#and to be clear Annabeth was completely in her rights good for her

[mo-mode]

Grover: Sir 🥺🥺 we’re so sorry but we have no idea what happened to our train cabin—

Percy and Annabeth: WHAT KIND OF STUPID ARE YOU, MR. TRAIN COP?! OOOH YOU THINK SOME TWELVE YEAR OLDS DID THIS?? SO WHAT YOU’RE GONNA ARREST US??? HUH???? POST UP

#your honor theyre soulmates #and to be clear Annabeth was completely in her rights good for her #percy jackson #percy jackon and the olympians #pjo #percy jackson and the olympians #pjo tv show #percy jackson tv show #percy jackson the lightning thief #pjo spoilers #pjo series #grover underwood #annabeth chase #incorrect percy jackson #percy and annabeth #percabeth

[venusphoriia]

— Lovesick Denial

;; ₍ # ₎ ⁀➷ Clarisse La Rue x Reader

─ Jealousy and bitter denial, not really a good combo, is it?

cw ཿ⠀ violence (nothing bad, promise ♡︎), nicknames (clarisse calls you princess, but no pronouns are used), jealousy, denial, high key toxic! clarisse, partially proofread. 2.5k words.

ପ a/n ; requested! lowkey hating this layout right now, but can’t come up with anything better at the moment </3 This took longer to post than I wanted to because I’ve been so busy. Lowkey lost motivation near the end. I hope you enjoy anyway, I might make a part 2.

Irritated. It was the first word that came to mind with how you felt when it came to capture the flag. You gripped your weapon tightly as you roamed the forest, jumping at the slightest sound. You grumbled curses under your breath, you were alone and seriously disadvantaged. You were annoyed, but most of all stressed. Normally, you would have wandered off—finding a decent hiding place until the unsavory game reached its conclusion, but unfortunately for you—Annabeth didn’t really give you the chance this time.

You sigh softly to yourself, tired of aimlessly walking through the forest. You lean against a nearby tree, hoping to rest a bit to replenish some of your energy. Your weapon was held loosely in your hand as you naively let your guard down. It was quiet, perhaps too quiet. The birds’ endless chatter was oddly soundless as the only thing that could be heard was the wind brushing through the tree’s leaves and… footsteps?

A spear pierces the tree’s trunk harshly, narrowly missing you. You jump, your body tensing as you stumble back a bit. You raise your weapon in defense, looking at the spear lodged into the tree before easily recognizing its craftsmanship. Your fingertips brush along your cheek, the small look of disbelief is quickly replaced with irritation as you see the fresh blood. You shoot her a small glare as she slowly approaches you with a smug look on her face.

“You know, it’s pretty dumb to be trying to take a nap out here, princess,” Clarisse mocks with a teasing tone of voice as she stops just a few feet away from you. The amused look on her face only grows once she notices you grow more irritated by her presence. She pulls back her spear, examining its sharp blade before looking back at you with a rather threatening smile.

You lower your weapon, your brows still furrowed slightly in annoyance. If there was anything you hated more than capture the flag—it was Clarisse, the notorious favored daughter of Ares. You’ve only had a few encounters, all of which you consider a displeasure, but if there was one thing you were known for, if not your antisocial personality, it was your smart mouth.

“Aww, I didn’t pick you as the type to care about my wellbeing,” You mock her tone, a clearly irritated smile resting on your lips as you made it clear you were in no mood for her teasing antics.

Clarisse scoffs, scowling softly as if almost genuinely offended by your words. If she was being honest with herself, she was. But, of course, the stubborn daughter of Ares would never admit to it, “I don’t.”

“Then why say something?” You retort, your tolerance really hitting its breaking point. The heat was starting to get to you more than you thought.

“Because,” Clarisse takes a step closer towards you, a small spark erupting from her spear. Her gaze is cold, calculating like a predator watching its prey. It irritated you, but also made every hair on your body stand on edge.

You subconsciously take a step back, trying to maintain some distance. Clarisse smirks at this before abruptly attacking you. It was a single strike, but its weight was as heavy as her pride. You barely managed to block on time, staggering back as you were completely caught off guard.

Clarisse smiles tauntingly as she continues her slow approach. She’s toying with you. You hold up your weapon, ready to parry her next attack. Your guard is up, but so is your anxiety. Clarisse was never known to go easy—especially in a game like this.

But something felt off about this interaction.

Your brows furrowed in confusion. Nothing about Clarisse’s actions made sense to you. She had a game to win, a flag to capture. Yet, she was wasting valuable time to toy with you. Not only that, but she was alone—usually she’d have at least one or two of her siblings with her. This didn’t seem like some regular bullying stunt—no, this felt personal.

“What’s with the confused look, princess?” Clarisse teases, that taunting smile never leaving her lips. She attacks you again, this time more viciously like she’s aiming to hurt you.

You narrowly block the attack, but not completely avoiding the damage. A small cut is left on your upper arm, you click your tongue in annoyance as you glance down at the new wound. You glare up at her, irritated.

“What’s the point of this?” You asked before finally delivering an attack of your own. It’s not as harsh or vicious as Clarisse’s, but the attack has enough weight to it, making it obvious you’re no longer taking this confrontation carelessly.

“Does there have to be a point to this?” Clarisse chuckles, easily blocking the attack. You don’t miss the way she subtly avoids the question, but she doesn’t give you much time to think about it much. She returns the strike, much more vicious than the last two.

This isn’t the first time you had to defend yourself against Clarisse. You’ve witnessed and experienced Clarisse’s fighting style first hand. Despite her hotheaded temper, she fought with pride, but most of all with reason—in her own right, of course. Her attacks are always cold and calculating, strike with purpose and aim to prove something.

So, why did her attacks feel so different? With each strike you blocked—or avoided—the next one felt more angrier and vicious than the previous. Like she was actively trying to kill you, but not at the same time. This felt like more than just some bullying stunt to you, it felt like she was desperately acting in defiance to something. Something close to a personal struggle, perhaps?

Whatever the reason, it didn’t matter. The fight was already lost.

You wince as your weapon broke, your own blade turning against you, cutting your skin. Clarisse wastes no time, electricity cracks from her spear as she follows up with her next attack. She hits you in the abdomen, sending you flying a couple feet away.

The wind is knocked out of you as you roughly hit the ground. You cough harshly, quickly trying to pull yourself to your feet. You mumble a few curses under your breath, your muscles sore and your legs weak. When you struggle to stand, you allow yourself to collapse completely to the ground.

“Don’t tell me you’re giving up now,” Clarisse seems amused, the mocking tone of her voice sounding more like nails on a chalkboard as she lowers her spear. You feel a small headache beginning to form, whether it was from irritation or your harsh landing didn’t really matter to you.

You don’t even have the energy to retort, rolling over on your back tiredly. Fatigue hit you like a truck, and the pain was certainly no help. Your lack of response makes Clarisse worry a little. She holds her spear loosely in her hand, as she glares at you softly.

She opens her mouth to speak, but stops as you hold up your finger in response. She scowls slightly in irritation, but says nothing as she gives you a moment to gather yourself.

“You avoided my question,” You say, a little breathlessly. Your tone was rather blunt as if stating a fact.

Clarisse scoffs, looking away for a moment before responding, “I did not.”

“You did,” Your response is quick as you look over at Clarisse, nonchalantly.

She simply rolls her eyes before quickly changing the subject, “Are you going to continue laying there all day or—”

“You know that doesn’t sound like a bad idea…” You mumble, genuinely taking it into consideration. Your whole body ached and you weren’t really in the mood to get up just yet. Especially considering how you know you’ll be hearing an earful from Annabeth for disappearing so quickly into the game.

Clarisse chuckles, shaking her head in disbelief at your nonchalant attitude. A blaring horn breaks through the small silence and the sound of cheers follows—which is no doubt the blue team’s victory. A third win in a row.

Clarisse's grip tightens around her spear as she looks out into the distance in annoyance. You look at her for a moment before rolling your eyes, deciding to hold your tongue. You’ve already taken more of a beating than you liked.

You sit up, groaning at the dull ache of your muscles. Clarisse looks back at you, watching as you struggle a bit to stand, “Need some help?”

You pause, giving her a look of bewilderment as it took you a moment to realize she was being genuinely in her request. Never, in all your years of being at Camp Halfbood, did you ever hear Clarisse genuinely offer her help to anyone, “You serious?”

It was a genuine question, but your skepticism only irritated Clarisse, making her scoff before placing her spear away. She doesn’t even bother to retort with a harsh insult before walking towards you. She kneels down with her back turned towards you and you realize she’s actually being serious. You looked over her shoulder, your confused daze being met with a small irritated scowl. Too nervous to decline, you hesitantly wrapped your arms around her shoulders as her hands gently gripped your thighs. She carefully stands up, making sure you are steady and comfortable on her back before adjusting you a bit.

Your grip around her tightens a bit, holding her rather close, a little fearful that she may drop you. She oddly doesn’t comment on it, which leaves you with more questions with still zero answers. You truly had no idea what was happening. With every minute, Clarisse surprised you more and more. You wanted to protest, question—anything really—but was left rather speechless as she carried you all the way to the infirmary.

You felt the eyes of your fellow campers, by the looks on their faces they shared the same thoughts of disbelief as you do. Their curious stares and gossiping whispers don’t last long with Clarisse’s silent glare. With deathly shivers being sent down their spine, they quickly go back to minding their business, saving the gossip for later.

You, on the other hand, can only hide your face in embarrassment. The unwanted attention made you want to crawl into a hole, and you knew your friends would have a world of questions of their own. You just hope the attention won’t last long.

────

It did. Although their gossip quieted over time, their curious stares—borderline judgmental—continued to linger behind you. Everywhere you went, no matter how hard you tried to blend into the background—you could always feel at least one pair of eyes watching you. They picked and pried you apart, curious to know how you—a rather dull, outcast—caught the attention of the violent, prideful daughter of Ares.

You were an outsider, never cared for pride or glory. Alway in the background, taking great care to never stand out in a crowd. You were never a loner, but you weren’t exactly ‘known’ either. Average at best was the best way to describe you, but you never seemed to mind. In fact, you enjoyed it.

The life of a demigod was something you never enjoyed nor asked for. A quiet, content life was more of a goal of yours than anything else—anyone with two eyes and a brain could see that.

So, how? Why? What did Clarisse see in you?

Those seemed to be the most common questions when it came to you these days—unspoken, of course. Due to Clarisse’s temper, no doubt. Her anger and aggression has been at an all time high. Losing weeks of desserts due to recent outbursts was definitely not helping.

You took extra care to avoid her, and in turn, she did the same. Though, that only irritated her more. She was frustrated and confused. She had an idea of why she felt the way she did, but she was far too stubborn and prideful to acknowledge it. She wanted to ignore it, to smother the feeling until it withered into ash.

Of course, you were no better either. The same thought peeked into your mind, but you were quick to dismiss it. The simple thought—jokingly or not—of Clarisse even possibly thinking of you at all seemed impossible to even consider. Your friends were no help either, talking your head off with their own suspicions and delusions (as you put it).

So, when someone approached you, a camper known for his boldness and idiocy, it was hard to miss the way your blood went cold. A vicious sense of danger washed over you, your sense heightened. You could barely focus on the words he was saying to you as your eyes subtly scanned your surroundings.

You didn’t have to look for long, your eyes met her cold glare and your whole body went frigid. You knew that look well, you’ve seen it before, but never did you think you would see it directed towards you. It was a sort of jealousy, but felt so much deeper—almost a yearning.

“Hey? You listening?” His voice broke you from your trace, you realized you held Clarisse’s gaze for a few seconds too long. You look back at him with a forced, polite smile before nodding.

You hummed softly in acknowledgment as you tried to ignore the way Clarisse’s knuckles seemed to turn white as her glare hardened out of the corner of your eye. The poor boy didn’t seem to notice the look of worry on your face, too blinded by his own ego. He took your smile and desperate maintenance of eye contact as a sign of interest, which only fueled his rambling. Too bad you weren’t really listening to any of it.

Clarisse watched from afar, her gaze never drifting from you—her siblings are quick to notice her anger, but aren’t quite bold enough to say anything about. One, however, smiles mischievously as she follows Clarisse’s line of sight. She sees an opportunity to cause some form of entertainment, a plan that will also help Clarisse relieve some of her anger.

She smirks as she whispers into Clarisse’s ear, her tense form relaxing as a small, bone-chilling smile makes its way onto her lips. She looks away for a moment, considering the plan for a moment before nodding. A small chuckle leaves her sibling’s lips before she leaves, quick to put the plan into motion.

Clarisse looks back at you and you make eye contact once again. Only this time, the smile on her face fills you with a small sense of dread. You’ve known Clarisse long enough to recognize the cruel look in her eyes. She’s planning something. Something that would ensure at least one person is ending up with a broken bone.

You knew you would be an idiot if you continued to deny it any longer, and Clarisse slowly became aware of the same. A quiet realization, one that neither of you will acknowledge just yet, but one you’re both aware of no less.

She likes you, way more than she would like. And you had no idea how you were going to handle it.

© venusphoriia 2024 — do not copy or repost any of my works on any other platform, please and thank you !! ( ˘ ³˘)♡

#clarisse la rue #clarisse la rue x reader #clarisse la rue x y/n #clarisse pjo #clarisse x reader #clarisse x you

[empyreva]

Daisies

Summary: All you want is to have ONE nice date with Luke without him sabotaging it in some way--surely a flower meadow is safe

Pairing: Luke Castellan x Reader

Word count: 1k

Tags: Fluff, established relationship, fem!reader, Luke and reader are sassy and silly with each other, flirting, teasing, Luke loves getting under your skin, implied sex, vague nudity, 17+

A/N: My thoughts got ahead of me....I liked the idea of reader being like the A type partner and Luke loves messing with her--but you braid flowers in his hair anyway!!

The air is thick with the scents of lavender and honeysuckle--wildflowers dancing with the wind, bending gently but never breaking under the force. Here and there, butterflies and bees dart from flower to flower, sipping nectar lazily.

As you step onto the sprawling expanse of green grass, you can't help but gasp at the scene in front of you. It was like Gaia herself handpicked this location--a sprawling meadow between junctions of neighboring forests, brimming with life. "Wow..." You breathed out, eyes wide with excitement for your perfect picnic date. 

From behind you, the tall grass rustled--a strong arm snaking its way around your waist. Your boyfriend's eyes were pointed ahead, silently contemplating the sanctuary the two of you had found while attempting to get some private time away from the camp. Tugging on Luke's shirt, you enticed him to lean over for a quick kiss before you beckoned him to follow you as you searched for the perfect place to settle down--taking his hand in yours as you ventured further.

"Here's good?" You stopped in front of a small clearing in the field, a patch of dirt stripped bare and empty. Despite being objectively dead, it seemed well-loved, a little TLC would be needed to brush away dust and stray weeds--How many demigods before you had snuck away to this place? The romantic notion alone made your heart flutter.

"Perfect," Luke drawled, giving you a cheeky smile. Enthusiastically, you billowed out the large sheet you had tucked in the small picnic basket--fussing over making sure there were no crinkles in the fabric or sharp rocks underneath it. Watching you bend over and curse as dirt scuffed your pretty white dress had his own thoughts wandering--He honestly couldn't care less about where the two of you ended up.

After deeming everything to be perfectly in place, you dragged Luke down next to you, giggling as he stumbled into a comfortable sitting position. You began to ramble on about something--Luke honestly didn't care much for conversation. He offered you a couple "Mhm"s and "Oh yeah?"s, feigning interest in what you and Annabeth discovered while cleaning out the shed behind Athena's cabin. His eyes flickered down.

Gods, you weren't even wearing a bra.

"Luke--Luke!!" Suddenly you were right in front of him, nose to nose as your eyebrows furrowed. "Are you even listening?"

"Uh-uhm yeah--So uhhhhhh....So what happened after Percy killed that...Lizard?" 

"Tarantula, Luke. And he didn't kill it, he just flung it somewhere and told Annabeth that he killed it," you sighed, pushing your hair back with one hand. Luke felt like he had been pierced through the heart, gazing intently at you as you preened yourself for a moment. "But, anyway, Annabeth was so cute because she..."

"It's a bit hot, don't you think?" He interjected, fingers skirting along the exposed flesh of your thigh--peeking out from beneath your white dress. "Like, I'm actually sooo hot--Aren't you feeling it?" You gasped and pouted, gently pushing his wandering hand back to his side of the blanket. No no, you weren't going to let him win, again. The last time the two of you even tried to leave for a date, he 'accidentally' spilled something all over your shirt so you had to change. In front of him.

"C'mon, Luke, the food's gonna go bad if we start now!" You whined, pointing at the two perfectly crafted sandwiches you made, not to mention the various fresh fruits you packed up for dessert!! Completely ignoring you, Luke shrugged his shirt off from over his head, letting it fall somewhere in the nearby daisies. A smirk danced across his face, noticing the way your gaze immediately diverted the second he was facing you again. His abs had a slight shine to them, his biceps flexing as he pushed himself onto his haunches. "A-Aren't you hungry? We've been walking for like--like an hour!"

"Oh, I'm hungry--starved, even..." Luke pushed the basket out of the way, a slow crawl landing his lips just a breath away from yours. Your breath hitched in your throat, eyes locking with Luke's--Gods he just had this way of getting you right under his thumb. A large hand slipped all the way up your dress, gently massaging the burning-hot flesh of your chest.

"I just have this...craving for something else."

--

"This is fucking amazing, baby," Luke moaned, his fingers dwarfing what remained of his sandwich. His head lay on your bare lap, cradled between your knees as he lounged, free as a bird, basking in the warmth of the sun and summer air. "Best. Sandwich. Ever."

"Thank you," you huffed, one hand massaging his scalp as the other supported your dinner. "You spoilt brat..." Luke frowned at the words that you muttered under your breath, reaching a hand up to flick at your nose.

"Hey!"

"I'm not a brat," he whined, poking at your jaw like a child. "Don't say that."

"Don't say that," you mocked. "Gods, can you ever NOT act like a big baby."

"Just for you, my girl."

You looked down at your boyfriend's handsome face--His mischievous brown eyes sparkled under the soft rays of the setting sun, while his dark curls fell around his forehead in gentle waves. Laughter escaped him as you gave his ribs a soft tickle, and he tried to evade you for a second before you decided that you wanted to try and actually be romantic. Something about these teenage boys...

You turned to your side and reached over, plucking a few daisy blossoms from the ground—a bouquet of white. With a smile, you began delicately threading them through his locks. Some clung tight to his scalp, others drifted lightly to the tips of his curls. He closed his eyes and sighed deeply, relishing the sensation of your fingers against his skin--the soft tugging and gentle petting as you crafted a sort of halo.

"My handsome boy," you murmured, hoping to commit this moment to memory. Luke was growing sleepy, you could tell by how his eyes fought to stay open long enough to gaze into yours--the rise and fall of his chest in the rhythm of a euphony of crickets in the distance. He looked so pretty like this, so vulnerable, so trusting. You wished that this day would never end.

