#architect annabeth

[bhhstilinski]

Chapter 2 (cont)

The library stood out in the small town, a newer building against the old, concrete against the brick, wide against the thin. It was a few minutes’ walk away from the cluster of more central shops that housed stationery and trendy clothing. Although Annabeth loved the store offering a selection of planners and pens, her destination today was the library. She pulled into a parking space, noting the plethora of empty spots, and twisted the key to turn the car off, her music stopping abruptly.

Annabeth took her keys and phone from the front of the car, pulled her bag from the backseat, and locked it as she walked towards the front doors. Once inside, she made a beeline for the stairs, bypassing the children’s section. The bottom floor of the library featured tables with picture books on display, enticing young potential readers. Annabeth remembered getting her first library card and excitedly running around the building, collecting books from all the tables and shelves, curating a diverse taste from the moment she had the opportunity. She would read historical fiction, fantasy, mystery, and to the librarian’s surprise, books about architecture.

As Annabeth reached the top of the stairs, she surveyed the top floor. A few chairs were arranged around a table in front of her, all facing a fireplace with a TV above it. The TV silently advertised different events the library would be hosting over the next few weeks, including storytimes for little kids and an arts-and-crafts day. Beyond the sitting area there were rows of bookcases that held the selection of fiction for teens and adults. Individual seats with attached desks lined the wall of windows to Annabeth’s left, each seat closed off by a screen that made for a more private study space.

She continued past the fiction section and turned to the right before reaching the non-fiction area. Her footsteps muted by the carpet, Annabeth approached the study rooms. Each room offered a table with several chairs and a whiteboard on the wall, so this hall was a hotbed for high school students. Since it was still the beginning of the school year, Annabeth had her pick from plenty of open rooms. Each had a clear glass wall, making it easy to see if they were occupied. She chose the one at the end of the hall that featured a window on one wall.

Offloading her backpack onto one of the chairs, Annabeth glanced outside. The sky was a vibrant blue, with puffy white clouds skidding across it. She wished she could go for a hike through a park rather than buckle down over calculus homework, but the life of a senior was not one to be desired. Especially one with aspirations as high as Annabeth’s.

Despite not knowing which college she wanted to attend next year, Annabeth knew she wanted to do great things. Her dream was to design an entire city, using her knowledge of architecture to create a masterpiece. Whenever she visited a new place, she analyzed the features of its buildings and its layout, knowing she could improve upon it if given the chance. The second she’d had a space in her schedule, Annabeth had jumped at the opportunity to take the Architecture and Design course offered at Olympian High. It was her favorite class, and not just because it was one of the only times she got to see Emi during the school day. She was truly invested in learning as much as she could; one day she would prove herself to be the best architect the world had ever seen.

Unfortunately, this also meant she had to battle her way through calculus. Annabeth grabbed her dark blue math binder along with a pencil that had a sufficient amount of eraser left and set to work on the newest worksheet. As she analyzed graphs and completed equations, Annabeth thought longingly of the days when math worksheets simply required you to prove you could add two-digit numbers.

~flashback~

“Thank the gods!” Percy exclaimed, his gaze landing on Annabeth as she walked down the bus aisle. “I need your help on this worksheet.”

It was the end of the school day, and the sun shone through the window onto Percy’s face, giving him a golden hue. His curls seemed to glow, their beachy look enhanced by the late-summer lighting. Annabeth slid into his seat beside him and dropped her backpack on the floor. She leaned in to get a better look at the paper in Percy’s hands.

Columns of addition and subtraction problems lined the page. Annabeth could see Percy’s scribbled pencil marks on a few of the problems, noting where he needed to carry a number and guessing at the solution. “Oh, this is easy, come on Seaweed Brain. We just did one like this yesterday. Here,” she said, reaching for the pencil.

“Sorry if I don’t have a mind like a sponge like you do, Wise Girl,” Percy retorted, smiling. He held out his hand to give her the pencil. Annabeth took it, their fingers brushing, and pressed the worksheet against the back of the seat in front of them. She walked Percy through one of the problems and explained his mistakes on the questions he’d struggled with. By the time the bus reached Annabeth’s stop, there were only a few problems left.

