiny themselves.

Too late, though. The damage was done.

Far from looking away silently, Connor added a quick, “I mean, it could be anybody.”

Annabeth threw both Connor and Travis a murderous glare.

Katie Gardner, who’s been silent so far, and who clearly thought a lot higher of Annabeth than of the Stolls, scoffed.

“Yes,” she huffed. “Like one of Luke’s siblings.”

That made Travis snort.

“Oh, here we go again,” he spat. He was so tired of the same shit every time the councilors met. “Sure, we’re the spies. That’s what we’ve been doing since moment number one, betraying all of you.”

“Can we be sure you haven’t?” Katie argued back.

Travis wasn’t even sure why she was suddenly so against them.

“What evidence do you have that we have so much as spoken to him?” Connor replied angrily.

Travis put a hand on his arm to calm him down.

They had, of course, seen Luke after he’d left camp. More than once, in fact. Always initiated by him, and not since he’d been possessed by Kronos. But giving the rest of the campers ammo against them wouldn’t solve the issue.

“What’s your problem, anyway?” Travis asked Katie. “Why attack us like that?”

“Why’s Connor suspicious of Annabeth?” Katie demanded.

“He’s not,” Travis said. “He looked at her because she’s the one who always has the answers!”

“Unlike the two of you who can’t help instigating pranks and trouble even now, with everything that’s going on.” She’d crossed her arms and gave him a disgusted once-over.

“That’s not true!” Travis raised his voice. “When’s the last time we’ve done anything half as immature as a prank in the middle of a war?”

“How about–?”

“Stop!”

Travis jumped.

Silena had punched the table so hard her cup of chocolate had spilt everywhere.

“Charlie's dead and…” Her voice caught. “And you're all arguing like little kids!”

She started sobbing again.

As expected, they didn’t solve anything in that meeting. Travis wasn’t even sure what they spoke about after his fight with Katie. His blood was boiling with all-consuming anger.

Who the hell did she think she was to accuse them like that?

It really wasn’t the first time the rest of camp had, nor did Travis think it would be the last until they’d caught the spy, but for whatever reason this time it hurt more.

They were friends. Katie and Travis had been on good terms from the moment he and Connor had arrived at camp, and they’d become closer as the years passed.

Her suspecting him like that made him want to punch a wall.

“You look upset,” Connor pointed out as they reached Cabin Eleven.

“Leave it,” Travis said.

Connor raised an eyebrow but said nothing. He took a few steps towards his bed and dropped into it, face against the pillow.

Travis thought it was a valid choice, but he was too tense to lay down and try to relax.

Instead he got a sweatshirt and walked back out into the common area.

A few cabins away, the on-going battle between Ares and Apollo campers could be seen and heard.

Travis scoffed. And Silena had thought his argument was petty and stupid. Why didn’t she shut up and go convince her fucking bestie to call an armistice with Michael Yew, huh?

He shook his head and kept walking.

He thought about going into the forest, to that twisty bit of the creek Luke had shown him ages ago. But no, it would be a reminder of his foolish older brother. And he’d have to cross Zeus’ fist, which he still tried to avoid.

He settled for the beach.

The tide had gone up a bit, and the part where the sand was still dry was narrow. There was nobody to talk to him, just the sound of waves and the feeling of the sea breeze.

He took off his trainers and socks, laid back next to a low dune, threw an arm over his eyes and tried to focus on his senses rather than his mind.

The sand felt cool and grainy between his toes, but the sun hit over his legs, balancing the temperature well.

He tried to take deep breaths, concentrating on the breeze’s salty smell.

He managed to calm down after a while, back into his state of apathy.

He felt the sun move in the sky, disappearing behind the dune he was using as a pillow.

The noise of feet on the sand snapped him out of his reverie.

He both heard and felt someone sit next to him.

“I’m sorry.”

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

Katie went back to her cabin in a foul mood.

She’d been around the strawberry fields after the councilors meeting, trying to burn her angry energy by helping Pollux keep the plants healthy.

She hadn’t meant to be bitchy, but she’d been so stressed lately. And Travis and Connor didn’t help by often being pains in the ass.

She was sure they understood the seriousness of the situation camp was in, so why couldn’t they act accordingly?

Their pranks used to entertain her, but ever since last summer they’d been so intent on her cabin! The last straw had been around Easter.

Demeter’s cabin had a roof where grass grew between the tiles. Soft, full grass. It looked divine when the sun hit in the morning. It gave it a Mediterranean, natural style that made Katie think of travel magazine photos of the south of Italy

Travis –for while Connor took half the blame, she knew it was Travis who wanted to irritate her in particular– had set an army of chocolate Easter bunnies all over her roof!

Being chocolate, and the weather having been way too warm for March –global warming was another thing that blinded her with rage, but that she couldn’t blame on the Stolls–, the bunnies melted faster than Katie and her cabin had managed to take them off the roof.

It resulted in chaos. A chocolatey mess it had taken ages to clean up. It became full of bugs, and Katie hated cockroaches.

Chiron had made the Stolls and a few volunteers from the Hermes cabin help, but that had ended in even more arguments, and Chris Rodríguez having to physically restrain Katie so she wouldn’t punch Travis Stoll’s stupid face.

Katie took a deep breath and tried to relax back into the sofa she was sitting on.

She tried to remember that while the war was tough on all of camp, the Stolls were also dealing with their older brother –Katie knew better than many how much Travis and Connor had idolised Luke– being their biggest enemy.

Well, to be fair to Luke –which Katie didn’t particularly care to be–, it was Kronos who was trying to kill them all. But Kronos was using Luke’s body –that was messed up even by mythological standards– to lead his army.

Either way, at least her cabin didn’t have any traitors. Or so she thought. Or so she hoped.

Screw it all. She’d been tactless, hadn’t she?

No matter what he did, Katie couldn’t stay mad at Travis for too long. And this time, it had been her who’d been out of line.

Groaning, she got up from the couch.

“Where are you going?” Miranda asked, broom in hand, trying to make their cabin presentable for inspection.

“To go find Travis Stoll, as always,” Julieta chimed from a corner, where she was playing on her iPod. She took her eyes off the screen for a second and added, “Charlie from Athena saw him ‘storm angrily’ towards the bitch.”

Miranda snorted. “Juli, it’s towards the beach, hopefully.”

Julieta frowned. “That’s what I said.”

“Not quite.”

“Well, those sound the same to me.”

Katie left them arguing the anomalies of English pronunciation, and left to find Travis.

As she walked down towards the ocean, she thought about what to say.

‘Sorry your murderous brother makes your cabin suspicious’?

She huffed. She wasn’t good at planning. She’d decide what to say when she found him.

She walked the wooden planks that formed a sort of sidewalk from one side of the beach to the other, and finally found Travis under the shadow of a dune.

He was lying there, breathing evenly, making Katie wonder if it wouldn’t be better to just leave him be.

But he wasn’t peaceful. Katie had known him for years, she could see the signs of distress.

He had an arm over his face, and he hadn’t even thrown a hoodie under his head. His hair was all over the sand, which was probably way too itchy to be comfortable.

She got off the wooden sidewalk and dropped ungracefully next to him.

He was startled by the noise, but he didn’t change his position.

“I’m sorry,” Katie said.

Travis took several seconds moving his arm from his face, then sat up without looking at her, hugging his legs with his arms.

“I shouldn’t have said what I said,” she continued. “Everybody at camp knows you two are loyal to us, to the gods.”

Travis ran a hand through his hair, probably trying to get some of the sand in it to fall away.

“But that’s not true, is it?” He huffed. “People suspect us all the time. I can see it when they look at us. They don’t want us near.”

“Travis.” She put a hand on his arm. “That’s not true at all.”

He finally turned towards her.

His eyes were glazed with a façade of emptiness she didn’t believe one bit.

“People don’t think you’re more likely to betray us than anybody else,” she argued. “I mean, come on! Look at this place! Clarisse and her cabin –our strongest fighters– won’t take part in the war over petty pride. Apollo’s kids are in a high-and-mighty phase, thinking they’re owed everything and more. Silena’s been getting worse and worse, and Beckendorf’s death will only make everything harder on her and her siblings. Nobody has time to wonder who they trust and who they don’t. We’re all breaking apart.”