#luke castellan #luke castellan x reader #luke castellan fluff #pjo tv show #percy jackson

[lilislegacy]

an analysis: piper calling percy unimpressive

(warning: i wrote this at 1 am)

so basically

remember how we all despised piper mclean when she had the audacity to call our beloved percy “unimpressive” and we all lost our shit on the inside a little bit?

i truly don’t think she meant it in the way we think she did. i think we’re all just defensive of our boy.

piper clearly states that she is comparing percy to jason. first of all, jason is her boyfriend, so of course she’s biased. second of all, hera was manipulating piper to be obsessed with jason. so other guys and girls are automatically unimpressive to her.

and here’s the big thing: piper does not call him unattractive. she does not call him ugly. she simply says he’s not her type. piper is clearly attracted to the “good boy” look. jason is literally your all-american boy. he’s tall with light skin, a sturdy build, neat blonde hair, and blue eyes. part of why annabeth doesn’t trust him is because she is unsettled by his “perfect” appearance. jason is also obedient and well-mannered. he’s your standard good boy.

and the fact of the matter is: percy looks like a “bad boy”. and often, he acts like one too. him and jason are contrasts of each other. a symbolic representation of this: their features. percy has a darker complexion, messy black hair, unique green eyes, and a “sarcastic troublemaker smile.” he’s muscular, but in a leaner and more trim way. he’s tall, but he’s not a towering muscleman by any means. not that jason is either, but don’t forget, percy is a whole one. inch. (GASP) shorter than jason (which to me isn’t even noticeable, so her pointing it out as a flaw just proves that she’s so incredibly biased towards jason.) their other big contrasting feature: their personalities. jason is respectful and well-mannered. very obedient and under control. percy, however, makes jokes during inappropriate moments, talks back to people of power and authority, gets angry quickly, and loses control easily. i mean, literally right after she says this, percy starts insulting the roman god Bacchus and rapidly escalates a situation because of his natural instinct to be disobedient. piper is horrified by him doing this, especially because jason would never. does it make US all love percy very much? yes. but piper isn’t us.

THAT SAID, even she can’t actually call him unattractive. she even went as far to state that she can see why annabeth likes him, which means even her magically-obsessed-with-jason brain can still recognize his attractiveness and see why girls find him appealing. she calls him “cute in a scruffy way,” meaning she thinks that he’s got a disheveled attractiveness to him. she also once said that his pleading eyes are like a cute baby seal’s - even she can’t deny that his eyes are wonderful. so even though piper calls him unimpressive, i think rick put in a lot of clues here showing us that she acknowledges him as a conventionally attractive person, even if she’s not personally attracted to him.

let’s sum it up, shall we?

what does it say about percy? absolutely nothing. piper calling percy unimpressive is an inaccurate and unreliable source when it comes to analyzing percy’s physical appearance, especially if you don’t consider the context. this was rick’s way of showing piper’s clear preference towards jason, just like annabeth has a clear preference towards percy. and even though she said this, rick also made her give us several hints that percy is handsome, just not in a way she’s inclined towards. rick wanted love triangles to be completely out of the question with these 4. he wanted to make it very clear that annabeth had no interest in jason, and that piper had no interest in percy. so since piper is so drawn towards jason, percy had to be very different from him in her eyes.

jason is your a superman, percy is your batman

jason is your captain america, percy is your iron man. some even say spider man.

so put yourself in piper’s shoes: after hearing percy jackson’s name non-stop for 6 months, hearing him compared to jason, hearing of all his accomplishments and how heroic he is - i mean, the guy was literally honored on olympus and offered godhood - she was expecting a stereotypical good-boy hero. a hercules. a superman. your standard muscular blinding-white-teeth-smile hunk. the conventional, well-mannered good boy. and instead she got a wild and untamed, trouble-making bad boy. percy has an edge to him. he’s intimidating and unpredictable. he’s sarcastic and witty. he just looks like he’s up to no good. she wasn’t expecting any of that. that’s not what we’re taught a hero is supposed to be like or look like.

jason is appealing in a “he’d be a respectable and sturdy husband” way.

percy is appealing in a “he’s gonna fuck up my life but i so badly want him to” kind of way. (even though once you get to know him, you see he’s literally the world’s best boyfriend. piper even gets jealous of how loving he is towards annabeth.)

she had this exact idea of what he would be, and he wasn’t that. hence her calling him “unimpressive.” but it says nothing about his attractiveness.

i rest my case, your honor.

thank you for coming to my ted talk

disclaimer: i am not saying percy is actually a bad boy or a bad guy. he is a sweetheart. he has the biggest heart ever. he’s a cute little cinnamon roll. i am simply talking of first impressions from outsiders, and how he appears if you don’t know him.

#don’t worry #percy is hot #analysis #this is so disorganized lol #late night thoughts #you guys asked for it #percy jackson #jason grace #mark of athena #heroes of olympus #percabeth #percy jackson and the olympians #pjo #annabeth chase

[hopelesslyromanticshark]

Hi lovely, how are you? Saw your requests were open and took advantage of it ‘cause your writing is too good??? 😤🙌

Anyway, I wanted to request a Leo Valdez x Athena!daughter!reader where the reader is like sick with fever but she is pretty stubborn on not wanting help (literally her fatal flaw) and so she insists that she’s fine and all good until she’s just chilling with Leo in bunker 9 and she collapses. Lot of fluff please! 🤭

Thank you, and take your time to write this! No pressure at all babe! 🧡🫶🏻 (i’ll go now, I still have to finish three lectures for tomorrow and it’s like midnight here)

⋆ ˚｡⋆౨ৎ˚ I Am Not Sick - Okay, Maybe A Little Sick

content: leo valdez x daughter of athena! reader fic warning: language, mentions of being sick and throwing up and all that icky stuff but i think that's it!! author's note: as someone who is deathly sick rn, i concur. where is my soft boy to take care of me bc i wont take care of myself, huh?? also, hope you finished your lectures, i understand the procrastination its a silent killer frfr

"oh...you don't look good. like, at all," annabeth winced that morning, watching as the other daughter of athena dragged herself out of bed. this comment earned annabeth a glare as the other girl made her way towards the bathroom.

"wow, you're so sweet, annie. good morning to you too! gods, i just woke up-" the girl bit out, sarcastically, before getting cut off by a large sneeze, which left the girl's arm coated in snot. annebeth winced and took a step back, watching as her sister stood there in shock for a moment.

"are you-"

"shut up."

"okay."

despite annabeth's best efforts to get you to rest, you still marched your way out of that cabin, a woman on a mission. her mission? survive the day. preferably without throwing up, but we'll see how the day goes. first order of business; track down leo valdez. you had a multitude of reasons to see the son of hephaestus; he of all people would not send you to the infirmary, he still had some of your scrolls that you'd lent him and...well, you found him attractive. there, you admit it! he's hot, go screw yourself! but as you made the trek towards bunker nine, you were growing exhausted. but gods forbid annabeth be right about another thing. you paused outside the door, coughing up a lung and struggling to get air back into your lungs before taking a huge deep breath. which you breathed out as coughs, once more. huffing, you quite literally shook yourself before walking in, looking around for the boy and nearly tripping over some hammer.

"leo?! you in here?!" you called, clearing your scratchy throat after, shaking your head at the feeling. leo popped out from behind his project, rolling from under neither it and frowning up at you.

"you don't sound like...you."

"thanks, valdez! turning up the charm at ten in the morning, huh?!" you bit back, rolling your eyes. you were growing sick of the comments. actually, you were just sick, but you'd only admit that mentally. leo was still frowning at you, now sitting on the concrete floor as he stared at you, his head tilted and brows furrowed in silent questions.

"y/n-"

"look, rough night, rough morning. im fine, okay? drop it. i'm just here to get my stupid scrolls back and- woah," you stopped your angry rant as you wobbled on your feet, the corner of your eyes growing fuzzy and your brain turning a little muddy and mushy.

"woah is right. you are clearly not fine-" leo insisted, jumping up to his feet and reaching a hand out to you but you stumbled back from him, holding a hand out to keep him back as your other hand went to your forehead.

"i am completely and utter fine-"

before you could finish your lies, your knees buckled and you surely would have smashed against the harsh concrete had it not been for leo shooting forwards to catch you. after that, it was moments of consciousness in between unconsciousness, small memories of leo pulling a blanket up on you, snuggling closer to a pillow. vague memories of throwing up, your hair held back by something that felt similar to a hand. then, you finally blinked your eyes open and they stayed open this time. your eyes were still adjusting, looking around to try and grasp where you were. you saw a random wrench on the floor and knew you had to still be in bunker nine. you looked down, noting you were no longer in the shirt you walked in with but rather one of leos, you could tell from the grease smeared all over it. as you sat up, inspecting the shirt and blushing at the connotation, leo walked in.

"thank the gods! was starting to worry about you," leo huffed, laughing in a way that told you 'starting' was a lie. you could visibly see the tension leaving his shoulders, relaxing at the thought that you were okay.

"sorry," you muttered, digging your hands into the hem of the shirt, twisting and playing with it. leo reached out and settled his hands on top of yours, causing your eyes to look over into his.

"you don't have to apologize. you should look after yourself more but...im, uh, im happy to do it," leo admitted, his confession getting caught in his throat and the tips of his ears turning scarlet. a small smile twitched onto your lips before you pulled one of your hands away and tugged pointedly at your new shirt, raising a brow at the boy.

"oh! yes, sorry, you, er, threw up all over the last one. very attractively, i promise," leo teased, you shaking your head in hopes the blurring motion would cause him to miss your blush, "that's one of mine- also, i didn't change you! it was annabeth, promise!!"

"ugh, you told her i was sick! snitch!" you hissed, slapping his arm before sucking in a labored breath as you were hit with a wave of nausea.

"that's karma right there. abusing me and shit," leo huffed with a joking roll of his eyes before leaning over and grabbing something that was just out of view, "lemme make it up to you."

he presented you with the most delicious looking chicken noodle soup. you were practically drooling as you gently took the soup from him, cradling it to your chest like it was a baby. you looked back up at him with wide eyes and he was already staring at you, a soft smile on his lips before he reached forwards and brushed a loose strand of hair back behind your ear.

"it's my mom's recipe, it always made me feel better as a kid when i was sick. asked the harpies to let me use the kitchen," whispered leo after you took a few bites. instantly, you were melting before the boy at the sweet gesture, sharing a part of his mom with you.

"thank you. for- for everything. honest," you murmured and leo just beamed another soft smile at you.

"of course. i like- i like taking care of you- well," leo kept cutting himself off before breathing out a long breath, "yeah, i like you. like, like-like you. as in-"

"i like-like you too, leo. and not just because you're a good cook," you cut in before he could spiral out of control. and leo looked at you like you were the only thing that ever mattered. he went to lean in but you set a gentle hand against his chest, ever the logical one.

"leo, i'm sick-"

"fuck it. if you think im gonna go another minute without kiss you, you're dumber than i thought," bit out leo, instantly, before cupping your face and pulling you into a smashing kiss. and you couldn't find in you to care that he was gonna get sick, the feeling of his lips against yours and his hands in your hair and your hands against his chest being too addictive.

this boy was turning your brain to mush, something that was surely breaking your mother's heart.

but, fuck it, right?

#postcards from covey ౨ৎ #all my love ౨ৎ #pjo #hoo #heroes of olympus x reader #leo valdez x reader #leo valdez

[ofswordsandpens]

just caught up on the pjo show and tbh Grover's interaction with Ares was hilarious but VERY (like, completely) ooc for him, tbh

grover in general just feels like a very different character than he was in the books, I'm a little (okay more than a little) annoyed

honestly as much as I'm enjoying Aryan's portrayal, as the show progresses the less and less this feels like a depiction of book Grover. Like, did I think master manipulator Grover playing Ares was funny? Absolutely. Did it feel like something book 1 Grover would have done? Not particularly.

And I think I would be vibing with these changes more if the show wasn't also removing Grover from scenes where he was either: extremely helpful, made the right call, or actively saved Percy and Annabeth.

Like in the book, Grover made the initial correct call about Medusa and then actively battled her to the best of his ability. In the show, his correct call is given to Annabeth and he can't control the shoes so he's removed from the scenario so Percy and Annabeth can talk about it. Then he accidentally crashes into the boxes which distracts Medusa. This is the extent of his "help" to them.

Then he's removed from the Water Land parts entirely. In the book, he saved Percy and Annabeth from either death or at minimum extreme bodily harm from crashing into the asphalt, but in the show he's forced to stay with Ares as collateral. And then the show did attempt to give him something to do by manipulating Ares and I promise, I do understand the intent behind the scene, but again, since I find it very unlikely that Grover's going to correctly identify the lightning thief in the next episode, he didn't really get anything valuable for the team.

And just to be clear: it's not that I'm upset that show Grover's going to be wrong, because I do think it's important for characters to be able to make mistakes, make wrong calls, etc. It's just that as of now (episode 5) you could have removed show Grover from the quest and it would have hardly made a single difference.... That's not good. And you cannot say the same for book Grover at this same point in time.

Then the show's also removed Grover's personal stake in the quest from the book: his last chance to redeem himself to get his license, and his consequent motivation to one day search for Pan.

Book Grover also feels exceedingly guilty and perceives himself as a failure, and the show's barely touched on at it at all, and sure, we have a few more episodes to circle around to this but we still should have had more seeds of this sewn by now. It's more impactful for it to be carried through the plot rather than exposition-dumped in the final hour.

So I guess here's to hoping that in the last three episodes, the show will allow Grover to do more in the trio beyond providing conflict management and comic relief. And actually provide concrete and useful help.

#like we're at a point in the show now #where even if they manage to do well in the last three episodes #I don't know how much it absolves the weaknesses of the preceding 5 #I just.... #look how they massacred my boy #(Again this is NOT on Aryan!!) #pjo show crit #asks

[tamiiii46]

i was wandering if i could request a annabeth x femreader angst without a happy ending? Like for refrence annabeth breaks it off between them and the reader like dies if that makes sense???? Anyways dont feel pressured to and thank you for your time<3

Okayyy sure. This is kind of my first time writing so it might not be good. After this, please send some tips on how i could improve.

Enjoy😭

You slam your cabin door, tucking yourself in bed as your feelings overwhelm you. You feel tears building up in your eyes as you try to prevent them falling.

Unknowingly, you started to sob.

Annabeth had meant a lot to you, and she had said she cared for you too. If so, why had she shut you out, why would she broke things of so abruptly. It was like you were talking to a completely different person, her eyes had lost their sparkle, and she was nothing but rude and impertinent.

She had been so happy a few hours before, but you hadn't known what had gone wrong. Before you could think more on the matter you noticed one of your cabinmates stirring in their sleep. You decided to quiet down and sleep it off.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The next morning, you woke up tired and sad. A lot of your friends had noticed and found it weird. You were always so energetic and bubbly. Eventually, you just started to ignore all the worried glances coming your way. Until you were approached by two close friends.

"Y/n are you okay?"

You looked up to saw Percy with a worried looking Grover by his side. You let out a huff of frustration and sadness, building up the discipline to not break down in tears.

"Im okay, just having a bad day" you said giving them a tight lipped smile.

They didnt seem to believe you much as Grover placed a hand on your shoulder.

"Are you sure?" Grover asked, his voice filled with uncertainty. You nodded quietly and for a few minutes, you three stood there in awkard silence; Grover's hand still on your shoulder.

Grover cleared his throat, making you arch an eyebrow. He elbowed Percy in the gut, very obviously hinting him to say something. Percy grunted out, giving Grover a dirty look.

"Does this have anything to do with Annabeth?" You were quiet as you looked at anything but them. You eyes soon started to water as your two friends pulled you into a comforting hug. She appreciated them, but she didnt want anyone seeing her weak.

"Thanks guys for your support, but i need some space to properly process this." You broke aways from them, not waiting for a response.

Walking back to your cabin, you bump into someone making you fall flat on your ass. You apologize quickly to the person looking up. Only to come face to face with Annabeth. You both stared into the others eyes. Before anyone of you could say a word, loud screams were heard. You both ran towards them.

Running up to Percy and Grover, your eyes come in contact with a Minotaur. The stench of rotten flesh wafts around the air, making you scruch your nose.

The monstrous creature roared out, its skin rough and dirty. With its head bent low, and nostrils flared, it charged towards Annabeth. Without thinking you did the only thing that came to your mind at the time.

You grabbed a spear from Grover running directly at the half human half bull. You got on top of the wild beast, stabbing it in its back. The Minotaur started to aggressively move around, desperately trying to throw you off of itself. Your legs lose their bearing around its torso as your hands grip tightly onto the spear.

You hope for the best as your body is left flinging around in the air. For a moment it became fun, until the spear slips out of your fingers. You grasp the air for a surface, grabbing onto the Minotaurs left horn. The terrifying creature turns its head to the side, throwing your chest directly unto its right horn.

You cry out in pain as tears fall past you eyes. The Minotaur shakes its head in hopes of getting you off its horn. This sends you flying into a wooden table, breaking it into pieces, leaving you bleeding out onto the grass.

The last thing you hear is hurried footsteps and Annabeth yelling out your name.

Then everything goes black.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

GUYSS

My first storyy. Idk if it's good or not, but i think i tried.

It's kind if short, but who cares.

Send more requests.

Thanks for reading, and please dont foget to send your tips on how i could write better.

Or other ways you would like me to write...

Bye😘

#annabeth chase #annabeth chase x reader #percy pjo #pjo #percy jackon and the olympians #percy jackson #pjo series #annabeth chase x y/n #annabeth

[wisdomssdaughterr]

A Demi-God's Loyalty

Requested! | Read more here!

percy jackson & annabeth chase

percy jackson TV series episode 5: the missing scene of percy and annabeth walking back to the diner.

***

Ares’s shield was heavy, but Annabeth held onto it tightly in an attempt to stop her hands from shaking. Her clothes were still damp from her and Percy’s unplanned swim in Hephaestus’s Thrill Ride of Love, or whatever. 

The two Half-Bloods hadn’t spoken a word to each other since Percy was freed from his golden statue form and they booked it out of the tunnel with Ares’s shield in hand. Annabeth wasn’t sure what she was supposed to say. A part of her wanted to punch Percy for being so stupid, again.

First, he pushed her down the stairs at the St. Louis Arch to fight the Chimera alone, and then he sat on the golden throne trap so she could retrieve the shield. He could have died twice and he hardly seemed bothered by it. He would have died twice, and what for? Her? No way. 

Annabeth had dreamed of a quest forever. She wanted to leave camp and prove that she was a warrior to her mother, Athena. Before Percy’s quest, Annabeth would have done anything to please to Gods and prove that she deserved their praise. Then, the son of Poseidon showed up, and despite their differences, he risked his life to protect her and Gover. Sure, he wanted to complete the quest and prevent a Godly war, but he didn’t fight the Chimera or sit on the throne to please the Gods; Percy did those things because he was good. Percy was also different. He was stupid and reckless, but he was good and different from anyone Annabeth had met before. 