She slid out of the seat and pulled her backpack with her, hooking her arms through the straps. Straying from their usual routine, Percy stood up with her.

“I should get off here with you,” he said earnestly.

Annabeth stared at him, contemplating. With the way he was turned now, the light sparked his blue eyes. She thought they bore a resemblance to the reflection of the sun’s rays on the surface of the Atlantic. “You’re not allowed to,” she reminded Percy. “I think the driver has to have a note from our parents or something.”

Percy shrugged. “So?” he said, grinning. Annabeth couldn’t help but smile back. She felt a very strong urge to pick up her backpack and follow the boy down the bus steps. “We need to finish the worksheet,” he urged her.

“I don’t want you to get in trouble,” Annabeth said. She frowned when Percy’s grin fell from his face. “Get on your email at exactly five, and we can talk!” she offered.

“Okay,” he conceded, and she hurried down the bus aisle before the driver could pull away from her stop.

As the bus’s folding door squeaked and slammed shut behind her, Annabeth turned around. Her eyes scanned the windows, landing on Percy’s faint shape through the window. He waved to her, a simple goodbye that always made her happy. She lifted her hand and waved back as the bus lurched and drove away from the street corner.

~present day~

Annabeth pulled herself out of the memory, returning her focus to finding the limit of some equation on the paper in front of her. She found herself wishing a certain blonde-haired boy was still sitting beside her, offering a brain to bounce ideas off of and promising to email her. It was ridiculous. They had phones now anyway, and his number was blocked, although her calendar still alerted her to his birthday every year. She always found herself annoyed by the notification, but for some reason never turned it off.

As if summoned by her thoughts, Annabeth’s phone chimed. She knew by its tone that the text was from Emi. The smile that this revelation brought was dimmed by the remembrance that she’d given Percy’s messages a unique sound once, too.

Annabeth opened the text and paused her music to play the voice message from Emi, which detailed a disturbing occurrence of a rat hiding behind a box. She shot a sympathetic message back and returned to her homework, mentally cursing herself for taking calculus instead of statistics, the other AP math option. But as Annabeth worked her way towards the bottom of the page, her mind drifted back to her former friend, once again questioning herself and what she had done wrong that had led to the emptiness of the seat to her right.

[wishingformoredogs]

Tired of “oh Percy would be a marine biologist” “oh Percy would be a teacher” that man is a stay at home dad. And I mean that.

[ssavinggrace]

she's as clever as the devil

and twice as pretty.

[allthecheesesticks]

annabeth chase absolutely loved playing the sims and she definitely downloaded it onto Daedalus's laptop so that she could build with it and absolutely no one can convince me otherwise

[vbbaby-girl]

I Think He Knows is abt Percabeth more specifically Percabeth before the Battle of Manhattan

[ampresandian]

I wrote in this post about which characters I think they should focus on and develop in the different pjo seasons, but I was thinking about Annabeth and her dream of being an architect and building something permanent, and how they didn't really introduce it in season 1. I think it's a really important and complex piece of her character, a dream that draws on her past traumas and hubris, and I think that it fits in really well with the plot of som, so here are my thoughts on how they can and should include it in season 2. This, of course, requires Percy and Annabeth to have been friends for a full year without her mentioning it, which I don't think is particularly realistic, but they need to introduce it for viewers who were not readers.

One option would be to save it for the Siren Scene, and their discussion of fatal flaws. In the book, Percy sees what Annabeth envisions, including a redesigned New York/Olympus, which he knows she must have designed because he already knows she likes architecture. They could, in the show, have this be where that dream is introduced, having Percy see her vision and then Annabeth explain that she wants to be an architect/build something permanent, and probably touch on some of her childhood trauma more (in terms of her relationship with her parents/their relationship with each other, specifically). I personally don't prefer this option, I think because it requires casting her parents but also because there is an intimacy required of her choosing to tell it to Percy that would help to develop their relationship further, so I would personally choose to deviate from the book here. However, including the vision would help to show viewers her dreams in a way that the show has not been particularly good at yet.