“Percy shouldn’t have said anything,” Travis muttered. “You’re right, we’re barely functional as it is. And we’ve no chance of catching whoever the spy is. They won’t be stupid enough to carry around a scythe necklace now, will they? It was pointless to scare us like that.”

Katie shrugged. “I suppose we should be slightly more careful about what we say and where.” She shook her head. “I hate keeping stuff from my siblings, but maybe it’s better to keep sensitive information to councilors alone.”

Travis started to nod then made a face. “Unless… Unless it’s one of us. A councilor, I mean.”

“No, that can’t be,” she dismissed the thought with a wave of her hand. “We all know each other, it’s…”

But then again, some of the stuff they’d said in meetings lately… they’d agreed not to tell the rest of the campers because it might discourage them. Had they talked about Percy and Beckendorf’s mission? Could it possibly be one of the councilors who was passing information to Kronos?

She felt a warm hand over her own.

She looked up to see Travis’ sympathetic expression.

“I didn’t want to upset you,” he said. “I’m talking shit. Of course it’s not one of the councilors.”

Katie nodded. More to let him know it was okay than out of genuine belief.

Travis took a deep breath. He glanced at her, then turned back to the sea.

“Why were you–” He hesitated for a second. “Why did you point us out like that, at the meeting?”

Katie felt her cheeks grow warm with shame. She really shouldn’t have done that. But, she tried to remind herself, if she had, it was only because she’d been so exasperated.

Instead of trying to explain herself, she asked, “Why do you keep pranking my cabin?”

“We haven’t pranked anybody in ages,” he argued.

“Three days ago, you unleashed a squadron of paper planes as we were passing by,” she said.

“That wasn’t a prank,” he defended himself. “I was checking your reflexes. You can’t walk around without so much as looking around.”

She scoffed. “And a couple of days before you turned all our clothes pink!”

“No, no, that was an honest mistake,” he raised his hands, palms out. “Chiron shouldn’t make us deal with laundry duties with everything that’s going on.”

“And–” She waved her hands, trying to find words. “You’re always trying to bait us. So we’ll argue. It’s so stupid, I don’t understand why you’re doing all this.”

“At most I’ve been sarcastic when you were around,” Travis said, raising his voice, not a lot but enough to be noticeable. “And it’s not even your whole cabin, it’s you. Making you angry seems to be the only way to exchange half a word with you these days.”

“What do you mean?” Katie was confused.

Travis and her had always been close. There was a balance between them: she told him when he’d gone too far with a joke, and he helped her loosen up whenever she got overwhelmed with life. They were friends. She knew they hadn’t been able to talk a lot the past few weeks, but it hadn’t been her fault.

“It’s you who’s been all closed up,” she told him. “As if… I don’t know, as if being an asshole would make everything hurt less.”

He frowned. “That’s not it.”

“Isn’t it?” She huffed. She rolled her eyes. “Listen, I’m sorry it was Luke who fucked up. I’m sorry you feel people don’t trust you and your siblings. I’m sorry our friends keep leaving and not coming back! But it won’t help you feel better to push people away. To irritate everyone until they don’t want to be around you. It’ll only make you more miserable.”

Travis bit his lower lip. His frown had eased only a bit. He looked as if he had trouble finding words to express what he felt.

That she couldn’t blame him for.

“I feel,” he began, turning his head back to the sea. “As if I simply don’t have the energy to care anymore.” He sighed. “All the kids in my cabin, their feelings are always so… loud. Every time a camper dies or goes missing, they can— they cry and sob and demand justice from the universe and I—I can’t help but feel annoyed at them. ‘It’s not fair,’ they say. Of course it’s not fair. What are they expecting? The gods to give a fuck about us?” He bit his lip again. “And that bitterness. That’s what he felt. What Luke felt when he left. And I’m worried because I wasn’t like this. Gods, I was never like this.”

He swallowed, took a couple of deep breaths.

“I wouldn’t betray our side like he did, though,” he added. Katie didn’t need him to justify himself. She knew him well enough. “Not really because of the gods, they can do a lot better if they expect personal loyalty. But Kronos is worse. And I could never do that to my friends.”

Katie took one of his hands in hers. “That’s because you do care. You always have and always will.”

“I mean, of course I do care, but I can’t…”

He shook his head, at a loss for words.

“You can’t process it?” Katie offered.

He nodded. “Yeah, I guess. It’s there, all those shitty feelings, churning in my chest and I can’t make them go away. I can’t cry them off, or burn them exercising, or…” He groaned. “It’s like they poison me. I want them off me. I want everything to stop! Once and for all, make everything stop! The war to be over, or a monster to cut my head off cleanly. I want it all to go away!”

He looked so young when he said that. Vulnerable. He was young. Hell, they were barely eighteen. But he’d been right to say it was pointless to complain about it being unfair. It was, it was a fact. They shouldn’t be in charge of their younger siblings. They could barely be in charge of themselves.

“For better or for worse,” she said after a pause, squeezing Travis’ hand. “It’ll all be over soon. The prophecy says Percy’s big moment will be when he turns sixteen, right?”

To Katie’s surprise, Travis smiled.

“What could possibly be funny about the world ending because of a boy’s choice?”

He looked at her, “Would you believe me if I told you I’ve no idea when Percy’s birthday is? Here we are, having a literal date for either one of the best or worst days of our lives… and I have no idea when that will be.”

“I—” Katie allowed herself a little smile too. “I was going to ask Annabeth, actually.”

“We’re not very nice friends,” he said. “We’ve known the guy for years.”

“It’s in August.”

“Right,” Travis said. “Very accurate.”

“He doesn’t know our birthdays either, I bet.” Katie rolled her eyes. “Then again, our birthdays don’t mean a hypothetical end of the world.”

“It might not even happen.” Travis shrugged. “We thought Thalia would be the prophecy child and she wasn’t.”

She shook her head. “This time it’s for real. Everything’s too much for this to not be the end. Besides, if it’s not Percy, then who?”

“Nico di Angelo,” Travis offered. “He’s the son of Hades.”

Katie had all but forgotten about that kid. “Where is he? We could use a bit of zombie magic on our side.”

Travis made a noncommittal sound with his throat. “He comes and goes, I suppose. I don’t know about zombie magic, but that kid could play a good hand of cards.”

Katie sighed. “Yes, we’ll beat the Lord of Time with a good hand of cards.”

He pushed her lightly with his shoulder. “You forget he’s possessing my brother. Luke could never say no to a card game. His fatal flaw if he ever had one: he could never resist a challenge.”

Travis’ face had turned sad again.

“Come on,” Katie said, standing up. “It’s getting cold here. Let’s go get something to eat.”

Travis stood up without letting go of her hand.

“Thank you,” he said, and Katie could hear the honesty in his voice. “For coming after me.”

She hugged him hard.

“Always,” she promised. “I can’t let you mope on your own like a miserable emo, it’s just too sad.”

Katie heard Travis chuckle and felt him squeeze her tighter.

It wasn’t all right, she knew, but it would. It would get better.

#travis stoll #katie gardner #tratie #connor stoll #silena beauregard #pjo #riordanverse #pjo hoo toa #pjo fic #mis fics #tagthescullion

54 notes · View notes

needcake · 8 months

Text

@hetaberia-week

Day 1: historical .

1539,

Lisbon

A man in his crew had made a comment that had stayed with him hours after they had reached the capital. In fact, Portugal was still thinking about it when he finally left the Casa da Índia and crossed the short distance to the Ribeira Palace, walking up the stone steps in the winding staircases, nodding at the palace staff that passed him by and greeted him demurely, and, being himself clad in black, it had taken him a moment to realize everyone was too.