On the other hand, because of his infuriating self-sacrifice twice in a row, she wanted to hug him again. Maybe she’d hug him and then punch him, or vice-versa. 

“Do you want me to carry it for a while?” Percy asked, breaking the silence. 

Annabeth tightened her grip on the shield and shook her head. “I’ve got it.” The thing was nearly the size of her and heavy, but she needed her hands occupied and something to pull at least some of her focus so it wasn’t all on the blonde-haired boy beside her. 

Percy didn’t argue. He was still probably in shock from turning into a statute. His clothes were damp as well and his whole body shook slightly. At least he didn’t look as bad as when he was poisoned, but Annabeth was a little concerned that something was wrong. 

“Are you okay?” she asked.

“I mean, I’m a little hungry but-” 

“Percy,” she snapped, tossing him a glare that veiled some of her concern. 

He ran a hand through his wet curls, pushing them back from his forehead. “Oh, you mean from the whole turning-into-gold thing?” She nodded and rolled her eyes. “Totally! After falling from the arch, that was nothing.” Percy’s tone was light, and it was clear that he was trying to ease the mood, but it made Annabeth feel worse. She stopped walking in the middle of the empty road and turned to him, with most of her body hidden behind Ares’s shield. 

“We’ve gotta get back to Grover-” Percy started, but she cut him off.

“You’re wrong,” she said, simply. “I’m not better at this than you.” 

Percy let out a deep sigh, his shoulders slumping with it. “Annabeth-” 

“No. You’re wrong. And…” she hesitated, resting the heavy shield against the ground before she looked Percy right in his bright blue eyes. “And as your friend, I’m not gonna let you do something like that again. You’re going to retrieve the Master Bolt from Hades and get your mother back. I’ll make sure of it. No more sacrifices, got it? If we’re doing this, we’re doing it together, all of us.” A passion filled her voice so strong she startled herself -her emotions still ran high from watching Percy nearly be trapped forever as a statute- but she meant every word she said. 

Percy looked slightly relieved and slightly surprised at the same time. “So…we are friends?” 

Annabeth rolled her eyes again and resumed walking toward the diner. Percy grabbed a hold of her shoulder and forced her to stop. “What I mean is, I don’t care what the Oracle said. I want to be your friend. If you were going to betray me, you would have left me in that ride and taken the shield without a second thought. But you didn’t; you saved me from being some creepy statue for the rest of eternity. Thanks for that, by the way.” 

“I didn’t really get you out,” Annabeth confessed, shifting her gaze at the road under their feet. “I told Hephaestus the truth and he undid his trap.” 

“The truth about what?” 

A small smile tugged on Annabeth’s lips. “Maybe one day I’ll tell you, Seaweed brain.” They began walking again, side by side through the cool night toward the faint glow of the diner in the distance. 

“Seaweed brain,” Percy repeated the nickname. “That’s not gonna stick is it?” 

“We’ll see.” 

They continued to walk, and Annabeth found a new goal to aim for. She didn’t want to beg and grovel for her mother’s affection, not after Athena tried to kill her and her friends inside the arch. Annabeth still respected her mother, there was no way she could shake that childly ache to be noticed by a parent, but her loyalties began to shift. If getting her mother’s praise was impossible, then she’d do something more tangible for a demi-god. Annabeth Chase would follow Percy Jackson. She doubted she’d be able to stop him from doing anything else stupid, but she’d be there to either help him do the stupid thing or get him out of it. 

She could almost hear the gods, monsters, giants, titans, and her fellow half-bloods laughing at her. A child of Athena silently pledging her loyalties to a son of Poseidon; it was comical, but Annabeth was dead serious. If Percy was going to shove her down the stairs and sit on a godly trap, then Annabeth was going to be there to fight or fall with him, yell at the gods on his behalf, and fight tooth and nail to make sure they all get back to camp alive. It was a foolish plan, but if there was one thing Annabeth was good at, it was executing a plan to perfection. 

#percy jackson #annabeth chase #percabeth #percy jackson and the olympians #percy jackson x annabeth chase #percy jackson fic #percy jackson fanfiction #pjo series #pjo spoilers #izzy’s library

[ineedtotouchgrassrightnow]

Moon,Sun,Earth

”The moon needs the sun to shine but the sun couldn’t care less earth is the one who recieves all the sunlight"

Child of Zeus!!!

You've been friends with Percy for years. You two just clicked from a young age, and nothing could alter that. You were each other's complement – you on his right, he on your left. Inseparable, wherever one ventured, the other followed; an unbreakable bond that time couldn't touch.

Every time he fell sick, you cared for him despite his reluctance, cautious not to make you catch the sickness. Whenever he fought with his stepdad and needed someone to confide in, you were there. Through every bout of poor grades, you stood by him.

Since meeting Annabeth, everything went awry. Initially, he praised her intelligence and agility. But it escalated, becoming a recurring issue in where every conversation somehow revolved around her. Hanging out? "Annabeth showed me-" Your birthday? "Annabeth did the funniest thing yesterday!" Even breaking your arm was tied to Annabeth, as he exclaimed, "I think Annabeth is mad at me." The focus shifted entirely.

It has reached a point where he cancels plans with you to cater to her every need. He promised to assist you with training later in the day but had to cancel due to Annabeth's fever. Even after she reassured him she was fine, he stopped talking to you. He ignores your waves when you cross paths, always choosing Annabeth. Every new quest or important news, he rushes to tell Annabeth. In his constant pursuit of her, he overlooks the one who was there for him from the beginning.

You reached a breaking point after he forgot your birthday again. It was worse than enduring his rants about her last year. Does he even know your birthday? If you were to ask him, 'What's my birthday?' would he mistakenly say July 12th, thinking about hers?

"Why are you acting so stuck up?" he snapped at you, frustrated with your behavior.

"Why am I acting stuck up? Why are you behaving like you're better than me?"

"When did I ever start acting better than you?"

"I don't know? Maybe after you completely forgot about me!? Perhaps it was when you replaced me with someone who is just another facade of me!"

"Don't you dare disrespect Annabeth!" he shouted, his voice clear and sharp, sending shivers down your spine. He had never defended you like this before.

"Disrespect? You disrespected me. What are you talking about? After all I did for you?" You couldn't help but laugh at his demeanor. "I wasted my whole life looking after you!" Your hand gripped into a fist.

"I took care of you every time you got in a fight with your stepdad! I nursed you back to health when you were sick! I walked you home! I tried to help you get better grades. I stayed up late talking to you even if I had a big test the next day!" Your nails dug deeper into your skin as your fist clenched turning white.

"I never asked for any of that! You just wasted your own damn time!"

"I wasted my time being a good friend!?"

"I never asked you to be my friend in the first place! You just came along some random day and never left! Following me around like a lost puppy with no life!"

"I'm sorry for caring about you!!! I won't do it again!" The words hung heavy in the air, a bitter acknowledgment of the unraveling friendship.

"Good, I don't want or need you in my life!"

"I want you!" You yelled without realizing. You quickly covered your mouth, but he still heard you. Percy didn't know what to say in response to that, the pissed demeanor fading to a confused look mixed with disgust. The tension thickened as the weight of your confession lingered in the air, both of you grappling with the sudden shift in the dynamic that had defined your friendship.

"Did you honestly think I would be anything more than friends with you?"

"I don't even like you romantically!" You felt your heartbeat race as you lied.

"I want you back! You were my friend, my other side. I miss you!" You took a deep breath as you felt your lungs giving out.

"I miss listening to you rant about your day, about the girls that bullied you, about your favorite class! I miss you! I miss my friend!"

"Were you my friend or was I YOUR friend? “Was I your friend... or were you my friend?" The questions echoed, revealing.

"Look, can we just call this quits? I have training with Annabeth-"

"Annabeth this, Annabeth that! What about Y/N this and Y/N that? Huh!? What does she have that I don't? What did you see in her that you couldn't see in me after years?"

"Do you want the truth?"

"I don't... I don't know. Something about her..." His face turned a slight pink as the heat rushed to his face, thinking about her. The room filled with an awkward silence.

You couldn't help but start laughing loudly too. "Y-You don't kn-know!?" Your sentences were breaking up due to your unstoppable laughter.

"Bullshit! Y-You, I- I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ANYMORE!" You couldn't take it anymore. All the thoughts in your head were mashing together and mixing to the point you didn't know what to think. The room echoed with the chaotic laughter.

"Fine then! Forget me! Go, leave, go hang out with Annabeth!"

"Thank you." Percy rolled his eyes and left, leaving you standing all alone, dumbfounded.

*"I hate him! I hate him, I hate him, I hate him!"* You knew you could never hate him, but you needed to feel like you could hate him.

You watched as he walked up to Annabeth, and his mood increased right away, the same way it used to when you two would hang out. The contrast stung, emphasizing the void left.

Even if you hated her, you saw what he saw in her – she was smart, sassy, charming, strong-minded, and all the good stuff. She had nothing negative about her! He would be crazy not to be head over heels for her. Yet, you couldn't stop feeling guilty. You knew she did nothing wrong; she was always nice to you, but she was just... so UGH!?

A new pit of rage mixed into your stomach, one that grew bigger and bigger every time you saw them hanging out, laughing, or doing anything together! The conflicting emotions churned within, a storm of resentment and self-blame.

Not knowing what to do, you went back to your empty cabin, cabin 1, and grabbed everything that belonged to Percy: his hoodies, his sweatshirt, the stupid letters he would write to you when you were younger that made no sense since he had bad dyslexia, and the stupid stuffed dog he got you at the fair after struggling many times to get it. In your fit of rage, you went to grab a towel he left a long time ago and ended up hitting your side on an extra bunk bed. All the emotions you had bottled up came pouring out of nowhere; this was the final straw. Tears came down your face like crazy.

“I HATE HIM I HATE HIM I HATE HIM I HATE HIM I HATE HIM I HATE HIM I HATE HER I HATE HER I HATE HER I HATE HER I HATE HER I HATE HER I HATE HER I HATE MYSELF I HATE MYSELF I HATE MYSELF I HATE MYSELF I HATE MYSELF”

Ignoring the pain in your throat, you shouted uncontrollably. Once you started yelling, you couldn't stop; your breaths became uneven, and you sounded like a distraught child crying. If you were a child, you would probably run to Percy about this too.

Without thinking, you shoved all his stuff into a box, getting ready to leave. However, the stupid bear just stared up at you from the box, a silent reminder of the shared memories.

“…”

You ended up throwing the bear onto your bed and walked off with the box in your hand, a sobbing mess. Your destination: Cabin 3, Poseidon’s cabin—the one where Percy would be.

As you were about to knock on the door, a laugh you knew all too well reached your ears. "I- I love you so much-" The words were abruptly cut off, replaced by the sound of a kiss. It took everything in you not to drop the box; a wave of sickness threatened to overwhelm you at any minute.

Without thinking, you placed the box in front of the door and banged loudly, surely startling them inside. You ran off to the side of his cabin as the door opened. "What is it, Percy?" "Just some stupid box full of my stuff," he sounded annoyed but took it inside.

Alone in camp, with your only friend turned against you and longing for the girl you wished to be, you felt stranded. The wait until you could leave weighed heavily on you.

Feeling a sense of emptiness, you stared up at the ceiling, boredom consuming you. With nothing to do or say, time passed, and as darkness enveloped the surroundings, you remained motionless. No standing, no thoughts, no appetite – just a lingering inertia as you lay there, lost in a void. Despite skipping meals, you knew the campfire was unavoidable, bound by camp rules. Summoning every ounce of strength, you reluctantly stood up, acknowledging that you would have to face them there.

Each step towards the campfire felt like a heavy burden, the weight increasing with every step. As you arrived, the sight of them together, laughing and sharing a moment, struck you. A shiver ran through her, and he offered his jacket, a familiar gesture that once belonged to you. She hesitated, blushing, but he insisted, and you witnessed the echoes of your past now shared between them.

Uncertain of what to do, you sat on the ground, drawing in the dirt with a stick you found nearby. Seeking any distraction to make time pass faster, you focused on the simple act of creating temporary patterns in the earth beneath you. It was a long 30 minutes, but you finally decided on getting up and leaving. You felt her eyes on you – her disgusting, kind gray eyes.

You went back to your cabin, laid down again, and started sobbing loudly. You hated him so much, but how you loved him! You ended up going into a depressive episode. You refused to eat for days on end, refused to train, refused to do your hair—refused to do anything other than lay down. It's been a mess outside; Zeus is fighting with Poseidon again due to this. Percy hurt you, and now the sky is fighting with the sea.

The sky is thundering like crazy, and the water is going wild as well. Hey, this is your fault; you should know better—water and electricity don't mix well together.

#percy jackson #percy jackon and the olympians #percy pjo #percy series #annabeth chase #percy and annabeth #pjo #angst #pjo fandom #x reader #reader insert

[captainkirkk]

I have some nice pjo recs for you (many crossovers bc I'm a sucker for those) :

the ship of theseus by zipadeea - i think one of the best pjo crossovers i've read (dcu/pjo) afaik it readable without having to read HoO. Absolutely heartwrenching.

the ship of theseus (14839 words) by zipadeea Chapters: 5/5 Fandom: Batman - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, Batman (Comics), Batman: Under the Red Hood (2010), <a href="https://archiveofourown.org

Baby Blofis College Fund also by zipadeea: very funny

Baby Blofis College Fund (2908 words) by zipadeea Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Paul Blofis/Sally Jackson, Percy Jackson & Sally Jackson, Sally Jackson/Poseidon (Percy Jackson), Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson Characters: Sally Jackson (Percy Jackson), Paul Blofis, Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase (Percy Jackson), Poseidon (Percy Jackson), Estelle Blofis Additional Tags: Humor, Fluff and Smut, Fluff and Humor, Family Feels, Pregnancy Series: Part 3 of how to co-parent your reckless demigod 101 Summary:

Valerie calls her an hour later.

“Sally, what the hell?”

“That bad, huh?”

“Bad? Sally, it’s gold. I went from squirming in my seat to crying genuine tears. And that twist, making him a Greek god, it’s exactly what we’re looking for right now. How soon can you get me the next chapter?”

***

In which Sally Jackson realizes by the time the new baby is eighteen, a semester of college will cost an arm and a leg. And those Fifty Shades of Grey books sure did make a lot of money.

glass figures by ahermioneh: epic marvel/pjo crossover that is partly responsible for me to actually get an ao3 account, deviates from pjo canon a lot but uses a lot of the world building

glass figures (211796 words) by ahermioneh Chapters: 36/36 Fandom: Marvel, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Clint Barton & Percy Jackson, Percy Jackson & Natasha Romanov (Marvel), Clint Barton & Percy Jackson & Natasha Romanov (Marvel), Minor or Background Relationship(s), Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson Characters: Percy Jackson, Clint Barton, Sally Jackson, Natasha Romanov (Marvel), Phil Coulson, Annabeth Chase, Jason Grace, Paul Blofis, Steve Rogers, Most of The Ensemble from Both Universes Appear Additional Tags: the timeline is screwed to hell, demigod powers kick in in their twenties, clint is so young, Like, vaguely, Phil Coulson: Ace Recruiter, Nat is honestly so suspicious, Not graphic depictions of violence, but also like possibly, Year by year, POV First Person, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Pre-Canon, percy literally shows up to mess with MCU canon, Be Nice to Clint Barton, Canon-Typical Violence, does this count as, Childhood Friends, Spies & Secret Agents, Angst, full disclaimer: we haven't seen agents of shield at all, and we've barely read toa, Complete, just to be clear this is an incredibly self-indulgent crossover, Goode High School (Percy Jackson) Series: Part 1 of closing the cracks Summary:

I lifted my gun, pointing it towards the minefield of shattered fragments, and kicked the small coffee table out of the way.

Only to stare down at an awfully familiar face, which split into a somewhat lopsided grin. The intruder raised his hands in a mocking surrender. “Long time no see, dude.”

I lowered the gun. “What the hell are you doing in South Peru?”

Or in which Clint Barton and Percy Jackson have a long personal history that starts in high school.

The File (series) by denimbeans: Another epic (long) crossover series for marvel/pjo, very spoilery for HoO tho: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2375215

Nothing to make a song about but kings by iwilllpassthis: all the world building, all the politics. Also post-HoO

Nothing to make a song about but kings (201210 words) by iwillpassthis Chapters: 59/59 Fandom: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Amphitrite & Percy Jackson, Percy Jackson & Poseidon Characters: Percy Jackson, Amphitrite (Percy Jackson), Poseidon (Percy Jackson) Additional Tags: King!Percy, Undersea politcs, Merpeople, Atlantis, My boy truly has no idea what he's doing, Do I? We shall never know, Powerful Percy Jackson Summary: Percy knelt before Atlantis’ throne, feeling the ancient power of the sea run through his veins in an uncoordinated dance. You are the sea now, it whispered, and the sea is you. A crown of gold and emeralds was placed on his head. Long live the king. Long live the king. . It’s a fortune that Poseidon has a mortal son, because when an ancient curse hits his kingdom and all the sea gods disappear… well, someone must rule.

THANK YOU

#giving links AND summary???? #absolutely blessed #ask #fic recs #pjo recs

[twoidiotwriters1]

The Curse of Oenone (Leo Valdez xFem!Oc)

A/N: THEM -Danny Words: 1,956 Series' Masterlist Previous Chapter // Next Chapter Listen to: 'If It Wasn't (For You)' -by Jacob Noah

XXIX: Emotionally Repressed by Day, Socially Inept by Night

Leo makes a beeline to the control panels and sets the Archimedes sphere back in place. Ara hangs her Octopi over one shoulder and makes her way to the stairs, but then she spots Nico.

He's usually at the top mast or in Hazel's room until it's time for bed and he leaves to... wherever he sleeps. But he's leaning against the stern's handrail today, looking right at her. Ara lets out a heavy sigh, he wants to talk to her, and it won't be fun. 

"What?" She asks.

Nico eyes her before replying. "You got your stuff back?"

Ara leans on the railing and stares at the sea. "You ate?"

"Yeah, the birthday cake they made for you," he replies sarcastically. "I thought you'd died so I didn't want to waste it."

Ara lowers her gaze. "Did you tell them?"

Nico snorts. "I thought you would've told them all about you by now, that's how it always is with you."

She makes a face. "Some of it, not all. But Leo knows it all. He was always asking for stories and Jason had no memories, so I had to give him context."

Nico looks at her with a sarcastic smirk she's grown to loathe. "Bet it felt good to be someone's hero at last."

"Can we not do this today?" Ara groans. "Tomorrow we can do the whole thing all over but... it's the worst birthday of my life, man. I'm already going through it. Can't you enjoy in silence?"