The second option (this is my preferred one) would be to include it at the beginning of the season, when they arrive at camp after being told not to come back. In this version of grounding Annabeth's architecture/permanence dream, it would be introduced through seeing destruction/change around camp, and a conversation about how camp has always been something stable/permanent for her. It could happen in their conversation with Chiron as he is leaving, as he has been a big part of that for her and could tell Percy that Annabeth has always needed/wanted something stable, but I think it would need a conversation (crying on the beach?) between Percy and Annabeth where Annabeth tells him about her dream to be an architect herself. Again, I think Annabeth making that choice to be vulnerable with Percy is important to developing their relationship--I think season 1 had a lot of Percy being vulnerable, particularly around his mom and also being so new to everything, and would like to see Annabeth choose to be vulnerable with Percy in season 2.

A third option would be some version of reading the email from Annabeth about her trip with her dad, where she could talk about the architectural features she saw at Disney, the ways the castle is the same/different from the German castle it's modeled on, or how cool the windows were on their hotel, or idk I haven't been to Disney but I think there's like a history attraction maybe she writes about that. Anyway, maybe they do the Annabeth voice-over or Percy just reads it aloud to his mom (or Sally reads it to Percy, since he's dyslexic), and she can mention architecture and how she wants to build something like that one day. Or maybe Sally reads all of Annabeth's excitement about the buildings and asks Percy about it, and he says "she wants to be an architect and build something that'll last forever," which would imply that she did mention that last summer (so that would be nice). This doesn't directly include Annabeth, so the characterization is a little less poignant, but it would cover the bases.

That's what I've come up with for now at least. Maybe there are more options? I don't know, I just think they need to explicitly say it, because I think it's so important to understanding who Annabeth is (plus there are like actual plot points later where she's rewarded with getting to achieve her dreams and that's so significant)

[leclercskiesahead]

“A wonderful sporting story about a really good kid”

[helyeahmangocheese]

fanfic writers I beg you to write a sun mapping chart into annabeth's apartment/home-hunting adventures w her very tired boyfriend. gods be damned this girl will not be signing a lease on a place with west facing windows in the living room and north facing windows in the kitchen

[chuuyas-nakahara]

i don’t know if anyone else has noticed this but one of the things i love most about show annabeth is that you can see her thinking. there’s been several scenes now where you can almost pinpoint the exact moment she starts coming up with a plan or is mentally taking apart an enemy to figure out the best strategy for ensuring victory. there’s something in her expression and eyes that changes when this is happening and it says a lot about leah’s performance and talent that she’s able to pull off such a subtle change so flawlessly. as a son of poseidon, percy’s powers are much easier to show because of how he has to interact with external forces (the sea and water), but annabeth’s greatest weapon is her mind. all her thinking is taking place internally, and typically it wouldn’t be nearly as obvious to us as viewers. but the pjo show found a way to show it to us anyways and it’s so cool to me. every time it happens i sit on my couch and scream “THAT’S an ATHENA KID”

[saraville]

i had a thought that like since annabeth is an architect, she's also a genius artist. a more logical artist, but an artist nonetheless. which means: annabeth loves drawing too. sometimes she doodles random things on a scrap paper but no one notices the doodles because they think she's doing math problems. inspiration for a temple strikes annabeth and her hands itch for a pen and paper. she also draws percy. he keeps all the drawings annabeth made that she gives him or that she discards. (he has a box full of them and some are displayed on refrigerators and walls.) she's also good at digital art because of building rendering.

[wishingformoredogs]

Percy and Annabeth are so Taylor Swift-Coded

[sallyscardigan]

‘Make us a city for the ages.’

[lemondrop-orangetop]

Jason Grace is so autism coded

And fuck it, so is Annabeth Chase

I love them so much

[mytragedyperson]

I saw your post about Percy being a house husband and a SAH dad and I think you’d love this fic

https://archiveofourown.org/works/34173640

Thank you I'll be sure to check it out

[angelcak-3]

I actually don’t agree with the “street smarts vs book smarts” debate about percy and annabeth. y’all are being weird about it.

[malrie]

the minecraft annabeth user post is funny but unfortunately working in my field I know the second she learns how to use revit it’s all she uses 24/7 and she all she talks abt too