No bad news ever comes unaccompanied, his crewmate had said, and Portugal was still thinking of that when he opened the door to the King’s private drawing room, finding him with his eyes red-rimmed, clutching a letter to his chest in anguish. The Empress of the Holy Roman Empire, his younger sister, had died in May, he said, her last pregnancy had robbed her much of her strength, the child had not survived either. Portugal still smelled of gunpowder and ash, he could still feel grains of Indian sand inside his boots, but his eyes were lost on some unidentifiable corner of the King’s private drawing room as he sat down before his desk. They never lived long, did they. He had held her as a baby in his arms, had seen her learn her first words of his language, had attended her wedding, had visited her children. Their lives went by so fast, not like his.

There would be a funeral and the King wanted him to accompany him, Portugal did not think to say no. He was tired, battered, hurting, ears still ringing from cannon blasts shot across the Indian coast by Ottoman ships into his fortress in Diu, wearing months of a siege they had at great pains finally won. No bad news ever comes unaccompanied, and he found himself on a carriage a few days later bound to Granada, crossing the border with his shoulders heavy with padded fabric, his hair combed and clean, golden rings on his fingers.

The husband, the Holy Roman Emperor, was not there when they reached the church. Unable to bring himself to say the final good-bye to his beloved wife, he had instead sent his son in his place, his first-born and only surviving son and heir, and the boy stood, stone-faced and ashen, accompanying his mother’s coffin into the small, packed full church alone.

How small he seemed at that moment. And Portugal would never forget that image, of the boy entering the church behind his mother’s casket, his posture stiff with grief, dark clothes too heavy, golden fleece too garish. It would be the last time he ever saw him as a child. Once the ceremony was over and the body was buried, the son would leave the marble grounds of that church forever changed. No bad news ever came unaccompanied.

From across the entrance to the church while the crowd dispersed, surrounded by a group of nobles and high-ranking clergymen, Spain spotted him and excused himself to come to him, the pull on the bottom of his stomach becoming stronger the closer he came, recognizing him as an old soul like himself, despite him being so much younger.

“We did everything we could to save her,” Spain said, taking Portugal’s numb hand between both of his in a comforting gesture.

It should be the other way around, Portugal thought, looking at his young face and red-rimmed eyes. It was Spain who had just lost a Queen and an Empress, Portugal had lost her long ago, the moment they had sent her away to be married in a political alliance, but Spain had just lost a companion, an advisor, a friend. Portugal should be the one comforting him.

What an odd creature this boy was, he thought, observing the brown curls that framed his youthful face, feeling the calluses on his fingers from handling sword and quill, looking into his olive green eyes that so reminded him of someone else.

Portugal laid his other hand on top of theirs.

“I’m very sorry for your loss,” he said, earnestly, and Spain’s composure cracked, his chin trembling as he turned his eyes down to nod at the ground, sniffling.

And how odd, he thought, how so very odd, that his first instinct had been to pull him into his arms, even though he didn’t.

Notes: Portugal is coming home from the Battle of Diu (1538), only to discover the Holy Roman Empress, Isabella of Portugal, had died in May, 1539.

#hetaberia 2023 #hws portugal #hws spain #hetalia #a wild fic appears

58 notes · View notes

mask131 · 4 months

Text

Greek mythology media (1)

To begin this overview of Greek mythology in media, I originally wanted to start with some of the most famous American pieces of fiction - those that shaped, for the better and for the worse, the "Americanized" perception of Greek mythology... Including Disney's Hercules.

However after some thought, I think I need to cover something else beforehand... What I like to call the "Hercules saga".

(Picture courtesy of greekgodsparadise.com)

Have you ever wondered why Disney made a movie about Herakles and yet named him "Hercules"? Why would Disney commit such a blatant mistake, using the Roman name of the hero despite everything else being (vaguely) Greek-inspired? Because Roman mythology is better known than the Greek (see my Medusa posts)? Not exclusively...

The reason why Disney made a movie named "Hercules" instead of "Herakles" was because their animated piece was very obviously a follow-up of an entire GENERATION of movies based on the figure of Herakles, but being sold, publicized and shared with the name "Hercules". Beyond this "mistake of Disney" is actually an entire generation of cinema history that people today completely forgot about, and that explansi why, of all the Greek myths, the one of Herakles is supposedly the one with the most movies attached to it...

I/ The beginning of it all

To start this deep dive we need to begin with the movie that started it all. The 1958 "Hercules" movie - at least it was its English title. Its original title was "The Labors/Trials of Hercules", "Le fatiche di Ercole". For yes, this movie was an Italian production (with some Spanish and French collaborations).

This movie's story is... quite more confusing than you would expect. Yes, the title is correct: Hercules is the main hero of the story. This being an Italian production, all the names were taken from Roman mythology rather than Greek - Hercules, Jupiter, Venus... And this is precisely why the name Hercules would go on to become so famous, but that's for later. However, despite what the title hints, this story isn't about the Twelve Labors of Herakles. Two of these trials appear in the first third of the story: the Nemean Lion and the Cretan Bull. However, the actual literary work of Antiquity this movie is based on is... the Argonautica of Apollonios of Rhodes. Yes, this movie is also about Jason, and the Argonauts, and the quest for the Golden Fleece, but with Jason being only a secondary character. In fact, most of the Argonauts's adventures aren't even told since the actual quest for the Golden fleece is massively reduced, with a good quarter of the movie entirely dedicated to the Argonauts' stay on the island of the Amazons... So this movie is a bit of everything. A bit of Herakles but not too much, a bit of Argonauts but not too much - though there's a LOT of the Amazons...

Fun fact: the lighting and the special effects were done by Mario Bava, who would later become of the iconic names of horror in Italy.

The movie being in public domain, you can find it pretty easily online, and having watched it, what is my opinion? Well... On one side the movie definitively aged badly. Many elements of it at now laughable today. The main love interest's costume is to the toga what the bikini-chainmail is to an armor, and her obviously modern makeup is very distracting. The fights of Hercules with the Nemean Lion and the Cretan Bull very obviously involve him punching fluffy puppets. Somehow a very modern fountain sitting by an ancient Greece palace... Ominous storm clouds are just a mud-stain on the camera's lense in an otherwise clear blue sky. Of course when the Amazons arrive the camera focuses twice on their naked legs ; and their cemetery is properly hilarious. The adorable Nemean Lion forgets he is supposed to play dead and shouldn't blink one he is "strangled". Oh yes, and there is also a VERY racist moment during the arrival in Colchides, where our heroes are faced with what is supposed to be primitive, savage, cavemen-like people... But who are in effect just black men wearing furs, a few prosthetics, and making monkey sounds. Very racist.

One of the things with this movie is that there is also several versions of it going around. We are lucky to have the cinematic, clean and properly-dubbed version on Youtube for free - right here ; but you will also find around the Internet versions of a much poorer quality which were designed for television airing, and which have a different English dub. Such a version can be found here for example. And then you apparently have yet a third version somewhere with yet a third dub that makes pretty big flaws (such as changing Hercules' entire rant to the oracle/sybil about immortality into a rant about "strength" which changes the entire idea of the movie). That's one of the evils of the public domain: re-dubs are everywhere.

Now all that being said... While this movie has definitively aged, I can still see why it became one of the classics of mid-20th century cinema, and why it caused such a big reaction upon its release.

Some of the ideas and concepts brought up are very interesting - for example weaving an entire motif of "revenge is not the answer" in a story where both Hercules has to bent to the unfair treatment of a king, and Jason has to find the murderer of his father. The treatment of the characters can also be interesting - from an Hercules who actually seeks humanity instead of immortality, and has to live in a world where his divine powers are actually freaking out people and shunning him as a monster ; to a king Pelias that is not actually actively evil or cartoonishly malevolent, but rather a fearful, suspicious and worn-out man who still does evil things out of anger, cowardice and bad advice, but who has been exhausted and burdened by guilt and regret to the point he enters the story only wishing to give up the throne and die... There is also a fascinating angle where the movie insists on the fact that Hercules is just as much intelligence as strength - for example with a wonderful scene of him proving even an average human person can shoot incredibly well arrows without a divine strength, but just good advice and observation of the environment and a well-formed technique... that ends with the big twist that those excellent bow-lessons he gave to the "random boy" he selected where given to ULYSSES out of all people. Yep, we have a movie where Herakles was Odysseus' mentor...