That seems to bother Nico. "I take no pleasure in seeing you suffer, Ara. It annoys me that you try so hard to be something you're not."

"What are you talking about?"

"You can be who you are unapologetically and for some reason, you prefer to walk around in that stupid cloak, completely unlike you, and it makes you miserable—"

"The cloak gives me purpose—"

"Nemesis talked to you, right? Hazel said you never told them who you saw, so who was it?"

She hates having to look up when talking to Nico, he's a year younger than her and yet he could get half the things she's gained way easier. He could be happy, and he could've been the friend Lily needed when Ara failed her. Now both of them left their friend alone, standing on the remains of their broken promises.

"That is none of your business," she says tensely.

Nico's gaze is unwavering. "I talked to Achilles before taking Percy, and what he said—"

"Let me guess," Ara tilts her head, an ironic smile on her lips. "Something about ambition being our worst enemy or whatever? You're too late, Hercules already warned me about it."

The boy frowns. "I can't believe you chose to follow their path. Every win they got sent innocent people to their early graves."

Ara's heart stings at his comment. "Don't talk about them like that."

"I'm talking about you, you should know better," he glares at her. "You saw Percy take risks for nothing, you saw Mike die thanks to it. Beckendorf, and Bianca—" He cuts his speech short, turning away, then clears his throat forcefully. "You and Lily treat your birthdays like they don't matter, and all I can think is... she can't even have that."

He lets out a dry laugh and shakes his head.

"'Course—she joined the hunters before dying, so she would still be twelve years old no matter what." Nico runs a hand over his face and squeezes his eyes shut. "She wasn't allowed to grow old, but you are, and don't want to."

It would be easier to stab his soft spots until he shows his fangs again, but she can't bring herself to do it. Ara's lost her brother, Annabeth, and Leo is next. She's tired of the fights.

Ara moves slowly to make sure he knows what she's doing, giving him the chance to step back. He doesn't. The boy takes a shaky breath, keeps his eyes closed, and lets Ara absorb some of his hurt. As soon as she does, her heart squeezes in a way that takes the air out of her lungs, she tries to talk, but her throat is tight with grief. 

Nico relaxes only enough to keep talking. "I know it sounds... cruel... but I'm glad she's not with them. I prefer missing her than resenting her my entire life."

"I regret not convincing her to stay," Ara admits hoarsely. "We were the same age, but Bianca was braver. If I'd taken my lessons seriously since the start, I could've shown her what camp could offer us..."

"Us?" He opens his reddened eyes, still scowling at her.

"Orphan kids." She looks down in shame. "I wasn't a hero, Nico, you're right. I chose what was best for me. I'm sorry." 

It's the first time she apologizes to Nico. It might be the grief she's absorbed, but Ara couldn't phantom the extent of Nico's pain until now, it feels just like when she lost Mike. She never showed regret, if anything, she'd made it clear that she thought nothing of Bianca. Now her words are coming out like they had been lying there for ages, rotting her core.

The way Nico reacted when Percy told him about Bianca, now that he and Annabeth are in Tartarus, she understands it. He's the only person on this ship who shares her anger and doesn't treat it like a scary thing.

The girl cleans her nose with the back of her sleeve. "I shouldn't say it now that I have their blessing, but I hated them for a while too. When Jason came and Thalia found him I realized it was you and Bianca all over again. My fate is to watch everything fall apart."

Nico stares at her, sighs tiredly, and dries her tears, his knuckles are cold against her skin but surprisingly gentle, which makes her feel even guiltier for all the times that she's punched his face. For the first time, he looks worried for her.

"It's okay if you don't want cake," he says. "But you should eat. The Kerkopes handed your ass to you."

Ara sniffs again. "I'm taking this conversation as you wishing me a happy birthday, so I'll say 'What the Tartarus you mean by 'happy', you jerk? Read the room', then I'll walk away and you can insult me and we can pretend this didn't happen."

"Tu sei sciocca."

Someone clears their throat in front of them and Ara looks back, spotting Leo. He's looking at them weirdly. Ara realizes she's holding Nico's hand. "You had issues putting the sphere back in place?" She asks, letting go of the boy.

Leo glances at Nico before replying.  "Came to ask if we should hold a meeting now or wait until tomorrow."

It's not like she's enjoying her birthday, but she's not in the mood to hold a second meeting today. "Let's call it a day. I'm tired."

Leo nods, unable to shrug off the jealousy. "Yeah, I'm tired too."

Nico walks past them. "I'll take the night watch."

"Thank you," Ara says kindly. Her boyfriend frowns at their behavior but says nothing.

Leo comes to her cabin before sundown, and Ara makes room for him to sit. The boy enters reluctantly, like he'd rather be somewhere else.

"What you saw," she starts right away. "It's nothing."

Leo pulls out screws and wires from his belt and braids them to avoid her eyes. "Looked like something..."

"I can explain it," Ara pouts.

"Forget it," When he smiles it looks genuine, but the girl knows it's not real. "Came to give you a present."

"Oh?" She blinks. "You didn't have to..."

"You thought I'd let the day pass by?" The boy raises a brow. "I'm better than that!"

"Well, it was a busy day," Ara chuckles. "What is it?"

"I'm new to this whole getting-presents-for-my-girlfriend thing, and you're not easy—you don't have hobbies outside pretending to watch movies with me," he teases her.

The girl tilts her head with amusement. "So?"

"So... I'm a mechanic and an inventor. I could build you the weapon of your dreams," he makes a face. "Then I realized Almighty is pretty much it—I was going through my options and it wasn't looking great..." Leo rambles.

"I don't care for presents," she admits. "I spend all my birthdays in camp, so it's more like a day to do whatever I want—"

"I know," he interrupts her. "I know you're all about practicality and utility."

He pulls an item out of his tool belt: a black hair tie. It's decorated with a bronze dove, the wings spread open like it's either taking flight or landing. Leo holds her hand and places it around her wrist.

"Then I thought, Ara is always losing her scrunchies, her hair is always on her face while we're fixing stuff—and I know it drives you crazy. So I made you this."

He presses on the dove's breast and moves back when it expands, creating a large shield with an Omega engraved at the front. Ara turns her arm to examine it, her mouth falling open. "What!"

"Hercules and Achilles had stuff made for them. You needed a shield," he says, fidgeting with scraps from his belt as he waits for a full reaction. "I know your compass turns into a shield but if you needed to also use it as a sword you'd be... though you aren't helpless and also have Lily's dagger but..."

While Leo rambles, Ara turns her arm and spots a bronze buckle on the leather strap. She snaps it open and the shield goes back to being a hair tie. The girl throws her arms around his neck. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

Leo stops talking and laughs, vividly glowing. It's like the setting sun is shining directly on him through the porthole window. His arms wrap around her waist. "Don't mention it."

Ara cups his face, a bunch of annoying butterflies making her mind fuzzy. "It must've taken you ages, I don't know what to say..."

He smirks. "Took me like a month, it wasn't that hard—but if you insist I wouldn't mind a few kisses if you're that grateful."

Ara kisses his face and neck effusively, making him giggle like a little kid, then she finds his lips and Leo makes a vastly different noise at the contact. This day doesn't seem so bad now.

"Y'know..." he mumbles in between kisses. "If you really feel like thanking me, you can give me my present in advance?" He pulls her close, and Ara blushes down to her neck. 

"What?" She squeaks.

Leo laughs. "I'm just messing with you."

"Don't joke like that!" She tries to escape his grip.

The boy grabs her chin and gives her another kiss, falling back with her on top. "Sorry, doll. Can't help it! I love how flustered you get."

Ara leans down and gives him a butterfly kiss, making him squirm a little bit. He's always been a big fan of small affectionate gestures, of any affectionate gesture, as long as it's Ara doing it. She pushes herself up and smiles. "También te amo. Now get out of my cabin."

Leo's eyes brighten. "No! Let me—let me hear you say that again!" He begs while Ara gets to the door. "Sunshine, let me stay over! It's your birthday!"

"Yeah, exactly. I want to sleep alone. Your birthday is in two days, if you want to sleep with me then, I'll comply."

Leo looks at her with a huge smile. "For real?"

"Well, I'm learning Spanish, which must mean I don't joke about commitment," Ara gestures at the exit again. "Now leave me alone."

"You're so rude," Leo says, though he sounds delighted. "I'll respect your autonomy today, but on my birthday, I'll have none of that. Be ready to have a Leo Valdez all over you on the 7th!"

The boy kisses her cheek effusively when he walks past, and Ara leans into it laughing. "The warning should go to the rest of our poor crew, not me."

"I don't love them enough to warn them."

Next Chapter –>

Taglist.

@siriuslysirius1107 @ask-giggles1303 @asnyox-the-hoarder @im-planning-something-look @bandshirts-andbooks @coolninjapaper @thewaterlily @whenisthefall @1randomcomic @you-bloody-shank @sunflowergraves @owlalex44 @taylordaughter @typicalsolangelolover @writingmia @espressopatronum454 @slytherinnqueen @orbitingpolaris @obxstiles @ellipsisspelled @thepixiechicksh

#twoidiots writing #pjo fanfic #leo valdez fanfic #doo #leo valdez x oc #heroes of olympus #percy jackson and the olympians

[forevfangirlwrites]

For the celebrity AU, how about an inverse of the how to handle fame and surprises chapter? Maybe Percy is away with his family in Greece meeting old relatives on his dads side, on an extended holiday, and Annabeth finishes a project and doesn’t like the long distance.. anyway I hope this is usable in some way, I love your work!

The house is empty.

She’s forgotten what it’s like, since Percy is usually home when she is. Or even if he isn’t, the traces of him are all around, dishes in the sink, a jacket lying around a chair, the smell of his cologne lingering in the bathroom.

But everything is cleaned up and cleared away. No laptops left open or blankets strewn about.

Sighing, she drops her purse on the entryway table and beelines for her favorite place nowadays, the closet.

The closet holds the most marked traces of him, a few jeans and sweaters he didn’t take with him. A reminder that she isn’t fully alone.

That he isn’t completely gone.

Okay, so maybe she’s being dramatic. He texts her as often as he can and sends her pictures and reminds her to eat the food that he meal-prepped.

Still, can’t a girl miss her boyfriend?

Groaning, she trudges out of the closet and flops down on the bed, unable to stop herself from thinking that if he was here, he’d be pulling her close and kissing her head.

But there’s nothing except the ceiling to stare at.

“A trip?”

“Yeah, Paul won this raffle thing at his work so we’re going on a family trip to Hawaii. Of course,” he adds, shooting her a smile, “you’re invited.”

“I’d love to, but when is it?” she asks, already anticipating her shooting schedule getting in the way of what should be a great vacation with her boyfriend and his family.

Sometimes, she hates being right.

“Oh,” Percy says when she breaks the news. The smile on his face slips a little and her heart sinks even further.

"But hey, it'll be some good family time for you!" she encourages, with a smile. "Enjoy hanging out with your sister!"

His smile returns. “Yeah, that’s true. I’ll miss you, though.”

"It's only three weeks, you'll be back before you know it and begging to go back," she teases, even though she has a feeling she'll be missing him every second.

"Nah," he jokes, grin back in full swing.

Well, here she is, missing him.

This shoot has been particularly difficult and coming home to Percy has been a huge reason she’s been able to make it through. Not having him here makes everything tougher.

"How did I do this before him?" she asks the ceiling.

Well, she still can do it. She is currently doing it.

She just doesn't want to.

A day off, she thinks as the exhaustion catches up to her, that’s what I need. Her last thought before falling asleep is of Percy’s sea-green eyes.

-.-

She wakes up disoriented to darkness and an empty stomach. Right…this is what she gets for skipping dinner.

Her phone blinds her for a solid four seconds before she reads the time, 3:47 AM. There’s a text from Percy that wakes her up right away, though and she opens it to a picture of ocean at sunset and his hand making a peace sign against the sky.

It’s so cute that she stares for a few seconds with a smile on her face. A smile that lessens when her phone buzzes, revealing Rachel’s name.

“Hello?” she answers, hoping nothing bad is happening. Given the time, she doubts it’s good news, and she prepares herself for whatever her manager has to say.

A/N: Thank you for the prompt! It was super cute, I modified the location since Percy being Greek isn't really a thing but the premise is still the same so I hope you liked it! Thanks again for the prompt!

KEEP READING ON AO3

#percy and annabeth #percabeth #percabeth fic #percabeth au #how to handle fame #hthf

[cutesilyo]

your dearest kin, below the skin — a pjo fanfic

Somehow, while going through the set of books about his son's future exploits, Poseidon had gotten the idea that Percy would eventually shape up to become perfectly obedient, loyal, and respectful to the gods. So when a new arrival slammed the doors open and Annabeth Chase gasped in delight, all Poseidon could do was lean back in his seat with a wide grin on his face.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Percy said, obviously exhausted.

Poseidon felt a bit faint, and he vaguely recognized the demigods sharing popcorn at their feet.

TAGS: Humor, Family, Family Dynamics, Family Drama, Mild Swearing, Reading the Books, Without Them Actually Reading the Books, Percy Jackson is So Done, Good Parent Poseidon (Percy Jackson), Crack Treated Seriously

Also available on: AO3

—

It was a normal day in the throne room when Percy Jackson finally appeared.

Or, you know, as normal as it could be when demigods from the future arrived with a stack of books and orders from the Fates that they needed to “process its events” and “re-evaluate the relationships between the Olympians and their children”, whatever that meant. Hestia had noticeably perked up at that news, while Hera rolled her eyes so far back that Poseidon was surprised she hadn’t ended up permanently staring at the back of her skull. Poseidon himself didn’t really see how the books could help with the Fates’ goals, but he wasn’t about to argue. After Zeus was assured that he’d find whoever stole his stupid Master Bolt by going through the chapters and convinced that yes, Hades had to be summoned from the Underworld if they wanted to do things right, he had allowed them to begin the reading with a childish huff.

If the Fates wanted them to better their family relations, this was certainly an interesting way to go about it. As they read more chapters and more demigods joined in, it had become increasingly evident that things were going to get worse before they were going to get better. Poseidon grew apathetic to the new flavor of godly infighting the third time that Zeus blew up at something the book said, which — all things considered — happened a lot farther along the first chapter than he expected. He almost felt some sort of brotherly pride, had he not been completely overcome with grappling something else.

More than anything, Poseidon was restless to see his son. How had he grown? How was he faring? And, most importantly, how much did he identify with the demigods’ obvious resentment of the gods? He felt fairly confident that Percy was loyal to them, and Athena’s daughter had been making comments that alluded to a close father-son relationship in the few times she’d spoken. And even more damningly, if the withered tendrils tying him back to his old powers of prophecy were correct, all this together meant that Percy would become a great hero for Olympus.

So surely, this meant that his son was a shining beacon of light that exemplified how the demigods were at their best when they pledged their allegiance in service of the gods. Scratch that, his son was definitely being built up to be the hero of the looming Great Prophecy — he simply had to be on their side.

As they kept reading about Percy's exploits and how much he had suffered during his quests, Poseidon only felt more and more secure in his belief that Percy Jackson had the forgiveness of a saint. He had certainly inherited his mother’s goodness and tenacity, and it was clear that his drive to continue serving the gods despite everything had obviously inspired the rest of the demigods to do the same. Honestly, Poseidon didn’t even know how Percy could handle everything that he’s been through; if he was in his position, he probably would have defected just like Hermes’ boy did. But that only made Poseidon all the more proud. Whenever Percy arrived, he would definitely put all the other demigods in line and remind them of how gratifying it was to fight for the Olympians.

So when the doors slammed open and Annabeth Chase gasped in delight, all Poseidon could do was lean back in his seat with a wide grin on his face.

Percy Jackson took one look at the throne room, stared straight into Zeus’ eyes, and let out a huge groan.

Poseidon’s grin slipped.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Percy said, obviously exhausted. “I told you I was off-limits for the rest of the month, and I meant it! All I asked for was no quests, no impromptu visits, no sudden teleportations into my apartment, no bothering me when I’m doing camp duties, and certainly no summons to Olympus! Are you seriously that desperate that you’re willing to hold my friends hostage just for me to do your bidding?”

The throne room was in stunned silence. Zeus overcame his flustered state first, a thunderstorm brewing in the room. “Boy, how dare you speak to me like that—”

But Percy talked over the King of the Gods like it was nothing. “Zeus, please, we’ve been over this,” he said exasperatedly, holding his palm up like he was talking to a toddler. ”You have to respect my boundaries when I set them. Otherwise, we just can’t have a good working relationship, and where would that leave you?”

Zeus was so dumbfounded the storm disappeared. Aphrodite dropped her compact mirror. Hermes actually looked up from his phone. Apollo was in so much shock that his light dimmed. For the first time in recorded history, Athena’s jaw was on the floor. Poseidon felt a bit faint, and he vaguely recognized the demigods sharing popcorn at their feet.

Through a particularly large mouthful, the elf-like Son of Hephaestus said, “That’s the good stuff right there.” The demigods around him nodded sagely in agreement.

This must be a trick, Poseidon thought helplessly. Someone must have used magic to impersonate his son. Perhaps an eidolon possession. Impressively powerful charmspeak. Maybe he’ll wake up and this will all have been a prank by Morpheus or something. There is no way that the future hero of the Great Prophecy was someone so . . . inflammatory! That his son, that Sally Jackson’s son, was someone stupid and impulsive enough to so nonchalantly talk back to the King of the Gods in his own throne room in the full presence of all of the elder gods and Olympians—

Ichor drained from his face as he recalled all that they had read of Percy from the books so far. Poseidon cursed internally as every single time he talked back to one of his fellow immortals and every single time Sally talked back to him flashed in his mind. He had been so caught up in the joy of learning about his only demigod son that he forgot about the sea’s unruly nature.

Suddenly feeling drained, Poseidon sighed. “Perseus, if you could please refrain from getting yourself blasted . . .”

Percy turned to face him, his eyes swirling with a ferocity so reminiscent of Kymopoleia’s storms that Poseidon could feel himself immediately developing a migraine out of habit. “Dad, don’t tell me you’re in on this,” he said, betrayed. “I don’t know what else you want from me. You already keep me so busy helping out with Atlantis, and you promised you’d help me keep them off my back.”

Hades raised an eyebrow. Dionysus mumbled something about pitying my future self, oh my and surely father will let me get drunk at least once.

“I did?” Poseidon said.

“You did!” Percy whined, practically pouting. “You even said you’d let me annoy Triton my entire stay next time I visited!”

Poseidon melted a bit. Even in his older state, his son was so adorable — and a lot less cold to him than the other demigods were to their own respective parents. He even all but said that he was regularly visiting his kingdom. He could see why his future self allowed his impertinence, even if it said impertinence was to extreme degrees.

Whoa, hold your horses, Poseidon thought. This is the child of the prophecy. The Great Prophecy itself. A bit of snarkiness is cute from a demigod, but this is the hero that holds the fate of Olympus in his hands. Shouldn’t you be a bit concerned?

