#me being older than Percy Jackson when I was 10 when I read it | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

yellowocaballero · 3 years

Text

Percy Jackson meets a Landlord, a Tax Accountant, and a Tree Growing in Brooklyn

“Golduck, use hydro pump!” Percy whispered. He moved Golduck so he hit Batman on the chest, and then hit Batman a few more times for good measure. “Die, landlord!”

“Aren’t you a little old to be playing with toys?”

Percy almost fell out of his chair.

He twisted his torso around, looking behind him with wide eyes. But the only person there was a white girl, no older than him. She was wearing a really severe expression to match her tight little blonde ponytail, and she was carrying a clipboard in both hands. There was a piece of string tacked to the clipboard, with a pen tied around one end. She looked like she asked the school librarian if she could help shelve books.

Percy decided instantly that she hated him, so he decided to hate her back.

“Aren’t you a little young to be doing your taxes?” Percy sneered. “Buzz off.”

That made her mad. The girl’s angelic little chubby face twisted in rage, and her grip on the clipboard turned threatening. “I’m accounting the chores! And I could do taxes if I wanted!”

“Yeah?” Percy asked, unimpressed. “Name one tax.”

“Sales tax,” the girl said instantly.

Damn. She got that one.

Short fic that I am considering extending into a much, much longer fic. Thank you Ami for the translation of the card (I would definitely translate it yourself, it’s important). The entire backstory and premise of the AU isn’t immediately apparent, but if I extend the fic it’ll be more explained (spoiler: Luke Castellan, age 14, said fuck Olympus and moved all of Camp Half-Blood into Brooklyn to live in a child-run utopia). I haven’t reread Percy Jackson since I was 10, I barely remember anything that happens or any of the characters, so don’t expect much - but aren’t the best children’s novels the children’s novels that live in our head, anyway?

Rest under the cut.

2005

180 Olive Apartments was a dump. Batman said so.

Batman felt very strongly about this, and as a result Percy did too. It was not Percy’s own, private, personal opinion. Batman informed Percy that the apartment complex was shabby, gross, not in Staten island, and smelled weird. Batman made a very convincing argument that they should live in Staten Island instead, which Percy had done his best to relay to Mom. Mom hadn’t been impressed.

“This is the best place for us, Percy,” Mom had said, with that pinched look on her face. It was the ‘Percy’s Making My Life Really Hard’ face. Percy had been seeing that face a lot lately. “Let’s just try to make this work, please?”

There was no ‘best place’ for them, and Percy and Batman knew that. But that was another thing Mom didn’t want to hear.

So Percy had suffered in stoic silence as Mom dragged him out of the motel, made him miss the new episode of Pokemon, and forced him to ride the subway forty minutes into smelly Brooklyn so he could sit in this smelly chair outside of some smelly office in a smelly apartment. From inside the office, Percy could hear the faint rise and fall of voices: Mom’s, light and lyrical and very polite to people who were not Percy; and some landlord guy. His voice was really light and high too, but he was probably a real jerk.

Percy was so bored he could die. He sat up on his knees, turning around so he could prop his elbows against the dusty windowsill with grimy frosted glass. He plopped Batman down on the dirty windowsill, smearing his chipped feet through the tracks of dust. Parkour. He unzipped his pocket and grabbed his slightly dusty Golduck rubber toy, putting it in front of Batman. Golduck was from McDonald’s, so it had a bad attitude.

Percy waggled Batman. You have a bad attitude, Golduck. You can’t live in my house anymore, because you get water all over the tile and you make the wood go bad.

Golduck jiggled when Percy shook him. It wasn’t Golduck’s fault that the water went everywhere! Water just goes places sometimes. Golduck was a water type, so water followed him around and got into wood and made the wood go bad and made other people mad at him. It’s not Golduck’s fault, so don’t make him move!

I don’t want to hear it, Batman said. I’m going to make you live in a crummy motel and make your Mom go on a lot of boring websites looking for new places to live. The motel’s bananas are going to taste weird. Mom’s going to cry a lot. And it’ll be all your fault because you’re a bad kid.

“Golduck, use hydro pump!” Percy whispered. He moved Golduck so he hit Batman on the chest, and then hit Batman a few more times for good measure. “Die, landlord!”

“Aren’t you a little old to be playing with toys?”

Percy almost fell out of his chair.

Percy decided instantly that she hated him, so he decided to hate her back.

“Aren’t you a little young to be doing your taxes?” Percy sneered. “Buzz off.”

That made her mad. The girl’s angelic little chubby face twisted in rage, and her grip on the clipboard turned threatening. “I’m accounting the chores! And I could do taxes if I wanted!”

“Yeah?” Percy asked, unimpressed. “Name one tax.”

“Sales tax,” the girl said instantly.

Damn. She got that one. Percy just rolled his eyes instead, sitting back down on his seat and stuffing his toys in his cargo pocket. He couldn’t help but feel a little embarrassed, even if he knew that he wasn’t too old to play with Batman and Golduck. What did tax accountants know, anyway.