Mind you, while there are great ideas and concepts which make the movie stand on its own, in terms of mythological adaptation it is very poor, because as I said it mixes together edulcorated and scrawny versions of the myth. You've got two of the 12 labors done in a very different context. You've got a brand new Hercules characterization that doesn't touch upon his actual legends. You've got a Jason and the Argonauts story without sirens, Medea or giant ship-crushing rocks, and where Jason is just a background character. This "mixed" nature extends to the very tone and focus of the movie. It is a rich movie, no doubt, that blends and mixes the genres - but while it is precisely its charm (you are never bored with it), it is also what causes it to feel a bit unfocused. It starts with the naive and cliche romance between Hercules and a princess, leading to the angsty "I don't want to be immortal" scene of Hercules... It continues in what is basically a Gothic story about a strange and dysfunctional family burdened by the dark mystery shrouding a past crime that still haunts the present, and who lives in a half-abandoned palace where a ghostly murderer and treacherous whisperer haunts the shadows... We then cut to what is basically a PSA for athletism and sports, and then we delve into your typica adventure-movie alternating comic book humor with fights against monsters ; and then we have an entire mini-movie inside the movie at the Amazons island which unfolds as a romantic tragedy... This movie has everything, and perhaps a bit too much of everything, and feels like four different movies crammed together in one.

The other big "good point" of this movie is DEFINITIVELY the visuals. This movie allows me touch upon what was one of the big qualities of the good mythological movies of the mid 20th century: they truly knew how to make visual delights. The opening visual of a sheperd playing a Pan's flute while being listened to by his goats? The oracle all shrouded in a black veil suddenly revealing a blood-red dress? The three royal children going to the throne room - only for the two actual innocents one to be fascinated by the Golden Fleece while the brat immediately sits on the throne? Hercules climbing a shadowy mountain towards the red-lit temple of the gods? The visual of the Golden Fleece hanging from its tree, above a mount of dead leaves that turn out to be the asleep dragon? There are so many parts of these movies that just speak so much with just the sights. And it isn't just the sights, but some details in this movie are particularly head-turning. Ranging from the subtle - Hercules and the oracle locking gaze upon first meeting, and not saying anything but clearly showing a link because they are two beings of the world of the gods recognizing each other, and are thus set apart from the other humans in the room... To the more obvious: this movie had the genius idea to decide that the dragons of Ancient Greece were actually just FRIGGIN DINOSAURS that the gods somehow protected from extinction X)

II/ Omphale comes on stage

1958's Hercules was a HUGE success in Italy - and by extension in most of Europe. It was such a huge success that its director, Pietro Francisci, released the VERY NEXT YEAR the sequel, known in English as "Hercules Unchained". A quite silly title given the "unchained" part refers to a segment of the original 1958 movie. The actual title of this movie is "Ercole e la regina di Lidia", "Hercules and the queen of Lydia". For this movie, Francisci took the same team: Mario Bava for the special effects, Steve Reeves to play Hercules (he had been selected for the first movie because he had freshly won the title of Mister Universe - in fact, people did note that due to lacking an acting background he was quite stiff and unnatural in the first movie).

Many people at the time - including Howard Hughues himself - considered that this movie was a better one than the original, with enhanced acting, a much more "punchy" writing, more convincing action scenes, as well as very impressive baroque sets (which, fun fact, had been heavily inspired by the art of Flash Gordon). But the same audiences and critics of the time recognized a structural flaw in the piece, saying the various elements and tones were unbaIanced and that the movie felt as if it continued dozens of minutes after its plot actually ended. I... kind of disagree?

Just like the original movie mixed together the legends of Herakles' labors with the Argonauts' journey, this movie tries to tie together Herakles' time at Omphale's palace and the "Seven against Thebes" events, aka the battle between Eteocles and Polynices for the throne of Oedipus their father. I have to say I much prefer the first movie somehow, perhaps because it was a bit simpler? This piece is even less faithful to the Greek mythology material (which wasn't hard given the first movie was already a very loose adaptation), and in fact here we really feel the "sword and sandal" flavor. As in, this movie bears more common points with your typical sword-and-sorcery or heroic-fantasy short story/novella than with Ancient Greek epics or theater plays. Though the latter point is to be nuanced, because this movie is VERY theatrical. It is very staged, very visual, very dramatic - and perhaps too much because in many scenes the dramatic overcomes just basic logic or common sense (Hercules' repeated "arms up while invoking the gods" scenes do get ridiculous), and while some scenes are impressive, they do feel like someone filmed a stage-play rather than a movie. Let's not talk of an even greater fantasmagoria when it comes to the setting (the usurper of Thebes has Roman "pit of tigers"-type of gladiator plays, while the queen of Lydia who works with Egyptians and has an Egyptian-decored lair, organizes "Arabian Nights"-like dances and wears definitively 20th century fashion dresses... My last grief would be that this movie is actually repeating its predecessor (Omphale's palace being the island of the Amazons, the final fight being identical to the one of the previous movie), though it does bring to the table some new elements that are quite charming (Ulysses grows on me here as we see him growing into his trickster self, while being a plucky, comical young clever sidekick ; and the fountain of the "Water of Oblivion", aka a non-trademarked Lethe, is a great set piece).

But no matter what I may think of it, this movie was still an even bigger success than its predecessor, to the point it made its producing company, the studio Galatea, one of the biggest movie companies of all of Italy. Unfortunately, it also was the end of the "original" Hercules movie series. The producer of the two first pieces, Lionello Santi, part of the Galatea studio, decided at the surprise of everyone to abandon the newborn ad successful franchise. He entrusted it to a certain Achille Piazzi, who decided to name as a new director for the third Hercules movie Vittorio Coffatavi, pushing Pietro Francisci away. Since Steve Reeves only wanted to work for Francisci and no one else, the actor of Hercules was also replaced, by Lou Degni - better known by his stage name, Mark Forest. And finally, "Hercules Unchained" marked the end of the Francisci-Bava collaboration. For you see, Mario Bava did even more work and poured even more effort (or so he claims) into "Hercules Unchained" than into the original "Hercules" , to the point he asked to be designated as a co-director in the movie's credits. But Francisci refused, claiming Bava hadn't done so much work as he claimed: Francisci insisted "Hercules Unchained" was his piece before all things, and that Bava just wanted to take credit for his work, and refused to change Bava's function in the official rolling credits. This battle led up to the two of them not working together anymore.

III/ Hercules becomes... Goliath?

The result of all these changes was a third Hercules movie release in 1960, called... "Goliath and the Dragon"?

This third movie's actual title is "Hercules' Revenge", "La vendetta di Ercole". However, the American distributors changed it to "Goliath and the Dragon" because they needed to make this movie a sequel to an earlier success, the Franco-Italian movie "Goliath and the Barbarians". Which... isn't even a movie about Goliath, but rather a historical movie about a guy named Emiliano in the 6th century... Ah those wacky American distributors, back at their hijinks...

New director, new actor, new team... But also new scenario! Indeed, with this movie we have a fresh start, and a return to a more accurate depiction of Greek mythology... Well kind of. They kept numerous elements of the old movies, but brought in many more from the old Greek legends - the Twelve Labours for example (that Hercules finishes at the beginning of the movie with the taming of Cerberus), or his wife Dejanira. The story in itself, while trying to be more "Greek myth-flavored", is still a unique story mixing elements from various other tales. Hercules' son (turned into Goliath's brother in the American dub) is in love with Thea, who is unfortunately the daughter of a wicked king that wants to take the control of Thebes, Hercules' city. At first it seems the story will be just about the various manipulations and schemes of the wicked king and his allies to try to get rid of Hercules (for example making his son believe he wants to take Thea for his own, and using treacherous messengers to try to convince the poor boy to poison his father without realizing what he is doing) ; but then the third/fourth act of the movie completely takes us into a different direction, as now a prophecy by the gods overlaps with the conflict against the wicked king and... Its a bit convoluted.