Then he took a moment to look at his son’s puffed-up cheeks and promptly struggled to think clearly about the situation at all.

Percy, who was not privy to his father’s internal crisis, crossed his arms and continued. “And now I find all my friends sitting down at your feet? I really expected better from you, Dad. Though I guess it wouldn’t be the first time a god forgot about their promises . . .”

Poseidon winced. But before he could clarify that he was not the Poseidon of Percy’s present, a loud scoff echoed in the room.

“You forget your place, demigod,” Hera sneered. “We are gods. We are not beholden to you.”

Percy narrowed his eyes at her. “Oh, please. You say that like you didn’t come crawling to my feet for the last Great Prophecy, my lady,” he said, mockingly, seemingly oblivious to how most of the gods were now glowering at him. Artemis had split her arrow in two. Percy barreled on. “Anyway, I’m not listening to the words of some cow dung goddess. Let’s just get things over with so you can send me and my friends back home.”

Ares banged his spear on the floor. He roared, “Why, I ought to send you to Tartarus, punk!”

“I’ve already been to Tartarus, dipshit. Try again,” Percy deadpanned, like it was as simple as walking through the park. The temperature in the throne room plummeted, and the gods stared at him, unsure what to make of this information. Apollo, apparently sensing the truth in his words, sent Poseidon a pitying look — which just made him feel worse, really. This boy was going to age him centuries prematurely and he hadn’t even done much more than open his mouth.

In the oppressive silence, Percy simply rolled his eyes. “Come on. You know this. I know you know this. Or is it so ridiculously beneath the Olympians to make note of any mortal affairs that you’ve already forgotten?”

The gods collectively bristled while the demigods collectively frowned, with Aphrodite’s girl grasping Annabeth Chase’s hand in a gesture of comfort. Either that or she holding her back from starting a knife fight, who could really tell?

Finally, Jason Grace stood. “Percy,” he said hesitantly. “These aren’t the gods we know.”

“This apathetic self-centeredness feels plenty familiar to me,” Percy said. Nico di Angelo audibly face-palmed, while Thalia Grace snorted in laughter. Poseidon let in a sharp inhale, which Percy must have taken as an insult rather than the worry that it was, as his son aimed a small, crooked smile at him. “Sorry, dad. You know it’s true.”

“What your friend means, Perseus, is that we are from a different time than you,” Hestia explained kindly. The fire she was tending to was colored yellow in delight, obviously amused and pleased at Percy’s presence. She gestured toward the set of books next to her. “All of you demigods are from further down the timeline. We are in the Olympus of your past: spending our time learning about your life, and in turn, learning about the coming war.”

“And, uh, just for clarity’s sake, we didn’t kidnap your friends, alright? Blame the Fates,” Hermes added hastily, making a vain attempt to cover all of their bases. “So don’t get mad at us for something we didn’t do.”

Poseidon could practically hear Percy’s snarky comeback already, and signaled the boy to keep quiet. All for naught, apparently, because one raised eyebrow was enough to get the message across. Even Hephaestus was starting to glare at Percy distastefully, having paused from his incessant tinkering, which really showed how much he had gotten on everybody’s nerves. Poseidon was torn between being proud at how effortlessly he had rankled the council or being desperate to make Percy shut up by any means necessary.

From the nervous way that Hazel Levesque was eyeing the room, it looked like someone else understood his torturous plight.

“That explains why Olympus looks so different,” Percy said instead, his voice light. “Un-razed.”

The gods shuddered. “Don’t even joke about that, young man,” Demeter warned.

“Let me blast him, just a little,” Zeus muttered.

“No blasting,” Poseidon said sharply.

“A tiny taste of incineration won’t hurt,” Hades suggested.

“No incinerating either,” Poseidon bit out, his grip on his trident tight. He whirled around to stare at Percy, who was looking far too comfortable at the prospect of certain death by means of divine retribution. “No saying anything worth getting incinerated over.”

Percy shrugged, which — strictly speaking — wasn’t a yes. Poseidon made eye contact with Annabeth Chase, as he had been making a habit of during the reading, and she shook her head as if to say that picking a fight with Percy over this was a futile waste of his time.

He tried thinking of this positively. He tried, he really did.

“At least give my friends some chairs,” Percy said loudly, to which Poseidon started massaging his temples. At the appearance of a set of plastic chairs, his son even had the gall to wrinkle his nose. “What are we, some randos coming over for a Sunday barbecue on the front lawn? We’re on Olympus. Apollo literally has a bean bag collection at his palace.”

Apollo brightened. “You mean I finally get around to it in the future?”

Athena pursed her lips. “You seem quite familiar with the gods, Percy Jackson.”

“Too familiar,” Dionysus muttered.

“How familiar, I wonder,” Aphrodite purred.

Artemis shot the love goddess a look of disgust.

“Please just give my friends good chairs,” Percy said, blearily. “If we’re really going through the drama of reliving our traumatic experiences with literal war just for the Fates’ amusement, you could at least give your children a seat. I don’t think you guys realize how much backpain saving the world gives you.”

Zeus slammed his fists on the throne, crackling with static electricity. “So Olympus is saved in your future. The gods prevail. A fact that your friends did not deign to mention.”

Annabeth Chase immediately stood. “The Fates were clear about needing to learn about the war through the experience of a demigod. Knowing that we win isn’t relevant to that.” Her eyes twitched for a moment before adding, “If you allowed us to speak more, we could have explained that to you, my lord.”

Athena butted in before Zeus could call either lightning or monsters to kill her daughter. “The phrasing is impertinent, but she is correct, Father. If we are fated to preserve anyway, then the Fates would have no reason for intervention. There must be other factors at play that they wish for us to examine; it seems the goal is to better the outcome, not necessarily to reverse it fully.”

Disgruntled but apparently mollified, Zeus leaned back in his seat. “Fine. However, I still do not see the benefits of this exercise. We have not even properly dived into the war yet, only seen its harbinger! Barely any deaths! What we have learned will hardly be of use in battle.”

Some of the demigods seemed stricken. Nico di Angelo was openly glaring at the king.

Percy cleared his throat. “So, let me get this straight. The Fates bring together the Olympians — from the Winter Solstice after Zeus gets his bolt stolen, I assume, since he isn’t holding it right now — and the relevant demigods during the wars, where we’re all supposed to read about my experience as a demigod? Which just so happens to also include the wars?”

Hera scowled. “Has that not been obvious?”

“The boy arrived five minutes ago,” Poseidon argued.

“And right now, you’ve already reached the quest I went on to save Annabeth,” Percy stated. “The one during the Winter Solstice, when we met the Hunters and found Bessie.”

“The one where I was finally introduced!” Apollo grinned. “I’ve personally been sensing that a major development in the Great Prophecy will be coming in this book. I am so excited to go through the last few chapters.”

“Which means that at this point, you’ve read about Ares being influenced by Kronos, Luke defecting, the army of demigods and monsters on the Andromeda, Kronos reforming, Thalia reviving, Annabeth holding up the sky, Atlas on the move, and Bianca dying.” Percy turned to look at his friends. “Have I missed anything?”

“Zoe died a few chapters ago,” Thalia added.

“The minor gods have started defecting as well, I believe,” supplied Reyna.

“Oh, also the misery of having to live feeling abandoned by your parents and having to face death every day you spend alive?” Frank suggested. “It’s a general theme we keep circling back to.”

“Yes, yes, and I’m sure it was a very harrowing series of events for all of you involved,” Zeus dismissed, conveniently ignoring the way that both Hermes and Hades were glowering at him from their thrones. “Let us be done with this quickly.”

Percy tilted his head. “You mean you somehow got through all that and you still don’t get it?”

“We would appreciate it if you would get to the point, boy,” Dionysus drawled. The other gods nodded in agreement.

There was a brief moment, Poseidon observed, where Percy looked to Annabeth Chase before he responded. It was a short moment, the slightest passage of time, where it seemed like an entire conversation had taken place between the two young lovers. By the barest furrow of his brow, Percy was asking Annabeth for her approval before launching into action. And Annabeth responded, with the quaintest quiver of a smile, giving her blessing.

Poseidon probably should have known what was coming, given what he had known of Annabeth from the books and from reading the books with her, but he let himself be lulled into a false sense of security anyway. Surely, Poseidon thought, this Athena spawn isn’t going to let my child do something stupid.

Percy took a deep breath.

“You’re all so stupid,” he said.

Poseidon let out a long, weary exhale. He took a brief moment to accept that the goody-two-shoes son that he envisioned in his head was nothing more than a crazy delusion. And with a wave of his hand, he formed a water shield around Percy just in time to protect him from Zeus’ inevitable lightning strike.

The blast echoed throughout the room, partnered with the demigods’ cries of alarm. To his credit, the way that Percy raised his arms showed the foresight to brace himself, but Poseidon knew — from the way that the air around Zeus was vibrating with ozone and electricity — that his brother had been pushed too far.

In his peripheral vision, he spotted the other demigods rushing to crowd around his son in their concern. Percy waved them off with a smile, but the way he was leaning on Annabeth suggested that even he was shaken by the turn of events.

“Poseidon,” boomed Hera, in place of a king too furious to speak, “This bastard son of yours has offered us nothing but disrespect and disdain ever since he had stepped foot on Olympus. We cannot accept such treason, especially not from the prophecy child. Be wise and let him be punished at once.”

For a brief moment, father and son locked eyes. There was gratefulness in Percy’s expression, yes, but he also looked confused. Like he didn’t understand why his own father would try to prevent him from being harmed.

The water called back to him, swirling around him in a vicious hurricane. He stood, and his trident flew to his hand. Vaguely aware that he couldn’t release too much of his power unless he wanted the demigods to vaporize in front of him, Poseidon turned his back towards the council.

He walked towards his son. The demigods, rather than dispersing, only stood closer by Percy.

Poseidon reached out, and Percy — in a move so subtle it would have been unnoticeable for anyone but a god — flinched back.

And inside Poseidon, something shifted.

“Poseidon,” Hera repeated.

“At ease, sister,” Poseidon said. The hurricane faded away. Slowly, he faced the gods. “Lest you forget that this bastard son of mine is the child of the prophecy and he obviously chose to keep Olympus standing. Despite how he may seem, I believe he has our best interests at heart. Even though we have given him every reason to instead be led astray.”

“Dad?” Percy asked.

Poseidon looked at him, and he saw Percy at twelve, thirteen, fourteen — a little mourning boy aching and breaking for someone to give him a home. The way that his friends crowded around him showed that he found one, eventually, but the god doubted that any of the pantheon had been of any help for that. “You don’t trust us that much, do you?”

Percy gave him a look. “I literally just got blasted.”

He only shook his head. Poseidon met eyes with the rest of the demigods, who stared back with determination, grit, and thinly-veiled suspicion. War heroes, all of them, but to him they only looked so small. “I speak of all the children in this room. You may acknowledge us as your parents, fight for us in familial loyalty, and even be willing to risk your short lives for our cause. But you do so with a conflicted heart. And that is a reflection of our failure.”

The demigods’ silence was enough answer as any. Zeus’ voice was, uncharacteristically, muted and grave. “Brother, we had agreed long ago to cease discussion on this. We had agreed there was no point.”

“And what had that gotten us?” Poseidon argued. “Greek civilization as we know it is dead. All we have left is our children. You cannot tell me that this does not move you.”

“Be that as it may, you cannot tell me that we can change,” Zeus said. “The very nature of immortality is to resist it. I do not care if the old Greeks are dead. We move with the heart of the West, and we have done very well since then without shifting too much of our ways.”

“Then you are blind,” exploded Poseidon. “Not only in this. You are as blind to your duties to your family as our father was to his. And I, for one, refuse to be as misled as you both are.”

Hades scoffed. “Please, you only want to save face because your son is here.”

“And were it your son in his stead, you would do the same!” Poseidon breathed out a heavy sigh, massaging his temples in a vain attempt to assuage his frustration. “Of course I would speak out because Percy is here. We know that he will become the hero of the Great Prophecy and we know that he will save Olympus. I thought that meant he was unfailingly loyal to us and that any disrespect shown by the demigods here was the result of his absence. I was wrong.”

Hera raised an eyebrow. “You’re calling him treasonous after all?”

“No,” Poseidon smiled. He gestured Percy to come forward. With another nod from Annabeth spurring him on, Percy stood beside him — a bit of his wariness fading away as he looked at him with pride. And that, more than anything, told Poseidon he was on the right track. “I’m calling him right. We are stupid. We’ve let tradition needlessly hold us back from showing our kids we care, and we are being shown that continuing it will lead to our near-destruction.”

“And before anyone says that near-destruction doesn’t sound too bad,” Percy butted in, because of course he did, “I think my life is a pretty good argument against that.”

Zeus leaned back on his throne, disgruntled but otherwise unwilling to further escalate into a fight. “We’ll see about that, Perseus.”

“I’m sorry, didn’t you just read about me and Annabeth holding up the sky?” Percy demanded.

Poseidon cleared his throat. “What I mean to say is that treating the demigods’ wariness around us is a problem to solve, not a threat to vanquish. It is becoming clear that examining this, rather than waiting for the book to tell us of future battle strategy, is the key to a decisive win in war.”

Then he glared across the room, making sure every god that met his eyes knew that he was committed to this — to his son, at least, if to nobody else. “And if by any reason one of you would resort to harming a child of Olympus when their presence here is Fates-mandated to bring us a better outcome in the wake of the Great Prophecy, wouldn’t the rest stand and realize that would be the most treasonous thing of all?” He challenged.

Everyone broke out into shushed whispers at that: the demigods in muted astonishment, the gods in grumbling agreement. Beside him, Percy muttered, “That was sick.” Poseidon didn’t know what to make of that. Was that a compliment, in the mortal world? He hoped it was. But it sounded so bad. Oh Fates, he really needed to connect more with his son.

Finally, one of Hestia’s flames flared out loudly and brightly, no doubt one of the rare times his sister found it prudent to gather the whole throne room’s attention.

She clapped her hands, a small smile gracing her face. “My family, I cannot express how glad I am at this turn of events. It would be good if we kept this discussion in mind as we move forward with the rest of the books. Might I suggest a brief recess before we finish this quest’s final chapter?”

Nobody argued with that. Poseidon breathed a sigh of relief.

Percy perked up. “And how about the—”

“Yes, yes,” Zeus grumbled. “We will arrange proper seating arrangements from now on.”

It was a start.

—

Night drew the day’s reading to a close. The gods had a hard look in their eyes, and Apollo patted him on the back before disappearing to his chambers. Poseidon chose to linger, feeling heavy, watching the demigods give Percy the enthusiastic welcome they weren’t given a chance to do in the terse tension of the throne room.

I choose the prophecy, his far too young son had said. Poseidon had known this, of course he had, but it still felt like a wave crashing into him. It made sense why the Fates brought him in now. It was when the prophecy would finally take shape, and everything was meticulously poised for Percy to grasp it with his own hands. He would claim victory with a bloody, bloody price. Poseidon ached just thinking about it.

In the midst of the celebration, he met eyes with Annabeth Chase. And with a soft grace that he would forever be thankful for, she quickly led the rest of the demigods to take their leave.

Poseidon and Percy were left alone.

He took a harrowing breath. “My son—”

“Thanks for sticking up for me,” Percy blurted out. “I just wanted to put that out there first.”

“You’re welcome, but I was never going to let Zeus take you from me.” Poseidon sighed. “I thought it was difficult enough just reading through your ordeals. Now I have to make sure you get out alive from here as well. You’re making my years wear down on me, child.”

Percy raised an eyebrow. “Finally feeling your age?”

“Ha,” Poseidon deadpanned. He laid a hand on Percy’s shoulder. “I’m serious. You’re a lot more trouble than you might think.”

Percy shrugged his hand off. “Probably would’ve been better off with a more obedient kid, yeah?”

“No. I never — no,” Poseidon said, caught off-guard and upset. Percy only stared at him, face blank and inscrutable, and that only made his pain feel all the more raw. “I’m sorry. What I mean is that a hero’s fate is rarely happy. I hate knowing that this is true for you, and for it to be at the extent that the Fates are stepping in . . . Percy, I’m afraid for you.”

Oddly, Percy’s mouth twitched up at that. “I’m right here.”

“I’m afraid things will get worse,” Poseidon confessed. “I care for you too much to lose you.”

Then Percy moved closer, arms wide, and Poseidon wondered if he did anything wrong again this time, until he realized — oh, his son was pulling him into a hug. Tentatively, he returned it, careful not to grip too hard. Percy was here, and he was warm, and alive. In this moment nothing else mattered but that. If any of his fellow gods loved their children as fiercely as Poseidon loved Percy now, he couldn’t fathom any of them thinking that the Ancient Laws still had any merit. Not when what little they’ve read so far already showed how much the demigods suffered before the war even started, and certainly not after everything they would know once the reading was over.

“See? Zeus was wrong,” Percy said, his voice a bit muffled from where Poseidon was holding him dear and close to his heart. “You can change.”

Poseidon smiled. “Only because you believe we can, my son.”

—

At the next day’s reading, Poseidon ignored his throne to sit beside the children.

“Brother,” Zeus warned.

“What?” Poseidon said innocently, eyes twinkling. “These bean bags are much more comfortable.”

Beside him, Percy laughed, and that was all the reward in the world.

#pjo #pjo fanfic #percy jackson #poseidon #mine

[slipping-through-my-fingertips]

In My Head, I'm Yours

Chapter 9: Making All Our Plans in the Santa Cruz Sand

Trigger Warnings for a mention of relationship with a minor, non-consensual touching.

A/n: Next upload is the epilogue. Thanks for following along with this! I also have a one-shot set in this universe coming soon

AO3

He didn’t see her walk in. Why would he be hoping to spot her gray eyes in this crowd like Annabeth was hoping to meet his green ones.

Annabeth wasn’t even sure he would even want to see her.

Before she left, she confessed everything to her roommates.

Their movie night had just ended. Thalia was yawning and Leo was complaining that it was too early for her to go to bed. It was the weekend after all.

“I’m going to Santa Cruz,” she blurted.

“Excuse me?”

“What!” Leo exclaimed.

“I booked a flight before dinner.”

Thalia blinked at her. “I’m wide awake now. What the fuck, Chase?”

Annabeth swallowed. “I need to see Percy.”

“Why?” Leo asked.

“We’ve been sorta hooking up for the last few months.”

“What!” Thalia screamed. “And you didn’t think to tell me!”

“Us,” Leo corrected.

Thalia ignored him. “Me! Your best friend.”

“I—”

She cut Annabeth off, “I can’t believe this. I mean we talked about it but ultimately dismissed it because you were never affectionate around us. But maybe I should’ve seen it still.”

“You talked about it?” Annabeth questioned. “With who?”

“Piper, Jason, Grover,” Leo listed. “We all thought you’d hit it off eventually and apparently we were right.”