I kind of skimmed through the movie because by now the "sequelitis" had started to really kick in. I will admit two good points for this piece: one they attempt to return to more mythologically faithful material, and even though they tell a new story they try to keep Greek elements in it (impossible love triangle between a son and a father, betrayals and tragic deaths within a same family, a hero going up against a wicked usurper king, prophecies the hero will try to fight against...). These efforts are unfortunately completely ruined by the American dub which changes the nature of everything. The second positive point would be the final part of the movie - when we leave the simple "romantic drama and political treacheries and other Shakespearian schemes" to enter the "let's fight a prophecy" domain. Hercules receives a prophecy that his son will take over the throne of the wicked king... in exchange for the life of "the woman who loves Hercules" (interpreted as his wife, Dejanira). As a result, the entire family of Hercules will struggle against this prophecy and try to avoid it - from Hercules becoming obsessively protective of his wife, to his son growing suicidal to protect his mother ; and here we really go into a much more emotional and human side of the story. We even have Hercules turning against the gods for this prophecy - despite having just finally cleared up his curse and made peace with them after his Labours, he still can't accept having his family doomed like that - going for the help of an oracle only for her to get KILLED when she disobeys the gods to bring him aid ; and it comes to Hercules being forced to make a heroic sacrifice, destroying his life to save others... There's really something more unique and touching in all that, that also reasonates well with Greek myths.

All that being said: the bad points. The Hercules movie of the era grew by the 70s and 80s to be synonymous with "hilarious kitsch comedy". Nobody could take them seriously anymore - and this movie really shows why. The first two Hercules pieces have laughable elements - but many were intended as light-hearted comedy, and the others still leave room for the seriousness of the piece. But here? Nah. On one side you have the special effects that aged very, very badly - resulting in the goofiest dragon and most ridiculous Cerberus battle you will ever see and the cheapest lightning effect ever made. And if the bad special effects weren't enough, you also have the American dub that changes the whole stories and tries its harder to rewrite the Greek myth into a more generic-fantasy things (while also fitting to a previous unrelated movie), resulting in a plotline even MORE convoluted than what it already was... This movie can be fun to watch just to see how ridiculous it all got, and unfortunately the most serious and interesting parts only come to us after bunch and bunch of cliches, convoluted writing, very bad dialogues (like REALLY bad) and papier-mache monsters.

[As a quick note here, this movie was also a step-up in the genre when it comes to the supernatural. You see, the first two movies actually had a more... let's say "realistic" approach to the magical elements of mythology. The gods and the supernatural was definitively real, but the movies made sure to frame it in a quite "realistic" light. The gods themselves never appear, and only speak through oracles or manifest through sudden changes in the weather. The monsters our hero fights are all just regular animals (a lion, a bull - well a bison they try to pass off as a bull), and even the "strange land of Colchides filled with wonders" is framed realistically as a sort of patch of land where prehistoric times continued on untouched (with the "monsters" there being just cavemen/Prehistoric men ; and the "dragon" being a dinosaur). And from the realm of the divine we have people with clearly supernatural abilities (Hercules with his immense strength, the oracles able to predict the future), but they still look like ordinary people... This all served the purpose of conveying the fantasy of the myths while working within limitations of budget and special effects.

This movie decided to actually bring the fantasy to screen by having actual monsters, and having the oracle fade in and out like a ghost, and a centaur turning into a satyr, and having the gods speak directly to the heroes or shooting lightning bolts at those they dislike... But as I said those special effects aged very, very poorly, and it is precisely by trying to do a "big show" that they actually ruined this strange worldbuilding-charm that worked so fine for the first two movies. "Showing less does more", as they say.]

IV/ Hercules against... vampires?

While Francisci and Bava never worked together again, both returned to the making of Hercules movies later on, each on their own.

Francisci released in 1963 a movie called "Hercules, Samson and Ulysses" (in its original title "Ercola sfida Sansone"), taking back the duo of Hercules and his sidekick Ulysses from the original movies, and having them confront the Biblical Samson... But given we are entering mythological crossovers, I will not be looking at this movie in any more details.

As for Mario Bava, in 1961 he released a movie co-made with Francesco Prosperi (and with Western Germany), "Ercole al centro della terra" - Hercules at the center of the earth. In America it was released as "Hercules in the Haunted World", but in many European countries, includng France, this piece's title was... "Hercules against the vampires". Why? Simply put: because the main villain is played by none other than Christopher Lee, and he plays a character with similarities to Dracula... As a result advertisers decided putting a big "vampire" stamp on this movie would work, despite it having no actual vampire.

The story is simple: Hercules returns to his home in Italy (remember we are still in a Greco-Roman mythology setting) after a war, only to discover his fiancée Dejanira (or Deianira as you English people like to call her) has fallen into an unexplained state of madness... An oracle tells Hercules the only way to save her is a magical stone from the realm of Hades. Hercules and his friend Theseus descend into the Underworld, unaware that Dejanira' caring uncle (Christopher Lee) is actually the one who caused her madness, and an evil sorcerer conspiring with the forces of evil to conquer the world...

Unlike the previous movie, "Hercules in the Haunted World/Hercules at the Center of the Earth" is much more of a "must watch" - or rather of a far better quality than its predecessors. We return to the charm and power of the earlier Hercules movie, but are then taken into a completely different direction thanks to Bava being able to truly make a movie of his own, with all the experience he gathered since the first Hercules. While the story veer into a much more... "fantasy" tone and plot, it is still a definitively "Greek mythology-inspired" type of fantasy, as elements of the legends of both Herakles and Theseus abond (descending into the Underworld, Deianira, the Hesperides and their golden apple, Procrustes and other of the bandits/threats Theseus had to face during his journeys...). Mind you, it is not because the Greek mythology elements and influence are everywhere that this movie is faithful to the legends, oh no, great liberties are taken here... Medea is now an oracle for the gods, Pluto becomes an evil god, you have references to Dante's Inferno while travelling through Hades, the Hesperides become daughters of Helios cursed by Pluto and entrapped in a land of endless midnight... This is definitively not a class about Greek mythology.

But the real strength of this movie, its real greatness (beyond Christopher Lee's presence, because come on, every Christopher Lee scene is great), is its visuals. This movie is a visual delight. Bava really used all of his tricks as a lighting and special effects guy - despite the movie having a not so big budget, Bava managed to created a gigantic fantasmagoria and epic sets and deeply oniric scenes simply through the use of colors, ciaroscuro, optical illusions, set design, and the power of not doing too much. In many ways this movie is the complete reverse of "Goliath and the Dragon": the "Goliath" movie tried to have these big impressive special effects but just became a cheesy, badly-aged kitsch piece ; while the Mario Bava movie is deeply otherwordly and haunting despite a quite limited budget and not doing "too much". (Mind you, not all things aged well, for example Procrustes' costume aged a lot, but the scene of Hercules climbing the giant tree of the Hesperides for example is wonderful).

Another slight flaw I would point out is that they have a very annoying "comical relief sidekick character" that... literaly serves no real purpose and I don't know why he is here, and he kind of ruins the mood (except for maybe one good joke). But this is definitively a movie to WATCH (not obviously appreciate, but just watch) - and it is disponible freely on Youtube in HD if you ever want to watch it. This movie, in fact, caused a brief wave of "creepy peplum" movies, a sort of... sub-genre crossing the "sword and sandal" with elements of horror movies (the "trio" of these morbid peplum movies tend to include Riccardo Fera's "Maciste in Hell" (The Witch's Curse, by American title), and Corbucci & Gentilomo "Maciste against the ghost/Goliath and the vampires/Maciste contro il vampiro".

What else to say... This Hercules was played by Reg Park, who would become the mentor of Arnold Schwarzenegger, who himself would later play Hercules. And oh yes, as a side note here: I haven't talked about this before in detail, but a departure from the Greek mythology is that in all those movies, and it is a common link between all of them, the character of Hercules is not a mortal who after death becomes a god, but the reverse. A great deal and great stress is placed on the fact that Hercules is an immortal among mortals, and a "god among men", and many times you will see or hear Hercules deciding to renounce his immortality or use his immortality as a bargaining chip... This builds an entirely different character, and a sort of meta-continuity for the cinematic incarnation of Hercules that neatly separates him from his mythical counterpart.

V/ The importance of the Hercules saga, and why it shaped Disney's Hercules

So... four movies (plus one mentioned). I said that the 1958 Hercules movie had been a huge success not just in Italy but in Europe as a whole. What I however did not say, because I wanted to keep it more of a surprise, is that this movie was an ENORMOUS success in the USA. Probably much bigger than you think.

The first two movies, "Hercules" and "Hercules Unchained" as they were named in English, were bought, translated and transported to the USA by Joseph E. Levine. Levine poured a LOT of money into a very aggressive and intense advertisement campaign to promote those movies, which not only were everywhere in theaters, but also aired on television. And this all resulted in a massive success, which gave Levine an entryway to build a big career in the movie industry, and the Hercules movies a lasting fame up until the 70s. By the mid-70s their fame and success slowly died out, from the tastes changing (making these pieces look ridiculous by modern audiences) to the television-copies of the movies being of very poor quality and badly preserved. By the 80s, these movies were a laughingstock, and the original duo of "Hercules" and "Hercules Unchained" even got a full-on parody in 1997. The two movies were recut into one, a whole new comical dub was made, and this resulted in "Hercules Recycled", about a TV exercise show-host who battles dinosaurs, fast-food obsessed mutants and insurance salesmen to save Earth by retrieving a secret formula inscribed onto a golden bath-mat...

But another one of the reasons the "Hercules" movies ended up being rejected and mocked mercilessly was oversaturation.

When people saw that "Hercules" and "Hercules Unchained" were HUGE successes both in Europe and America... The hunt was open, and it was free market for all. Everybody tried to recreate the movies, everybody tried making sequels of the movies, everybody did blatant rip-offs of the movies... In Italy at least, which was where the whole craze took place. It was the era of the "mythological peplum", of the "sword-and-sandal", of the "muscle-opera". During the 60s, around TWO HUNDRED movies based on the same principles, cliches and formulas were made for European and American audiences: movies taking place in a vague and unclear Antiquty, inspired by Greco-Roman mythology or Biblical stories, with a very muscular, oily, barely-dressed bodybuilder playing the hero, and him punching his way through soldiers and bandits and monsters, while trying to win the heart of a beautiful princess (or avoiding the deadly charm of wicked queens and enchantresses) - and with sometimes a plucky sidekick or comical relief by his side. Many were the protagonists of these tales, but ultimately they were all avatars of the same archetype: Hercules, Samson, Goliath, Ursus, Maciste were all replacable with each other.

Such an intense and fast mass-production of course brought the early death of the genre, that became "out" just as fast as it was "in"... Before it was replaced by the new cinematic craze coming from Italy and imported to the USA: the "western spaghetti", star of the 70s.

But this era left a deep mark onto America (and Europe too). In America, they were the reasons why the name "Hercules" became more famous than "Herakles". These movies were a prolongation of the bodybuilding trend, and of the athletic culture and body-worship and sport craze that had been started by the Mister Universe contest and the Charles Atlas celebrity. And - more interestingly perhaps for this website - these movies were also very influential and appreciated by homosexual communities of the 60s and 70s... I mean you literaly had muscular hunks bare-chested, oily and sometimes almost entirely naked, wrestling constantly with other half-dressed men, and surrounded by pretty girls and erotic sex-icons and pin-ups, who wore the toga-equivalent of the "chainmail bikini" of Conan fantasies... These movies were bound to attract gays and lesbians of their time.

There is a LOT of those Italian Hercules movies in the 60s, like a LOT. I can't possibly cover them all, but I will leave here the titles of some I will definitively not talk about (due to not being "Greek mythology" enough for my taste): 1961's "Sansone"/"Samson against Hercules" ; 1962's "La furie di Ercole" (The fury of Hercules) ; 1963 "Ercole contro Moloch" (Hercules against Moloch), 1964's "Ercole contro Roma" (Hercules against Rome), 1964's "Il trionfo di Ercole" (Hercules' Triumph), 1964's "Hercules against the sons of the sun", 1964's "Ercole, Sansone, Maciste e Ursus gli invincibili", 1964's "Hercules against the tyrants of Babylon"...

And even by leaving out those eight movies, with the five others I described before, I have still left, in the span of the Italian 60s, SIX more movies I could possibly talk about... As I said, we know around 200 movies were released during this decade in Italy - though hopefully for us, all the lesser and cheap ones faded into obscurity...

29 notes · View notes

gaslightgatekeepgirlbosscombat · 4 months

Text

Group H, Round 4, Poll 1:

Propaganda under the cut

Odysseus

literally the EPITOME of these. ive read the odyssey and i will tell u it is literally just him making up a new elaborate fake identity for like every single person he meets. even his own father and wife 😭😭 just for funsies or what idek. he literally does not tell anyone anything gatekeeping any and every gifts + knowledge the gods are given. im not joking his story is basically 90% this malewife just gaslighting people and gatekeeping stuff the gods tell him AND FINALLY FOR THE GIRLBOSS he sees the guys whove been essentially harassing his wife for like 10 years and just??? shoots all of them with arrows?? and he does it in STYLE too he comes as a beggar then the suitors r all trying to use odysseus's bow (they cant) and hes like oh i may just be a beggar but. let me try. and then uses it and instantly shoots someone in the head GIRLBOSS

Medea

Her husband divorced her so to get back at him she burned his new bride alive, murdered her own children and casually escaped justice in a chariot pulled by dragons and *made from the sun.* She is iconic and I love her.

propaganda from @apollosgiftofprophecy

Princess with Phenomenal Cosmic Powers, granddaughter of the Titan of the Sun, Helios, and Priestess of Hecate, the literal Goddess of MagicStarts out a classic fairy tale (with a few murders in the mix for flavor)Jason (the man/husband she sacrificed EVERYTHING for) thought it would be totally alright to cheat on his sorceress wife with some princess and - double whammy - he planned to keep Medea as his mistress after he married this random princess!When she confronts him, he shows his true colors as a world-class bastard and she reminds him that he's only still alive, and only completed his quest for the Golden Fleece, because of her. (WHICH IS TRUE)To get back at him, Medea orchestrates the death of said princess (and indirectly the king's too, whoopsies :) ) by sending a beautiful dress for her that was laced with poison that caused the princess to catch on fire, and also killed whoever touched her (the king)She then murders her and Jason's two kids (after some emotional dilemma because she actually cares about them while Jason Does Not) and exits the kingdom In Style - how? Like this:Rises into the air on a golden chariot pulled by dragons given to her by Helios When Jason says the gods with avenge him, she tells him "lol, good luck with that oathbreaker!" and flies off into the night Like A Bossa little more context here: Jason's godly patron was Hera, the literal goddess of family and marriage. And he was going to abandon his children and break his vows to Medea.Also, she never is punished for any of this stuff, meaning her actions have the (reluctant :) always good to be morally gray) approval of the gods. She's one of the only nuanced female characters in Greek Mythology, and by god is she interestingThis, my friends, is why Medea is the ultimate Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss.

#round 4 #group h #the odyssey #Odysseus #Medea #Greek Mythology #Euripedes #yey! Greek showdown #I was thinking to put their fate counterparts as pictures for more then one second

31 notes · View notes

ameagrice · 1 year

Text

Capsize

percy jackson x fem reader

chapter twenty-four | if you have the key

“If fish only have two-second memories, do they constantly think the same thing over and over?”

You frowned heavily, squinting in the sunlight. Travis lay on his back, arms behind his head. A pair of black sunglasses sat on his nose, concealing his gaze from you.

“Did someone hit you over the head this morning?”

Travis gasped dramatically and threw himself upright, leaning on one elbow, looking down at you like you were the crazy one.

“Why do I have to have some sort of injury? Can’t I just be a curious boy,” he placed his hands under his chin in an angelic-like matter.

“Because you’re not the curious type,” you rolled your eyes, sliding your sunglasses back down to settle on your nose.

“Well that’s rude.”

“I am rude.”

The boy chuckled and lay down again, knocking his elbow into yours. It was weird—boys always, no matter their age, had weirdly bony elbows.

The opportunity to do nothing but relax and sunbathe didn’t always come around, and the two of you took advantage of it while you could. It was a little irritating that the only place you could get some peace was the top of Half-Blood Hill, but who were you to complain about some quiet time?