“Yet completely blinded to it having happened!” Thalia shouted.

“So tell us what’s going on,” she said, “why are you going to Santa Cruz?”

“I really hurt him the last time I saw him. I messed it all up.”

Annabeth told them everything. The hookups, their non-dates, the song, her graduation day, the fight, him leaving.

“I’ll help you pack,” Thalia said.

Just like that, she was forgiven for keeping this from her best friend.

“Hey wait a second,” Leo said, “we’re just gonna let this go?”

Thalia glared at him. “Yes, because I expect to be the maid of honor at the wedding.”

Annabeth blushed.

“And what do I get out of it?” He asked, “I want details! How’s the sex? It’s good right? I feel like…”

“Ew, why do you want to know what Percy's like in bed?”

Annabeth’s cheeks got redder. “No comment.”

“Oooo, so it’s juicy then. C'mon tell me!” Leo demanded.

She shook her head. Thalia pulled her to her bedroom, grabbing her suitcase and throwing it on the bed.

Leo, of course, followed.

“Seriously, Annabeth, just tell me…how big?”

He started moving his hands apart. Waiting for her to indicate when to stop. She never did. But her face must’ve revealed something because Leo knew exactly when to stop.

“Knew it! You want to talk to someone about this. How could you keep all these dirty secrets from me?”

Thalia was haphazardly opening Annabeth's drawers.

“Where do you keep the good stuff?” She asked.

“I don’t know what that means.”

“Sexy stuff,” Leo said, “probably in her closet, hiding in the corner somewhere.”

Both girls look up at him.

“What? Annabeth likes to keep that stuff to herself. Obviously it’s not going to be out in the open.”

Thalia went into the closet and found exactly what she was looking for. Meanwhile, Leo sat down on the bed with Annabeth.

“So spill it.”

Annabeth knew he wasn’t going to let it go. She glanced over at Thalia who was now throwing clothes into her luggage.

“It’s great sex,” she told him.

“Well duh!” Leo said.

“He makes me feel so safe, so…loved. He’s sweet and responsive and…”

“Fucks like a god?” Leo offered.

She punched him.

“You’re not saying I’m wrong.”

They even drove her to the airport. Wished her luck at drop off and made her swear to call them when it was all cleared up.

Their faith in her was overwhelming.

Luckily Delphi’s gig wasn’t sold out because Annabeth hadn’t thought to buy a ticket beforehand. She booked a flight and a hotel room but every Delphi show she’d been to was at a bar, no ticket required. She only felt a little stupid for not thinking this far ahead. It was an official tour after all, of course she needed a ticket.

She paid cash and went in. They were already on stage introducing a new song. One Percy and Piper wrote together recently.

Which meant there was a good chance it was about her.

The songs I wrote as your other are The best I’ll ever sing

She stood by the bar well after the show ended. The crowd was thinning and people were being ushered out. Annabeth wondered if she should take her chances at sneaking backstage or waiting by the stage door for them like the rest of their fans.

Not thrilled by the idea of being mistaken for a potential groupie, Annabeth chose the other option.

There wasn’t too much security. She went around the left side of the stage hopping over some metal chain. That’s all that was preventing people from going back there.

The stage crew was bustling around. Wearing all black, she tried to blend in with them. Her tight, sparkly black dress wasn’t really the outfit for moving instruments and laying out wires but no one spared her a second glance.

There were some familiar voices up ahead.

“Stage door time!” Jason shouted, “get dressed and let’s go.”

“You two go, give me a second,” Percy said.

Annabeth shivered. Just hearing his voice was enough to send her body into shock.

She was a goner.

Annabeth hid behind an open door when Piper and Jason walked out of the room. They were heading outside. Leaving Percy alone.

When she peeked inside the room, Percy had yet to change out of his stage clothes. The door was wide open so she knocked on it. This was it.

He turned. “Annabeth?”

“Hey, Percy.”

“What are you doing here?” He asked.

His eyebrows furrowed.

Percy didn’t seem upset, just confused. Might as well just jump straight into it.

“I was wrong,” she said.

“About what?”

“You,” Annabeth’s voice squeaked. “I was wrong about you.”

“What you thought I’d break your heart and instead you ripped mine out of my chest?”

So maybe he was upset with her.

“I…”

He stood up.

“So you’re wrong, about what exactly?”

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have eavesdropped on you or I should’ve admitted that I overheard you talking about the tour, I had no right to get mad at you for something out of your control. You were going to tell me and I shouldn’t have…well I should’ve done a lot differently,” she said, “I should’ve told you how I felt, I shouldn’t have hid it for so long, I shouldn’t have let myself become self-destructive like I always do…”

Percy was standing directly in front of her now. He put his hands on her shoulders; she couldn’t look at him. Funny how earlier she would’ve given anything to have him look at her and now she couldn’t meet his gaze.

“Annabeth,” Percy said. “Look at me.”

She did.

“I accept your apology.”

The relief she felt almost made her collapse. But Percy was holding her up.

“Thank you,” she said, throwing her arms around him.

She breathed him in. She promised herself to make this right.

“Come with me, we should have a real conversation about us,” he told her.

Annabeth fought the urge to grab his hand as they walked towards the beach. They snuck out a different exit and avoided the fans outside. She wondered if Delphi was big enough for the fans to speculate why Percy skipped the stage door.

Unsurprisingly the beach was abandoned. The tide was coming in but there was still plenty of dry sand to sit in.

It was chilly, Annabeth rubbed her arms.

“Here,” Percy handed over his flannel.

She smiled, “thanks.”

“You wanted to talk,” she said, “about this…us.”

Percy took a deep breath. “Let’s make some plans.”

…

“Permanent ones?” She asked.

“Yeah, you said you would do things differently, so how should we do this differently?”

“Well, for starters” Annabeth said, “I’d take you on an actual date.”

“Oh yeah?” Percy said, “and what if I want to take you out instead?”

She was blushing. Even in the dim light, he could see her reddening cheeks.

“A is date first on the agenda, we can argue in front of the waiter about who pays.”

“Deal, what’s next?”

She grabbed his hand, “communication. That was our downfall, I didn’t tell you how I felt, I avoided conversations that scared me, and I kept things to myself because I was asking for this to fail because I was terrified of you.”

“As much as I want to know about these feelings of yours, trust me we’ll get to that,” Percy told her, “why did I terrify you so much? Am I that scary?”

Annabeth sighed, “might as well get the heavy stuff out in the open huh? Didn’t help to keep it in last time. I had some bad exes before you.”

“Haven’t we all?”

“I guess so,” she said, staring at the waves, “Travis was just a troublemaker, my bad boy phase as Thals would say but really he was just slightly klepto so he got me into some bad spots when I was in high school then I met Luke. First red flag should’ve been how he pursued me when I was still sixteen, just weeks after breaking things off with Travis. Luke had recently graduated from my school so we knew each other. He came to my debates, to football games, and even tried to get me to invite him to junior prom. I let him pursue me, I think I just liked the attention. No one else was interested in me.”

Percy squeezed her hand.

“We finally went on a date of sorts, he called it a friend’s date, to the movies. Sat in the back,” her voice was growing quieter as the story went on. “He…”

“You don’t have to tell me.”

“He just felt me up but for so long I felt dirty. Used. The only reason he spent time with me was because…”

“He was a creep who should be behind bars?” Percy offered.

Annabeth nodded.

“You’re so much stronger than I thought, which is really saying something because I already thought you could judo flip me no problem.”

She laughed.

“Annabeth, I promise we’ll have better communication this time. We can come up with a safe word for when we want to just have a no-judgment conversation.”

“Like what?”

“Riptide,” he suggested.

“Because the safe word will prevent us from being pulled underwater? Prevent drowning and if we let the riptide pull us out to sea we’ll be safe?”

“Ummm yes, definitely that and not because it’s the first word I thought of.”

Annabeth laughed, “Seaweed Brain.”

Percy had to stop her laughter, if only because it made him want to make her laugh more and not because he was embarrassed to be laughed at. With Annabeth, Percy would do a million stupid things just to hear her chuckle.

“Alright enough, tell me about these feelings you have for me.”

She wiped her tears away and settled herself.

“I could fall in love with you, Percy Jackson.”

“Well good,” he said, “because I could fall in love with you, Annabeth Chase.”

“So, a date, open communication, and falling in love,” Annabeth listed, “sounds like a decent plan to me.”

Percy turned toward hers and cupped her face, he murmured against her lips, “sounds like a perfect plan to me,” and then he kissed her.

#percabeth #percabeth fanfic #percabeth fanfiction #my fics

[halothenthehorns]

Chapter 8: TYSON LEADS A JAILBREAK

Jason squinted down at the new chapter title like there was Mist obscuring it. The words made less sense the longer he stared. "Tyson leads, Tyson leads a- Percy what the hell did you get him into?"

"Tyson leads a what?" Alex demanded, looking very close to strangling Jason already for even hinting at teasing him.

Thalia leaned over his shoulder to finish, "Tyson Leads a Jailbreak? Yeah, no, I'm on Jason's side, you're a bad influence on that kid. Do we need to have another custody battle?"

"Tyson beat up cows and Canadians just fine without me telling him to do so," Percy crossed his arms, he looked almost proud as he leveled a look at Thalia. "I'm sure whatever this is was a great moment in history, revolutionary, and my little brother is helping, erm, the masses not be oppressed anymore or something. And I will bribe a jury to keep him full-time Thalia!"

"Because that's the right way to win a kid," Will stage whispered while Nico snickered in surprise beside him.

Thalia and Percy began actually bickering who would be a better influence on him though, and Magnus looked on in concern for several moments. "I think I liked it better when Percy kept rolling his eyes and wanted to ignore the chapter titles," he admitted to Alex.

"Are you kidding? This is world class entertainment! If we play our cards right, we might start World War III right here!" Alex was definitely placing bets in his head.

Jason finally had to give an almighty throat clearing and a stern look at the pair. He was pretty good at that when he shut off those questions and actually tried to be serious, like he had experience getting wily kids together. "No offense Thalia, but I think Percy wins by default, Tyson's old enough to get a say and he's going to pick Percy."

Percy not-so-silently cheered. "Now, on with the show?"

"Fine," Thalia huffed, "but I still insist nature spirits don't count and Artemis would consider letting me train him."

"Get your own little brother," Percy smirked before sticking his tongue out at her.

Thalia smiled like a good sport as her secret little brother she hadn't told anybody about finally started reading and she fought back tears for everything she'd done wrong regarding him. She was starting to get worried if she kept this bottled up much longer she'd do something drastic, like try to bathe a cat just to get some kind of battle out of her system.

She knew she should tell Percy at least, he wouldn't bat an eye at the multitude of problems that would arise when he found out she planned on murdering a god for what they'd done, but she wanted to give her friend a chance to breathe first. Get his memories back, actually have a chance at some normalcy back at camp with Annabeth before he got into this while she figured out details, so until then, she'd wait.

The good news: the left tunnel was straight with no side exits, twists, or turns.

"I'd actually prefer it if there were though, if something big is chasing me," Magnus said skittishly. "If you're smaller, you can take the turns that'll slow whatever's chasing you down."

"But we could also look over our shoulder and be vaguely comforted we couldn't see it yet instead of thinking it's just behind that corner," Percy said in his attempt at a wise voice.

"Yeah, man, that's, that's not better than an actual good reason," Magnus frowned in concern how this guy was alive, as usual.

The bad news; it was a dead end.

"The kind of news that trumps any good news anyways," Thalia said in fair compensation, to which neither of them disagreed.

After sprinting a hundred yards, we ran into an enormous boulder that completely blocked our path. Behind us, the sounds of dragging footsteps and heavy breathing echoed down the corridor. Something—definitely not human—was on our tail.

"Tyson," I said, "can you—"

"Yes!" He slammed his shoulder against the rock so hard the whole tunnel shook. Dust trickled from the stone ceiling.

"Hurry!" Grover said. "Don't bring the roof down, but hurry!"

"Grover's sure asking a lot of him right then," Alex pouted, "multitasking ain't that easy."

"And Tyson's not even ADHD," Percy agreed.

The boulder finally gave way with a horrible grinding noise. Tyson pushed it into a small room and we dashed through behind it.

"Close the entrance!" Annabeth said.

"Bossy, bossy," Alex huffed one more time.

"Someone's got to give the orders in those kinds of situations or everyone would run around in chaos," Jason reminded.

Alex was more of a deadly, solo, ninja assassin though if he'd ever stop wearing the brightest stinking colors, so nobody was surprised when he rolled his eyes at Jason.

We all got on the other side of the boulder and pushed.

"Teamwork makes the dream work though," Alex laughingly approved. "I knew you guys could move any problem if you just put enough brute force into it."

"If Alex suggests we just throw rocks at the next monster to kill it, I want you all as witnesses to prove it was justified to see I threw a rock at him first to prove why that wouldn't work," Percy chuckled.

Thalia flicked him in the forehead and fought off a laugh. "See, this is why Tyson should hang around me more, he gets all his violent ideas from you!"

"I resemble that remark," Percy agreed casually.

"I'm assuming he doesn't actually mean resent?" Magnus muttered.

"He does not," Alex agreed without concern.

Whatever was chasing us wailed in frustration as we heaved the rock back into placed and sealed the corridor.

"We trapped it," I said.

"Or trapped ourselves," Grover said.

I turned. We were in a twenty-foot-square cement room and the opposite wall was covered with metal bars. We'd tunneled straight into a cell.

Will let out a long, tragic whistle. "What in Hades did that mortal do to deserve getting a cell next to a literal hellish pit? Can you imagine that poor inmate lying awake at night, hearing any number of things through that wall, and yet being so desperate to escape and chance going in?"

"Or, on the flip side, monsters keep getting into just that cell to eat whoever's in there and going back to the labyrinth, so the prison just accepts that as the black hole cell and throws the ones in there they hope will vanish," Alex offered.

"Is it possible? Did Percy finally stumble across a place you're not going to try to vacation to?" Magnus asked him with a smidge of hope.

"Are you nuts? This is easily in the top five places I need to know every detail of!" Alex looked at him in hurt he'd assume otherwise.

"Yeah, should have seen that coming," Magnus sighed in resignation. The real question would be what would Alex get arrested for to get sent there.

"What in Hades?" Annabeth tugged on the bars. They didn't budge.

"Confirmed, Annabeth does not have super strength," Jason nodded to himself like he was compiling a mental list.

"Was that really something you were holding out for?" Percy asked with mild curiosity.

"Can't automatically disqualify it after she held the sky so long. I'm now marking that as strength of character," Jason shrugged.

Through the bars we could see rows of cells in a ring around a dark courtyard—at least three stories of metal doors and metal catwalks.

"A prison," I said. "Maybe Tyson can break—"

"Shh," said Grover. "Listen."

"I would almost rather not, though," Magnus admitted. He'd had to imagine all the time what prison sounded like and wasn't looking for any more descriptors.

"It, uh, it wasn't," but Percy didn't know how to answer that, other than just saying it sounded very weird. Like someone was trying to speak with construction equipment.

Somewhere above us, deep sobbing echoed through the building. There was another sound, too—a raspy voice muttering something that I couldn't make out. The words were strange, like rocks in a tumbler.

"What's that language?" I whispered.

Tyson's eye widened. "Can't be."

"I never considered Tyson might know a second language and that's why he's so minimal in English," Alex said in fascination.

"Do monsters get their own language?" Magnus asked awkwardly. What the heck was going on? Were they even in a mortal prison, or had the labyrinth dumped them out in some hellish monster prison?

"As far as I know, it's a pretty universal kill Percy Jackson language," Percy shrugged, but the look of intense surprise on Tyson's face made him nowhere near downplaying something was up.

"What?" I asked.

He grabbed two bars on our cell door and bent them wide enough for even a Cyclops to slip through.

"So is Tyson jailbreaking himself? That's not something anybody can be upset about," Will was only mock confused, but the slight notes of dread in his voice weren't fake. He was not looking forward to Kampê being described in vivid detail. He still had nightmares about her.

"Wait!" Grover called.

But Tyson wasn't about to wait. We ran after him.

"No easy task I imagine," Jason mock saluted him.

"Yeah, he's weirdly fast, must be all that peanut butter," Percy agreed.

The prison was dark, only a few dim fluorescent lights flickering above.

"I don't think it's an active prison?" Magnus said in surprise. Surely somebody else would have been spotted by now. That just made it creepier though, now he was wondering when the vengeful spirits were going to show up. He still hadn't ruled out monsters were lurking about and the cells were just for show.

"I know this place," Annabeth told me. "This is Alcatraz."

"Fascinating," Alex yelped.

"Growing less surprised by the second the labyrinth dropped you off there," Nico muttered while fiddling with his figurine.

"You mean that island near San Francisco?"

She nodded. "My school took a field trip here. It's like a museum."

"What the hell do they sell in that gift shop?" Magnus spluttered.

"I swear if it's jumpsuits and space food I'll move in," Alex snickered.

It didn't seem possible that we could've popped out of the Labyrinth on the other side of the country,

"Like, seriously, where was this magic path the last two bloody times you needed it," Jason agreed with Percy's very put out look.

"I'm sure if we tried to take the exact same route we'd end up popping out in the South Poll," Percy grumbled at all of his luck.

but Annabeth had been living in San Francisco all year, keeping an eye on Mount Tamalpais just across the bay. She probably knew what she was talking about.

"I just assume that in general," Will nodded. "If she started babbling on about brain surgery or rocket science I'd take her at word."

Nico repressed the urge to gag that literally everybody but him was in love with this girl.

"Freeze," Grover warned.

But Tyson kept going. Grover grabbed his arm and pulled him back with all his strength.

"Did that cause a sequel of the flying shoes?" Thalia asked in concern and admiration at Grover trying so hard. He was all heart, a true protector, even with someone he wasn't fond of.

"He would have fallen if Tyson hadn't actually stopped to catch him," Percy agreed. "I think it would have been easier to pull on the anchor of a cruise ship, but that's Grover for you."

"Stop, Tyson!" he whispered. "Can't you see it?"

I looked where he was pointing, and my stomach did a somersault. On the second-floor balcony, across the courtyard, was a monster more horrible than anything I'd ever seen before.

"Which is really saying a lot when you've met, how many monsters now?" Magnus preemptively put his hand on his stomach to hold it in place for what he might be about to hear.

"Not even a fraction of all of them," Thalia shook her head in sorrow she couldn't promise this would get any better over time.

It was sort of like a centaur, with a woman's body from the waist up. But instead of a horse's lower body, it had the body of a dragon—at least twenty feet long, black and scaly with enormous claws and a barbed tail. Her legs looked like they were tangled in vines, but then I realized they were sprouting snakes, hundreds of vipers darting around, constantly looking for something to bite. The woman's hair was also made of snakes, like Medusa's. Weirdest of all, around her waist, where the woman part met the dragon part, her skin bubbled and morphed, occasionally producing the heads of animals—a vicious wolf, a bear, a lion, as if she were wearing a belt of ever-changing creatures. I got the feeling I was looking at something half formed, a monster so old it was from the beginning of time, before shapes had been fully defined.