Percy and Annabeth had been gone two days on their quest for the Golden Fleece. Without your sister, your cabin had been relatively quiet, it’s golden girl gone. Annabeth could do no wrong, in the eyes of your siblings—you, however….

Lately, it felt like every time you opened your mouth, nothing but troubled words came out. You felt like you constantly said the wrong things, or said too much, and the hurt of it was starting to get to you.

“Do you think I’m annoying?” You blurted into the warm, quiet air, before you could think better of it.

You didn’t need to look at the boy next to you to know he was pulling a disagreeing face.

“Why would I think that?”

You shrugged in response, to hide the hurt that flickered in your chest. Vulnerability didn’t come naturally to you, and it left you feeling weak. “I don’t know…I just feel like I’m always saying the wrong things. Or too much. I’m not a favourite in my cabin like Annabeth is. It’s like I can’t keep my mouth shut.”

And being liked was deadly important.

He was quiet for a moment.

“Has someone said something to you?” Travis asked. He sat up, leaning on his elbow. You sat up too, resting an arm on your knee and picking grass with the other hand. You watched the stray, broken pieces flutter to the ground.

“No,” you mumbled, shrugging. “I just feel annoying sometimes. Like I’m too much.”

The silence makes your heart beat faster. Maybe leaving you’ve said too much again. Running away was looking pretty good right now—

“You’re not annoying. You’re never annoying.”

At Travis’s gentle tone, a change to his usual jokey manner, your eyes turned to him. He looked nothing like he usually did—happy, mischievous—and instead now looked as if you’d just told him the world’s worst news.

You nodded. Now you just felt gross because ew—bad feelings.

You settled on a single nod of your head. “Alright.”

—

It was one thing to doubt other people. It was an entirely different thing to doubt yourself. And as you stared down the Nemean Lion prowling the floor opposite, parents and children screaming, you briefly gave thought to how on earth anyone was making it out of here unscathed.

Dagger in hand, you followed Percy’s lead as he yanked you to the side, hand in yours. There was no time to ponder on the wonder of holding hands with your crush—lives were on the line. But you savoured the moment while you could.

Grover played a high-pitch tune on his reed pipes, nervously stepping this way and that. The Lion didn’t seem to like this, and began to growl lowly, getting closer.

In front of you, crouched and still holding on to your hand, Percy breathed heavily, Riptide at his side.

“What do we do?” You asked quietly.

His eyes shifted as he thought.

Ahead, the Lion roared; Thalia thrust her shield in its eyeline, and Grover anxiously played a faster, more horrible-sounding song.

“Hi-yah!” Thalia yelled, swiping at it. “Back!”

“Hey, don’t forget to wax-on and wax-off, Thalia!”

Her murderous glare sent ice down your back.

Thank the gods you were watching for a reaction, though—the Lion crouched, hind legs strong and ready to leap while Thalia was distracted. Perhaps yelling out a Karate Kid reference in the middle of a battle wasn’t the most smart move, but your next one would be.

“Hey!” You yelled, shocking even yourself. Percy turned in his crouch, eyes big and almost terrified. Dagger clasped in both hands tightly, you leapt, shoving the sharpened edge directly at its heart.

Terror struck you when the metal bounced off without any effort.

The Lion roared and your ears rang, and all you could see backing away was the sudden slash of huge, thick claws coming at your face—you threw your arm up in front of your face and fell back, landing hard on the ground. The Lion raked you with its claws. You yelled as a sharp hotness sparked up and down your arm. Distracted and a little dazed, you barely felt it as a forceful tug to your jacket threw you not the side…

But completely over the gap of the railing.

You screamed, throat scratchy as the ground level floor got closer and closer, concrete looking a little too friendly—

Oof! On your back, one leg over the side of whatever you’d landed on, you swayed side to side, seeing the face of your best friend pop over the ledge, dark hair falling into his eyes. He looked horrified. And you wondered briefly if this was the view Annabeth got as she fell thousands of feet off a cliff.

Your lungs refused to cooperate, finding yourself unable to draw a breath in through your shocked body. You landed on your back, and your head ached with the impact. Slowly, through nausea and pain, they started to work again. You sat up, desperate to get back to the fight and help your friends.

Sitting up and peering over the edge, you saw you hung from two simple wires in one of the open space shuttles on level with the second floor. Casting your eyes to the walkway around you, you didn’t have to think for long. You’d have to jump.

Easier said than done from this height.

Shakily you got to your feet, hands wrapping around the clear wires holding up the shuttle. It swayed already at the slight, slow movement, and your stomach clenched. You pushed the wires like you would on a swing, and it shifted without much effort. Back and forth until the walkway was close enough that you could try and jump to it.

You lifted your foot and set it on the edge, dirty Converse making marks on the previously clean. The whole thing tipped, and your heart juddered in your rib cage, stomach lurched.

But what better time than the present?

Using the shift in momentum, you jumped off the edge, closing your eyes and throwing your arms up by your head to take the fall as the ledge got closer.

You hit the ground hard, rolling the way you’d learned in camp, and came to a stop as your body hit an object.

You slowly unravelled yourself, and the sounds of reality came rushing back. All you could hear was your friends.

Jumping to your feet, you took of running up the inclined walkway. Second floor. A huge model of the earth illuminated from the inside sat in the middle of the floor, and a couple aircraft models. Somewhere a huge groan sounded, like a structure beginning to fail.

Then, something did fall. Your eyes followed it as it landed on the earth model with a horrible smack. But that wasn’t what caught your attention.

“Percy!”

His head shot up, searching, and when he found you, Percy slid from the model to his feet, mouth agape. He rushed towards you, sword in hand. Something behind him moved.

“Behind you!”

The Lion jumped and landed on the display, and roared. Your hair flew back from your face in a rush of hot air—the smell was rancid.

“Zoe!” Percy yelled out. “Aim for its mouth!”

On cue, an arrow zipped by the Lion, just missing it. It steadied itself on the display and one of the strings holding it in place snapped. Kids below screamed as parents ran around in panic, looking for a way out.

“Grover!” Percy took control. “Clear the area!”

The exhibit crashed to the floor. Thalia came from the second floor and started to round the exhibit, on her way over to you both. The Lion prowled back and forth, regarding which of you three it was going to kill first.

Thalia pushed something in your direction. “Here!”

Your dagger; she must have got it before she came down. You nodded in thanks.

“No clear shot!” Zoe yelled above. “Get it to open its mouth more!”

Everyone looked around. You were at a loss, here—your arm ached terribly, your body hurt like it was bruised from the fall. Percy took off running, while Thalia suddenly zapped the Lion with her spear.

“This is no time for souvenirs, boy!”

You and Thalia backed up as it got closer, to the point you were sliding across the wall, trying to go around it.

“Percy!” Thalia called nervously. “Whatever you’re going to do—”

The Lion roared and swatted at her like a fly, sending her across the building. You yelled in shock and broke out into a run, determined not the be the next best meal. You’d already tried to fight this thing and it hadn’t worked, you wouldn’t be attempting it again when it was angrier.

Percy threw something at it, landing in its mouth, and the thing gagged and choked. “Zoe, get ready!”

Percy waved his hand at you and you ran to him, grabbing his wrist with your injured arm. It burned like hell, but there wasn’t any time to waste. The Lion started to move, and the two of you ran.

As it opened its mouth to roar, Percy launched something at it again, and it landed in its mouth. “Now!” He yelled.

Immediately, arrows pierced the Lion’s maw—two, four, six. It thrashed insanely, wildly, until it fell back, and didn’t move again.

Alarms whined throughout the building, but you and Percy stood still, your hand tight around his wrist. Warmth dribbled down the side of your hand, and you looked down, uncomfortable with the feeling. Bright-red liquid seeped from your skin and onto his, and you quickly let go.

Percy raised his eyes from his hand. A bit of your blood got on him, and he reached for yours again.

You tried pulling back, not wanting to pay attention to it—you never had done blood. You gasped as Percy grabbed you again and raised your hand.

“Ah,” you hissed in pain.

He held your left arm up to inspect it. The arm of your jacket was ripped to shreds, something that, in the midst of all the trouble, you hadn’t noticed. But the edges of the shredded lines were tinged with deep red. All four layers you wore were ruined.

“I thought Thalia got to you in time,” Percy pressed his lips tightly, brows drawn tight.

“It’s nothing some ambrosia can’t fix,” you tried to console him, tilting your head to meet his eyes. “Right?”

He raised his eyes, expression still unhappy. He hummed deeply.

“Let’s get the others and get out of here.” You sighed.

“I’ll get Grover and Thalia,” Percy agreed. “You get Bianca and Zoe. We’re getting out of here.”

—

The three of you walked back to the others quickly. Thalia was standing, appearing a little bit dazed and rubbing her back but otherwise unharmed. Grover was shaking and jittery. When he saw you, he visibly sighed.

“Phew,” he breathed. “I thought the worst.”

“I’m okay,” you smiled. And then froze. Because oh my gods were you and Grover getting along?

To the side, the Lion had disappeared the way most monsters did: in a golden shower of dust, now scattered around where it died. But in the middle of it all was a fur pelt, golden in colour and thick.

“Take it,” Zoe said, looking at Percy.

“What, the fur? Isn’t that like an animal rights violation or something?”

“It is a spoil of war, it is rightly thine.”

“You killed it.”

“I think thy ice-cream sandwich did that. Fair is fair, Percy Jackson. Take the fur.”

Percy’s face showed unsureness, but he kneeled and picked it up anyway. In his hands, it began to shift and change before your eyes into a coat—a golden-brown duster.

He eyed it. “Not exactly my style.”

“We have to get out of here,” Grover said. “The security guards won’t stay confused for long.”

A few on the floor below were running into walls. You turned with a humoured smile pulling at your mouth. You nodded at the boy. “You did that?”

He looked a little embarrassed but nodded. “A minor confusion song. I played some Barry Manilow. It works every time, but it won’t last very long. We need to go.”

“The security guards are not our biggest worry,” Zoe said. “Look.”

A look through the windows showed a group of tall, intimidating-looking men crossing the grassy area outside, all in camo outfits.

“Go,” Percy said. You glared at him. “They’ll be hunting me. I’ll distract them.”

“No,” you said firmly. “We go together.”

“But—”

“She is right,” Zoe looked between you both. “You are part of this quest now. I do not like it, but there is no changing fate. You are the sixth quest member. And we are not leaving anyone behind.”

—

In the van, Zoe drove like a lunatic once more, except this time you were glad for it. A helicopter was hot on your trail, gaining on you with every minute that passed as you were stuck in traffic.

You’d ditched your coat, jacket and sweater for the time being, shivering in a thin spaghetti-strap tee as Percy patched up your arm. You held it out to him, his warm fingers wrapped gently around your elbow, wiping it clean as best he could with the bumps from the driving and the limited medical supplies you had on you at the moment. In any other situation you’d have been up in the clouds dancing with happiness at the fact that Percy was holding your arm and your knees were pressed together. But your arm burned where Percy wiped and wrapped white gauze around it, and your body hurt from being launched down three floors, and your hair looked like a bird had nested in there.

It was less than ideal.

“We need to ditch the van,” you worried your lip, drawing blood. “They know it’s us and they’re not gonna let up.”

It didn’t take a lot of persuasion for everyone to do as you said.

Bianca suggested the subway, and you all gathered as much money together as you could to pay for the fares.

Before too long, your little group was on the train, southbound, heading away from Washington D.C.

“Nice job, Bianca, thinking of the subway,” Grover said.

She looked pleased. “Yeah, well, I saw that station when Nico and I came through last summer. I remember being really surprised to see it because it wasn’t here the last time Nico and I were.”

You went to cross your arms, slouching down in your seat and hissed when your wound smarted. You rested your hands on the seat instead, feeling awkward.

“New? Bianca, that subway has been there for years. It’s really old?…” Grover said.

“I guess Bianca said. “But I swear when we were younger there was no subway.”

Thalia sat forward. “Wait, no subway at all?”

Bianca nodded like it was completely normal.

The rest of you exchanged looks. Because there was no way the subway was less than twelve years old.

“Bianca,” Thalia began. “How long ago?…”

The sound of a helicopter grew uncomfortably loud, and you all looked up as if you could see through the roof of the train.

“We need to change over,” Percy said, sitting opposite you.

And you did. Twice in half an hour.

By the time you got off the last train you’d hit a dead end—an industrial warehouse with dead end railway lines and a lot of snow, so deep you had to tread through it rather than simply walk. It was so cold that you felt the chill through the coat Percy let you borrow.

You wandered through the railway yard, shivering and desperate to wrap your arms around yourself if it weren’t for the pain radiating up your arm. Percy stuck to your side, his arm bumping into yours as you walked, while Bianca and Zoe took the lead and Grover and Thalia stuck behind yourself and Percy.

A homeless guy in a scraggly hat, with a short beard and dirty clothes was hovering over a fire in a bin, warming his hands. “Y’all need to get warmed up? Come on over!”

The others started heading over despite your warning of ‘stranger danger’. You sighed but followed dutifully.

Huddled around the fire, Percy pulled you into the circle. You stared tiredly into the orange flames.

“My hooves are frozen,” Grover complained.

“Feet,” Percy corrected, glancing from Grover to the homeless guy.

“Maybe we should contact camp,” Bianca said. “Talk to Chiron.”

“No. The camp cannot guide or help us anymore. We must finish this quest ourselves,” Zoe said.

“You know,” the homeless guy interrupted. Everyone’s gaze fell on him. “You’re never completely without friends. You guys need a ride going west?”

“Yes sir. You know of any?”

He pointed a thin, greasy hand at a freight train with mesh curtains. The side of the train said Sun West Line.

“That’s…uh…convenient.” Thalia spoke. “Thanks…”

She turned back to the homeless guy. You all did. But…

“Nope. Not today. I’m not doing anymore of this.”

Percy grabbed your good arm and stopped you walking off.

“C’mon, guys,” you groaned. “Can we just rest, now? He’s disappeared. We’re all confused. Let’s just—”

The fire was gone, as if the homeless man had never been with you in the first place. But the train which had suddenly appeared was still in place.

The train held cars upon cars, both new and old. There was enough for everyone to have one each. Zoe and Bianca were crashing in a Lexus on the top deck. Grover sat in a Lamborghini. Thalia was messing with the radio in a BMW.

You chose a sleek, black Mercedes, and Percy joined you.

It was so cold that your breath was visible in the air. Sitting in the passenger seat, you let Percy take the wheel since he was so excited about it.

“It’s like watching a child on Christmas Day,” you teased, relaxing into the seat.

He stuck his tongue out at you, like that was going to help his case.

You rubbed your hands together trying to warm up.

“Still cold?” Percy frowned.

“Tired. Doesn’t help that I think the heater’s broken. I did try to—”

You were caught off guard by him leaning over and taking your hand in his. Your voice cut out. Percy’s cheeks turned bright red and you felt your own grow warm. He avoided your eyes.

“Any, uh—is that better?” He stumbled.

You cleared your throat. A giddy scream was building in your throat. “Mhm. Thanks.”

His hand held your injured one. “Cool. Cool.”

You looked out the window and leaned your chin on your hand. The city flew by so quickly things were a blur. You couldn’t help your smile.

well well well. what do we think of that?

PROGRESS.

taglist: @bl6o6dy @embersparklz @lilyevanswhore @rottenstyx @rory-cakes @i-am-scared-and-useless-bisexual @marshmallow12435 @lantsovheiress @distinguishedmakerpandapatrol @twsssmlmaa @gayandfairycore @padsfirewhisky @emu281 @charlesswife @jessiegerl @crackerphobic @mata0-0mata

GUYS I am begging you—if you change your username and still want to be on the taglist, please let me know!

#capsize #percy jackson #pjo #leo valdez #annabeth chase #heroes of olympus #jason grace #hoo #nico di angelo #trials of apollo #percy jackson fics #percy jackson x you #percy jackson x reader

119 notes · View notes