"That is the coolest stinking thing I've ever heard of," Alex said slowly, clearly savoring each word.

"How, do you kill, that?" Magnus looked sickened such a thing like shapes even existed now.

"She's how I'd have imagined the mother of all monsters if you hadn't described Echidna already," Jason admitted. "A little bit of everything."

"You guys have no idea how lucky you are just to be hearing about this thing," Percy sighed. She was the kind of monster that made him fleetingly wonder if he was going to wet himself and not care if he'd feel that liquid.

Will's breath came out sharp, the sounds of screams and the smell of that poison and the looks of fright and pain still on faces covered in shrouds coming all to easily back to mind as he fought off a shiver. Nico placed a gentle hand on his shoulder, waiting to be shrugged off, or for Will to scream in fright at the death kid touching him right now.

To his surprise, the opposite happened. Will relaxed under his touch, one last shake of his head, and then he smiled at him. It was a small, tired one, but he mouthed thank you like he'd needed that moment to be grounded. Nico slowly drew his hand back all the same, examining it carefully to make sure he hadn't grabbed a skeleton hand by mistake just in case. Nope. There was that scar on the pad of his thumb from the first time he'd handled his sword. It had been real.

"It's her," Tyson whimpered.

"Get down!" Grover said.

We crouched in the shadows, but the monster wasn't paying us any attention. It seemed to be talking to someone inside a cell on the second floor. That's where the sobbing was coming from. The dragon woman said something in her weird rumbling language.

"What's she saying?" I muttered. "What's that language?"

"The tongue of the old times." Tyson shivered. "What Mother Earth spoke to Titans and...her other children. Before the gods."

"You understand it?" I asked. "Can you translate?"

Tyson closed his eyes and began to speak in a horrible, raspy woman's voice. "You will work for the master or suffer."

"Is Tyson a human translator? Cyclops translator?" Jason asked, always pleasantly surprised to find out more things no matter how persistent that nagging voice in his head was still saying all this time later this wasn't normal.

Percy was clearly puzzled by the question, obviously never having asked, so Nico offered, "as far as I know it ties into that whole voice mimicry they can do. If the person whose voice they plucked it from can speak it, so can they."

"That is so stinking cool!" Jason and Percy both cheered.

Annabeth shuddered. "I hate it when he does that."

Percy looked chagrined while Thalia gave him an understanding nod. Annabeth was allowed to be excused from thinking that was cool after what she'd been through, and Percy had a tendency to forget because Tyson was his daily Cyclops reminder instead of her nightmares.

Like all Cyclopes, Tyson had superhuman hearing and an uncanny ability to mimic voices. It was almost like he entered a trance when he spoke in other voices.

"I will not serve," Tyson said in a deep, wounded voice.

He switched to the monster's voice: "Then I shall enjoy your pain, Briares." Tyson faltered when he said that name. I'd never heard him break character when he was mimicking somebody, but he let out a strangled gulp.

Then he continued in the monster's voice. "If you thought your first imprisonment was unbearable, you have yet to feel true torment. Think on this until I return."

"You've only seen him do that once," Thalia gave him a bit of a judgmental eyebrow. "I'm actually quite pleased to know they can be shocked out of doing that trance." Much like Annabeth, she found that distasteful even being used on their side considering it had once been done to her.

"Who's Briares?" Jason cut into the uneasy silence that followed. "I, um, didn't realize Tyson had other friends besides you." A prison isn't the nicest place to have a sleepover, but it was even more awkward to realize Tyson might have been homeless before when there might have been some monster friend with plenty of space he could have been staying.

"I have no idea," Percy didn't sound to thrilled about the idea either. Prison break, the chapter title had promised, like Briares was stuck there and Tyson was going to help get him out. What the heck was a monster so old and powerful going to be like he needed help?

The dragon lady tromped toward the stairwell, vipers hissing around her legs like grass skirts. She spread wings that I hadn't noticed before—huge bat wings she kept folded against her dragon back. She leaped off the catwalk and soared across the courtyard. We crouched lower in the shadows.

A hot sulfurous wind blasted my face as the monster flew over. Then she disappeared around the corner.

"H-h-horrible," Grover said. "I've never smelled any monster that strong."

"Cyclopes' worst nightmare," Tyson murmured. "Kampê."

"Like a canopy?" Magnus was sure he'd heard wrong. "That sounds way to relaxing and nice to be translated right."

"I'm not making it up!" Jason promised.

"Who?" I asked.

Tyson swallowed. "Every Cyclops knows about her. Stories about her scare us when we're babies. She was our jailer in the bad years."

Percy frowned and swallowed a tight throat. He'd never asked about Tyson's mom, how long he'd been homeless before they found each other. Like with Annabeth, Percy worried it wasn't the best circumstances.

That bit also made him a tad grateful his mom never tried to give him bedtime stories, he was to restless a child. He vaguely recalled her singing her favorite songs to him instead, and wondered if he could get a recording sometime so Tyson could fall asleep listening to that instead of stories about the worst jailer of all time.

Annabeth nodded. "I remember now. When the Titans ruled, they imprisoned Gaea and Ouranos's earlier children—the Cyclopes and the Hekatonkheires."

"Can they not just be called heck-spawn? That's so much easier to pronounce," Percy sighed.

"Oh come on Percy, it's not that bad after you learned in school how to pronounce deoxyribonucleic acid," Will said bracingly.

"And now you're putting way to much faith in my education," Percy scoffed.

"The Heka-what?" I asked.

"The Hundred-Handed Ones," she said. "They called them that because...well, they had a hundred hands.

"The Greeks really didn't go out of their way to get creative with these names huh?" Alex said tragically.

"I'm, um, not complaining. Better than calling them the toe-to-head devourers or something," Magnus was definitely not wrapping his head around that right though. Were all the hands going to sprout out of his arms? Was he going to be a giant hand made of hands? Did that mean they were all thumbs and clumsy?

They were elder brothers of the Cyclopes."

"Looks like Percy's got some competition!" Magnus chuckled.

"Bet I'll win!" Percy said at once.

"It's okay guys, Tyson can have all the big siblings he wants, no need to fuss," Thalia mock playacted just because she was really tired of this being discussed.

Percy opened his mouth, a challenge on his tongue Thalia was just trying to move on from this because she didn't think she'd win, but he really saw her. The exhaustion in her eyes, the way she held herself like they were discussing Luke. Something about Tyson was really bothering her right now, and like Annabeth, he did forget her bad experience with them. So he quickly waved Jason on, but he kept watching her, and noticed how she didn't quite seem to want to watch Jason either.

"Very powerful," Tyson said. "Wonderful! As tall as the sky. So strong they could break mountains!"

"Cool," I said. "Unless you're a mountain."

"Might be cool for the mountains," Alex grinned. "I quite admire monsters that can break me."

"Only you Alex," Percy told him without surprise.

"Kampê was the jailer," he said. "She worked for Kronos. She kept our brothers locked up in Tartarus, tortured them always, until Zeus came. He killed Kampê and freed Cyclopes and Hundred-Handed Ones to help fight against the Titans in the big war."

"And now Kampê is back," I said.

"Bad," Tyson summed up.

"I swear we could just plaster that as the chapter title and it would always be relevant," Nico muttered.

"So who's in that cell?" I asked. "You said a name—"

"Briares!" Tyson perked up. "He is a Hundred-Handed One. They are as tall as the sky and—"

"Yeah," I said. "They break mountains."

I looked up at the cells above us, wondering how something as tall as the sky could fit in a tiny cell, and why he was crying.

"Hopefully it's just a minor inconvenience, like his warden forgot to put a mint on his pillow," Jason said with an odd look at Percy. It seemed pretty obvious anybody would be crying to be in these circumstances. They were all holding it together by willpower and sarcasm.

"I guess we should check it out," Annabeth said, "before Kampê comes back."

"And that's why the child of wisdom is leading this charge," Alex snorted. "I'd rather wait until Kampê came back to do this properly!"

"You would," Nico said, never entirely sure how much Alex was kidding about that.

As we approached the cell, the weeping got louder.

"Do you expect noises to get quieter the closer you get to them?" Will asked in concern.

"I don't know, I've never tried being quiet at anything," Percy shrugged.

When I first saw the creature inside, I wasn't sure what I was looking at. He was human-size and his skin was very pale, the color of milk. He wore a loincloth like a big diaper. His feet seemed too big for his body, with cracked dirty toenails, eight toes on each foot. But the top half of his body was the weird part. He made Janus look downright normal. His chest sprouted more arms than I could count, in rows, all around his body. The arms looked like normal arms, but there were so many of them, all tangled together, that his chest looked kind of like a forkful of spaghetti somebody had twirled together. Several of his hands were covering his face as he sobbed.

"That guy, is very cool," Alex instantly decided.

"Helps he might not kill you upon first meeting you," Magnus agreed, though he was still reserving a scream for that in case they got double-crossed.

"Either the sky isn't as tall as it used to be," I muttered, "or he's short."

"Mist manipulation?" Jason offered awkwardly.

"Or he didn't get Ouranos's genes," Percy snorted.

Thalia rolled her eyes at the pair of them again, so at least that was still normal.

Tyson didn't pay any attention. He fell to his knees.

"Briares!" he called.

The sobbing stopped.

"Great Hundred-Handed One!" Tyson said. "Help us!"

Briars looked up. His face was long and sad, with a crooked nose and bad teeth. He had deep brown eyes—I mean completely brown with no whites or black pupils, like eyes formed out of clay.

Jason gave an impressed whistle.

"That's what impressed you?" Percy yelped. "You weren't even phased by the arms, but his eyes?"

"Eyes are the window to the soul Percy, and that just sounded cooler than spaghetti arms," he chuckled. His blue eyes flashed a familiar, cocky kind of way when he mocked him that nagged at Percy's mind for a moment.

"Run while you can, Cyclops," Briares said miserably. "I cannot even help myself."

"Yeah, why is that exactly?" Magnus stage whispered. "He doesn't exactly sound pinned down."

"Sometimes your head can be prison enough," Nico murmured sullenly. If Magnus hadn't seen his lips move, he wouldn't have been entirely sure he spoke at all. Magnus swallowed a sharp, bitter feeling on his tongue of understanding and didn't press farther.

"Sounds to me like he just needs a helping hand," Percy said casually and then even laughed at his own pun, so the others just rolled their eyes at him and moved on.

"You are a Hundred-Handed One!" Tyson insisted. "You can do anything!"

Briars wiped his nose with five or six hands. Several others were fidgeting with little pieces of metal and wood from a broken bed, the way Tyson always played with spare parts. It was amazing to watch. The hands seemed to have a mind of their own. They built a toy boat out of wood, then disassembled it just as fast. Other hands were scratching at the cement floor for no apparent reason. Others were playing rock, paper, scissors. A few others were making ducky and doggie shadow puppets against the wall.

"I feel like trying to watch him sign would give me a headache," Magnus seemed fascinated how he was able to function all of those fingers at once. He did good to walk and have a conversation without tripping.

"Like trying to listen to a song at mock ten speed, he'd just bang out everything at once," Alex agreed, but he sounded more impressed. He was probably imagining punching 98 people at once and giving himself a high-five.

"I cannot," Briares moaned. "Kampê is back! The Titans will rise and throw us back into Tartarus."

"Put on your brave face!" Tyson said.

Immediately Briares's face morphed into something else. Same brown eyes, but otherwise totally different features. He had an upturned nose, arched eyebrows, and a weird smile, like he was trying to act brave. But then his face turned back to what it had been before.

"Does every part of his body just go nuts?" Percy half laughed half asked. "Do his ears change out to bionics?"

Thalia smacked him on his ear to shush him.

"No good," he said. "My scared face keeps coming back."

"How did you do that?" I asked.

Annabeth elbowed me. "Don't be rude. The Hundred-Handed Ones all have fifty different faces."

"I don't think ignorance should be called rude," Will said fairly.

"It is if you ask to see all fifty faces at once," Alex said with a very disappointed face of his own he knew he shouldn't and yet very much wanted to.

"Must make it hard to get a yearbook picture," I said.

Thalia laughed against her will and agreed, "a face a mother doesn't have to love, she could just tell him to change it to another!" Then kept snickering at her own joke.

Percy sighed in relief, it was kind of depressing watching her try to be all responsible and lieutenant-y. He was already worried the Hunt was going to make her boring and stiff.

Tyson was still entranced. "It will be okay, Briares! We will help you! Can I have your autograph?"

"Does he have an autograph book?" Alex asked in surprise.

"I think we found his celebrity crush," Magnus grinned.

"My question is, can you get one of those on Alcatraz island? I'm still not sure what to expect in that gift shop," Will chuckled.

Briares sniffled. "Do you have one hundred pens?"

"I only keep up with one because it's magic!" Percy looked traumatized at the idea of collecting all of those.

"His hands move independently of each other though," Nico frowned at the odd question.

"Maybe each would want to write their own autograph," Will said, an odd bit of disappointment in his voice nobody got because he hadn't gotten an autograph when it was available.

"Guys," Grover interrupted. "We have to get out of here. Kampê will be back. She'll sense us sooner or later."

"Break the bars," Annabeth said.

"Yes!" Tyson said, smiling proudly. "Briares can do it. He is very strong. Stronger than Cyclopes, even!

"That's, pretty strong," Magnus agreed, but with a weary kind of frown. How much stronger than Tyson could you be without tipping the terrifying scales?

Alex was no more impressed, because if Briares could break out of there, then surely he would have by now.

Watch!"

Briares whimpered. A dozen of his hands started playing patty-cake, but none of them made any attempt to break the bars.

"This is just sad," Jason frowned. How long had this guy been a prisoner already?

Alex tangled up a few strands of hair in his fingers and gave a painful tug. The memory, the feeling of how hard it was to walk out a door wasn't something he'd had to think about in a few years, but then he'd been kicked out. He hadn't gone back in.

Hopefully, it wouldn't take Briares that to get such a forceful freedom.

"If he's so strong," I said, "why is he stuck in jail?"

Annabeth ribbed me again. "He's terrified," she whispered. "Kampê had imprisoned him in Tartarus for thousands of years. How would you feel?"

Percy couldn't imagine it. Even at his worst moments with smelly Gabe he'd had his mom, or being underground in that Labyrinth, he'd been with his friends. He'd been able to move, have a sense of freedom, know that he could leave if he'd ever wanted to even if it wasn't something he'd ever consider.

The Hundred-Handed One covered his face again.

"Briares?" Tyson asked. "What...what is wrong? Show us your great strength!"

"Tyson," Annabeth said, "I think you'd better break the bars."

Tyson's smile melted slowly.

"I will break the bars," he repeated. He grabbed the cell door and ripped it off its hinges like it was made of wet clay.

Alex made a noise of appreciation. He knew Tyson would enjoy doing that with him.

"Come on, Briares," Annabeth said. "Let's get you out of here."

She held out her hand. For a second, Briares's face morphed to a hopeful expression. Several of his arms reached out, but twice as many slapped them away.

"I've heard of people fighting with themselves, but geez, this is ridiculous," Thalia said with grudging admiration for how much control Briares must have over himself. He could defeat any enemy if she could find him twenty-five bows.

"I cannot," he said. "She will punish me."

"It's all right," Annabeth promised. "You fought the Titans before, and you won, remember?"

"I remember the war." Briares's face morphed again—furrowed brow and a pouting mouth. His brooding face, I guess.

"I think Briares is going to be a great influence on you," Jason said in a very unhelpful tone to Percy. "Maybe seeing someone actively change their face around will help you figure out what an angry face is."

"Fat chance it'll do any good," Percy scoffed.

"Lightning shook the world. We threw many rocks. The Titans and the monsters almost won. Now they are getting strong again. Kampê said so."

"Don't listen to her," I said. "Come on!"

He didn't move. I knew Grover was right. We didn't have much time before Kampê returned. But I couldn't just leave him here. Tyson would cry for weeks.

"Yeah, that's why you shouldn't just abandon someone," Will sighed while rubbing at his forehead.

"I think this is a great, helpful tool to learn," Nico grinned. "All we have to do to win any fight is tell Percy it'll make someone cry if we don't."

"We shall achieve this quest or it'll make us all cry!" Percy said in a triumphant tone, even hefting an invisible sword. Then he lowered it and gave them a spectacular eye roll. "Nah, doesn't have a good ring to it."

"One game of rock, paper, scissors," I blurted out. "If I win, you come with us. If I lose, we'll leave you in jail."

"That should have been the chapter title," Magnus busted out laughing in surprise. "I Win Rock, Paper, Scissors a Hundred Times."

"Thanks for the confidence," Percy grinned, though he suspected they were all going to call him a cheat.

Annabeth looked at me like I was crazy.

"There's a face he could never forget," Jason clearly wasn't going to let that joke go.

"It's my favorite one," Percy agreed fondly.

Briares's face morphed to doubtful. "I always win rock, paper, scissors."

"Why? Can he read hands better than Magnus?" Alex asked suspiciously.

"I'm not a palm reader," Magnus frowned.

"Shush, you know what I meant," Alex waved his fingers concerningly close to his nose, exposing the dried in clay still in the folds of his skin Magnus had shamelessly been watching when he thought he could get away with it.

"Then let's do it!" I pounded my fist in my palm three times.

Briares did the same with all one hundred hands, which sounded like an army marching three steps forward. He came up with a whole avalanche of rocks, a classroom set of scissors, and enough paper to make a fleet of airplanes.

"He cheated!" Will yelped. "He still has to only pick one!"

"Game sounds a tad more interesting though if you used both hands," Nico grinned. "Bit more of a strategy involved."

"This guy could play a whole game of chess by himself and not use half his hands," Will grudgingly agreed. "Somebody's got to make it a challenge."

"Then he came to the right place," Percy cracked his knuckles in delight.

"I told you," he said sadly. "I always—" His face morphed to confusion. "What is that you made?"

"A gun," I told him, showing him my finger gun. It was a trick Paul Blofis had pulled on me, but I wasn't going to tell him that.

"Percy, you cheated too," Will groaned in disappointment.

"And kids shouldn't play with guns, Paul is a terrible influence," Thalia rolled her eyes at Will to make him hear how ridiculous he was being.

He opened his mouth, then shut it again. What was he supposed to say? He should have used a sword instead?

"A gun beats anything."

"That's not fair."

"I didn't say anything about fair. Kampê's not going to be fair if we hang around. She's going to blame you for ripping off the bars. Now come on!"

"You're being a manipulative little shit," Thalia said approvingly. "You don't get enough credit for being able to do that."

"Annabeth gets all the good credit, I'm just the sidekick," Percy reminded cheerfully.

Briares sniffled. "Demigods are cheaters." But he slowly rose to his feet and followed us out of the cell.

"Not a great lesson I'd want to instill in him," Magnus said uneasily. The last thing Percy needed was this guy as a powerful enemy, and making all future generations of demigods his enemy.

"I saved his life, he can call me a sore loser and a poopoo head too if he and Tyson want to hide under a blanket and laugh about me," Percy shrugged.

I started to feel hopeful.

"And then all hell broke lose," Jason said with such calm confidence, nobody even realized that hadn't been in the book.

All we had to do was get downstairs and find the Labyrinth entrance. But then Tyson froze.

On the ground floor right below, Kampê was snarling at us.

"Is run the right word there?" Magnus tried hard not to whimper.

"Better than freeze?" Alex shrugged.

Percy was making a strangled kind of noise that wasn't a word at all, his eyes large enough he resembled a deep sea fish.

"The other way," I said.

"Unless Tyson wants her autograph too, then you might stop," Thalia shivered.

"Nope, sorry, I'd have to make the tough call on that and tell him no," Percy said only a tad frantically.

We bolted down the catwalk. This time Briares was happy to follow us. In fact he sprinted out front, a hundred arms waving in panic.

"Oh, good to know that's all it took," Jason yelped in something close to betrayal, but he also had half a mind to lash a rope to one of his arms and hang on for the free ride, so he wasn't that offended.

Behind us, I heard the sound of giant wings as Kampê took to the air.

"Is now a good time to discuss how exactly it's possible for dragons to take flight?" Alex asked critically. "Especially the European ones which are all heavy-armored tanky beasts, and you cannot tell me she's gliding in there."

"You know Alex," Percy tried to say as casually as possible, "I think we should shelve that, and save it for a quiet time when we've just dodged our own near death experience, not in the middle of one."

"Duly noted," Alex nodded.

She hissed and growled in her ancient language, but I didn't need a translation to know she was planning to kill us.

"I'm sure Tyson's feelings won't be to hurt," Jason snorted.

We scrambled down the stairs, through a corridor, and past a guard's station—out into another block of prison cells.

"Left," Annabeth said. "I remember this from the tour."

"I'd trust any direction that wasn't backwards," Will promised faintly.

We burst outside and found ourselves in the prison yard, ringed by security towers and barbed wire. After being inside for so long, the daylight almost blinded me.

Magnus winced along with him, because he didn't usually experience that very harshly, or he got over it weirdly quickly. He'd never considered that of any use outside of just hanging around making sure Hearth or Blitz didn't bump into anything, now he realized he might have been able to take in the area a split second faster than someone like Percy or Annabeth.

Tourists were milling around, taking pictures. The wind whipped cold off the bay. In the south, San Francisco gleamed all white and beautiful, but in the north, over Mount Tamalpais, huge storm clouds swirled.

The whole sky seemed like a black top spinning from the mountain where Atlas was imprisoned, and where the Titan palace of Mount Othrys was rising anew. It was hard to believe the tourists couldn't see the supernatural storm brewing, but they didn't give any hint that anything was wrong.

"Still want that picture-perfect moment Will?" Nico asked mildly.

"Ever notice how nobody takes pictures of hard times?" Will asked with a sad smile. "Maybe I would, do a before and after thing."

"You're insane," Nico chuckled with growing affection for his particular insanity.

"It's even worse," Annabeth said, gazing to the north. "The storms have been bad all year, but that—"

"Keep moving," Briares wailed. "She is behind us!"

"And you guys keep telling me I have bad timing," Alex said in exasperation. "At least I didn't want to stop and talk about the scenery!"

"You're trying to tell us you wouldn't stop and smell the roses while a dragon canopy is behind you?" Jason asked in disbelief.

"Roses are so cliché," he scoffed like that was actually an answer before waving him on.

We ran to the far end of the yard, as far from the cellblock as possible.

"Kampê's too big to get through the doors," I said hopefully.

Then the wall exploded.

Thalia's smile looked painful as she tried to smother a laugh, and was failing. "Okay, next, I want you to say, I don't want a million dollars!"

"It doesn't work like that, I've tried," Percy promised through a grit-tooth smile.

Tourists screamed as Kampê appeared from the dust and rubble, her wings spread out as wide as the yard. She was holding two swords—long bronze scimitars that glowed with a weird greenish aura, boiling wisps of vapor that smelled sour and hot even across the yard.

"Poison!" Grover yelped. "Don't let those things touch you or..."

"Or we'll die?" I guessed.

"Well...after you shrivel slowly to dust, yes."

"Because of course the giant every-monster gets poisonous swords! What next, a propeller hat? A backpack full or restores?" Magnus looked exhausted for Percy even hearing of this unstoppable beast.

Percy wondered when the heck his life had turned into something that made a horror movie sound bland. It didn't sound great when he decided always.

"Let's avoid the swords," I decided.

"That is possibly the wisest thing you've ever said," Thalia said, clearly impressed.

"You and Grover putting that one good brain cell to use at the right time," Jason snorted.

"Briares, fight!" Tyson urged. "Grow to full size!"

Instead, Briares looked like he was trying to shrink even smaller. He appeared to be wearing his absolutely terrified face.

"I'm very disappointed you haven't continued describing all these new features," Alex pouted. "Did he have a button nose? A wide forehead? Dimples?"

"You know, I really didn't think about it much," Percy grinned, "like Jason said, it was all in the eyes."

"Ha!" Jason gave a barking laugh before falling off into snickers for a solid minute before he could keep going while Percy stared on, pleased with himself he'd gotten him to laugh so hard. Jason definitely needed to stop thinking and counting so much and have a little more fun.

Kampê thundered toward us on her dragon legs, hundreds of snakes slithering around her body.

For a second I thought about drawing Riptide and facing her,

"And you have two great guys to help you throw rocks at this monster and everything," Alex smirked right at Percy.

He took in a deep breath and raised his hand at the giant white boulder still sitting in the middle of the room from where he'd nearly caved in the roof.

It didn't move, and after several silent moments of everybody watching blankly, Percy shrugged. "See, told you it wouldn't work."

"You weren't really trying at all, were you?" Alex asked tragically, as if actually offended Percy hadn't thrown a rock at him to really nail his point.

"My attention is a little split, try again later," Percy rolled his eyes.

Alex sniffed, he knew a dismissal when he heard one. "I remember what ADHD stands for you know," he grumbled, but Percy was back to staring at the book and chewing on the cap of his pen.

but my heart crawled into my throat. Then Annabeth said what I was thinking: "Run."

That was the end of the debate.

"I want you to remember this moment if you ever think of joining that particular club at Goode High," Nico told him conversationally enough. He hadn't even been in awe this time Percy had run like a sensible person or taken charge. He was just a guy running for his life like anyone.

"Yeah Nico, this is for sure the first thing I want coming to my mind joining any club," Percy gave him a bewildered frown.

There was no fighting this thing. We ran through the jail yard and out the gates of the prison, the monster right behind us. Mortals screamed and ran. Emergency sirens began to blare. We hit the wharf just as a tour boat was unloading. The new group of visitors froze as they saw us charging toward them, followed by a mob of frightened tourists, followed by...I don't know what they saw through the Mist, but it could not have been good.

"Stampeding elephant," Alex offered.

"Raining men?" Magnus asked.

"A very angry woman throwing snakes at people out of a bazooka," Jason said with a little to much confidence, his mind offering a weirdly specific image of seeing someone on the news talk about this...

"The boat?" Grover asked.

"Too slow," Tyson said.

"Not with Percy driving it!" Will yelped.

"I wasn't going to argue with Tyson, who knew if she was just getting started," Percy shook his head sharply. He hadn't exactly sat around and clocked his ability to move a boat faster than every monster.

"Back into the maze. Only chance."

"We need a diversion," Annabeth said.

Tyson ripped a metal lamppost out of the ground. "I will distract Kampê. You run ahead."

"I'll help you," I said.

"No," Tyson said. "You go. Poison will hurt Cyclopes. A lot of pain. But it won't kill."

"Are you sure?"

"Go, brother. I will meet you inside."

"It was never hard to guess who Tyson took the best influence from," Thalia chuckled, handing him a mock stack of documents. "I concede the case, you now have both kids all to yourself."

Percy gave her a tragic look as he mock-hugged them to his chest and pleaded, "you won't even offer child support?"

"Ha, ha, ha," she chuckled as she gave him a light push. Hopefully this would finally get him to let go of that stupid joke, and besides, she'd meant it anyways. How could she not admire the hero he'd been to Tyson the instant they met? It was who he always was.

I hated the idea. I'd almost lost Tyson once before, and I didn't want to ever risk that again. But there was no time to argue, and I had no better idea.

"Sometimes the best idea is blind trust," Jason agreed gently.

Percy wasn't sure he liked it when he heard Jason saying stuff like that, and not because he disagreed. It just sounded exhausting, like how Chiron sometimes sounded so old. Jason was his age, he shouldn't know all that.

Annabeth, Grover, and I each took one of Briares's hands and dragged him toward the concession stands while Tyson bellowed, lowered his pole, and charged Kampê like a jousting knight.

"Getting medieval times up in here," Alex grinned. "I told you to get Tyson a cyclops-sized horse Percy, this would have been perfect!"

"I bet Rainbow would come around if we'd had time to call," Percy agreed.

She'd been glaring at Briares, but Tyson got her attention as soon as he nailed her in the chest with the pole, pushing her back into the wall. She shrieked and slashed with her swords, slicing the pole to shreds. Poison dripped in pools all around her, sizzling into the cement.

Tyson jumped back as Kampê's hair lashed and hissed, and the vipers around her legs darted their tongues in every direction. A lion popped out of the weird half-formed faces around her waist and roared.

As we sprinted for the cellblocks, the last thing I saw was Tyson picking up a Dippin' Dots stand and throwing it at Kampê. Ice cream and poison exploded everywhere, all the little snakes in Kampê's hair dotted with tuttifrutti.

Percy couldn't describe the dread that filled him if he wanted to. He would have learned to run backwards or started a jousting tournament or anything if he'd thought it would help in that moment.

But he trusted Tyson. He said he was going to meet him and so he clenched his fist tight enough he could have held a hundred hands and told himself to get a move on, this is what Tyson needed from him right now. The ocean had been roaring in his ears like a cheer from their dad.

He didn't seem to realize, as usual, he was really causing the ocean to begin stirring around them.

We dashed back into the jail yard.

"Can't make it," Briares huffed.

"Tyson is risking his life to help you!" I yelled at him. "You will make it."

As we reached the door of the cellblock, I heard an angry roar. I glanced back and saw Tyson running toward us at full speed, Kampê right behind him. She was plastered in ice cream and T-shirts. One of the bear heads on her waist was now wearing a pair of crooked plastic Alcatraz sunglasses.

"I cannot believe Rachel isn't here to help me get a visual on this," Alex groaned. "You think Oceanus will let us take souvenirs when we're done, because I will fight someone for that paragraph to exist so I can make a sculpture of it!"

"I'm sure you can just rip out a page and stuff it in your shoe," Percy told him, letting himself be temporarily distracted. People were in his room. Vulnerable friends who he couldn't blast away. "In fact, I'll be starting a fire underwater soon enough to burn all these, so get your picks while you can." Like he wanted anybody else to suffer the nightmare that was his life when this was done.

"Hurry!" Annabeth said, like I needed to be told that.

"She's just a good leader like that, making sure you're all on the same page," Jason snickered.

"I'll shove that page up your nose, see if you can finish it then," but Percy couldn't help but force a laugh. He needed to hear Tyson was okay more than jokes right now.

We finally found the cell where we'd come in, but the back wall was completely smooth—no sign of a boulder or anything.

"Look for the mark!" Annabeth said.

"There!" Grover touched a tiny scratch, and it became a Greek . The mark of Daedalus glowed blue, and the stone wall grinded open.

Too slowly.

Tyson was coming through the cellblock, Kampê's swords lashing out behind him, slicing indiscriminately through cell bars and stone walls.

I pushed Briares inside the maze, then Annabeth and Grover.

"You can do it!" I told Tyson. But immediately I knew he couldn't. Kampê was gaining. She raised her swords.

Percy moved on reflex. He was flinging only in his mind, but the water reacted around him.

CRASH!

There was now a hole punched into the door at least, instead of someone's skull. Perfectly shaped for someone to fit their head through like they wanted to be Janus for Halloween. Percy's arm was still flung out like a follow-through on a hoop until Thalia gently stood up and grabbed him, lowering him back into his seat as he stuttered for unneeded air while Jason calmly finished like a cannon hadn't just gone off.

I need a distraction—something big. I slapped my wristwatch and it spiraled into a bronze shield.

Desperately, I threw it at the monster's face.

SMACK! The shield hit her in the face and she faltered just long enough for Tyson to dive past me into the maze.

Percy rubbed the empty space where that watch used to be with the smallest of regret. Tyson was alive, and he'd make him an even better watch with their new, even more deadly adventures on it when he got back.

I was right behind him. Kampê charged, but she was too late. The stone door closed and its magic sealed us in. I could feel the whole tunnel shake as Kampê pounded against it, roaring furiously. We didn't stick around to play knock, knock with her, though.

"Talk about one of the greatest punchlines of all time," Thalia said faintly. That had been close. Way to close.

"Would anybody begrudge me making one up for that though?" Alex grinned. "I bet nobody will see it coming."

"You go right ahead Alex, like we can stop you," Will chuckled.

We raced into the darkness, and for the first time (and the last) I was glad to be back in the Labyrinth.

"Someone needed to bring a photographer on these trips to commemorate all the happy times you keep glossing over," Jason said as he began to hand the book over. "I can't believe nobody commemorated that first and last time in one moment!"

"That's what we have you for Jason," Magnus smirked as he took the book. "You're our bookkeeper."

"That would have been much funnier if he was about to start his turn," Alex frowned at him. "Work on your timing Magnus."

"I'll get right on that," he agreed. Half of him wanted to sit in a daze and wonder if Alex had some implications of that, but his fingers were already grazing along for the next chapter. Was it to much to hope this quest would go a tad easier now that they had Briares on their side?

#pjo #percy jackson #thalia grace #jason grace #alex fierro #magnus chase #nico di angelo #will solace #percabeth #fierrochase #solangelo #battle of the labyrinth #HDYSG #reading the books #fanfiction

[twinsarekeepers]

The more I reread the PJO series, the more clear it is to me that Annabeth isn’t white.

(I know y’all are going to be in my mentions like “oh but she has blonde hair and grey eyes she can’t be black or brown” and I KNOW! I know RR saw her as a white girl when he was writing the books. I am aware of that fact. It just so happens that I can see a ton of my own experiences (specifically related to being a brown woman) in the way she’s perceived by other characters.)

So, like, in the first book, she was so mad at Percy because he got a quest even though he knew particularly nothing about the demigod world (and everything he did know was stuff she taught him) and she had been working basically her whole life to get one. I mean, seriously, she was more equipped to lead a quest because she’d literally lived on streets before. (And I know they banned quests after Luke’s and it was a special circumstance so they had to give one to Percy but it’s so clear that he has no idea what’s going on and that he agrees to bring Annabeth along because he knows he’ll need her intelligence and expertise to complete the quest).

And, like, she is literally the most educated, knowledgeable person on the Argo II, ffs she’s LITERALLY the daughter of Athena, but her intelligence is constantly questioned. (And I know it’s because RR was like “oh it’s because she’s blonde” 🙄 Istg, I’m going to strangle that man in his sleep). But, who is the most educated demographic in the US and are still constantly overlooked and their intelligence insulted? Black women. I just—RICHARD, IT WAS RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU IM GOING TO SCREAM!

The other characters see her as this strong, tough warrior, but she literally cries in every book. That’s not to say she’s not strong or tough or a warrior, but she is also soft and gentle and that’s extremely overlooked by not just the characters, but the fandom as well. The way she holds Percy’s hand in times when he’s stressed out and assures him when he’s feeling like he can’t do something. The way she comforts characters who are in emotional pain like Juniper and Silena. When Piper first got to camp and Annabeth showed her around and tried to make her feel at home. Even when Drew was being mean to Piper, Annabeth didn’t take sides and instead mitigated the tension. She cheered Hazel up after her fight with Jason. Frank came to her for advice and she was very considerate of his feelings and comfort. She was intuitive enough to figure out why Leo acted the way he did and than she defended his actions to Frank. These are all things that she does that are vulnerable and show her heart but most of the characters still view her as scary and intimidating.

And they see Annabeth as strong enough to just handle emotional turmoil all by herself. Like, y’all remember when Percy was kind of surprised that Annabeth needed a hug in BOTL? (Why? He’s seen her cry before. He’s seen her need comfort before. What makes him think it would be a one time thing?). Or when he didn’t tell her that he was worried about her? (He really said “stay here and protect Nico and Rachel”. And then in his head he was like, “I didn’t tell Annabeth but I was worried about her too.” MY GUY?? WHY WOULDN’T YOU TELL HER??) Or how about when she was literally sobbing on the ground after seeing Luke turn into Kronos and Percy, Rachel, and Nico were just … standing around, talking. Percy literally tried to pick a fight with her in that moment. Like, wtf was that?? (I mean, he tried to be a little bit more gentle with her when he was telling her to get up and leave but at that point, the damage is done, dude, you’ve already kicked her while she was down).

This connects to how she’s stripped of her femininity. The fact that she’s canonically good at weaving (a traditionally feminine task) and it seems to be forgotten by all the characters and even the fandom. The fact that she enjoys wearing dresses and makeup and jewelry but Percy finds those things awkward on her (I made a post about that here if y’all want to read it. The Richard stannies found it though so beware the notes). There are so many instances in the books where she so obviously fits into a traditionally feminine role but they’re glossed over or ignored. As a South Asian woman, I know how this feels.

Okay and then on Circe’s Island, when Circe said something like “oh and that HAIR!” and Annabeth was like “what’s wrong with my hair?” …. That’s a micro aggression if I’ve ever seen one. I just know if Annabeth was a white girl with type 3, loose ass curls, Circe would not have said that shit.

And all of the reasons we think Percy is not white ALSO APPPLY TO ANNABETH. Like, she went to through all the same stuff that Percy went through in the mortal world. She literally said as much in the beginning of TLT.

Annabeth is just so clearly not white to me. And the fact that RR didn’t see how so many of her experiences lined up with a black or brown woman’s will actually be my villain origin story. He really wrote “she’s oppressed because she’s blonde” with his whole chest. Great job in proving how much of a rich, white man you are, Richard.

#annabeth chase #annabeth chase meta #annabeth chase character analysis #(i guess) #the lightning thief #tlt #sea of monsters #som #titan’s curse #ttc #the battle of the labyrinth #tbolt #percy jackson and the olympians #pjo #anti rick riordan #rr crit #(like towards the end because i can’t help myself that man is a menace and i’m sick of him) #long post #yo i worked so hard on this #got all my evidence and examples #took me actual DAYS #this better do well