The girl sniffed, and made a show of inspecting the grimy windowsill and carefully making a note on her clipboard. Her pen had a pom-pom at the end. Percy bet she made hearts over the top of her ‘i’s.

“Nick’s been slacking,” the girl muttered threateningly. “I’m surrounded by incompetents.”

“Why is it Nick’s job to clean the leasing office?” Percy asked, unimpressed. “Don’t you have a janitor for that?” Was Nick the janitor? If this pinched-face little girl was harassing cleaning staff then Percy was going to file a complaint.

But the girl just looked surprised, as if the idea of having a janitor was foreign and strange. “No janitor would even make it through the doors.” But then her eyes narrowed, as if a thought just occurred to her. “Wait. How did you…”

However Percy did what, he would never know. The door to the leasing office cracked open, and Percy scrambled off his seat in excitement. The girl stood stiffly at attention, clipboard on her hip, as Mom stepped out of the office. She looked very tired, but weirdly relieved.

There was a man right behind her, just as white and blonde as the girl. Percy wasn’t surprised: he could pick out a real ‘daughter-of-the-manager’ type right away. The man didn’t look like every other landlord Percy had ever seen - no moustache, for one - and he didn’t look old enough for the part anyway. He wasn’t old, but he definitely wasn’t an elementary schooler. He had a broad, honest face, but he was too muscular and strong looking and landlordey to be trustworthy.

Percy decided the weird landlord, with a mop of yellow hair like golden thread and a scary eyebrow with one long scar cutting straight through, was twenty five years old. Clearly the result of nepotism in the landlord industry.

Mom smiled when she saw Percy, who quickly pasted on his most innocent expression. Her eyes caught on the girl, who was glaring daggers at him. The landlord’s eyes caught on Percy’s own wrinkled nose. “Percy, good! Are you making friends?”

It was not an innocent question. It was a ‘please don’t ruin this for me too, Percy’ question. It was a ‘I’m very tired and I need you not to make things hard’ question. Percy was well acquainted with them. But maybe the girl was too, because when the landlord looked at the girl she also abruptly quailed. “I hope you’re being a good host, Annabeth.”

The unfortunately named Annabeth and Percy glanced at each other in silent and instant understanding.

“Yeah, Annabeth’s really fun!” Percy said instantly. He was not going to ruin this for Mom again. Or, at least, he would try to hold off ruining it for her as long as possible. Even if this stupid apartment wasn’t in Staten island. “She was telling me about -”

“Taxes!” Annabeth said smoothly, a much better liar than Percy. “And Percy was telling me about Batman.”

They both looked very cute and very low matinence on command, the perfect picture of children who did not make their moms live in motels.

Percy was rewarded when Mom smiled in relief. She put a hand on Percy’s shoulder, squeezing tightly. “I’m so glad. Percy, this is Mr. Castellan. Why don’t you say hi?”

“Hi Mr. Castellan,” Percy said obediently. “My name’s Percy Jackson, I’m in third grade.”

The landlord smiled at him with closed and tight lips, but it was Annabeth who spoke in interest. “Percy like Percival, King Arthur’s knight who searched for the Holy Grail?”

Uh, whatever? “Percy like the Greek hero Perseus,” Percy said shortly. “But I’m not Greek. My Grandma was from Guadalajara.”

Annabeth’s eyes widened. She glanced at the landlord, whose expression was impossible to read. “Are you sure?”

“I know where my own grandmother is from!”

“She didn’t say that you didn’t, sweetie,” Mom said, and Percy guiltily shut up. “Percy, why don’t you and Mr. Castellan talk in his office for a little while? I have to fill out some paperwork, and I think you two have a lot to talk about.”

Percy looked up at her with wide eyes. Mom never left him alone with strangers. And paperwork already? “Are we moving in today?”

“You two talk for a bit,” Mom said firmly. “I’ll be right back.”

When Percy was pushed into Mr. Castellan’s office it felt more like he was a Roman Christian being tossed into the lion’s den in punishment for heresy. And when Mom settled him into an uncomfortable and weird-smelling chair in front of the teetering desk and kissed him on the temple before leaving the office, he abruptly felt like he had jumped into Grandma’s book of Bible Stories.

Mr. Landlord’s office was as dirty and run-down as the rest of the complex. The big box AC rattled with clinks and whirrs as it shuddered against the sticky summer heat, and the landlord’s desk was covered in thick stacks of paper and chewed-up pencils. When he sat back down behind the stained wood, the chair seemed just a little too big for him. He sunk strangely in it, the vinyl flaking off and floating into the ground. There were a lot of crayon drawings taped to the wall, and there was a light dusting of crumpled post-it notes on the ground.

Mr. Landlord tried to smile at Percy. Tried being the operative word: when he smiled it was too thin and without teeth, more pained than reassuring. It didn’t reach his watery blue eyes.

Percy hunched on the rickety chair. This guy set off every alarm bell he had, which was plenty. And no, it wasn’t just because he was a guy, Ms. Brown. For added security and self defense, Percy casually slid a capped ballpoint pen on the old desk in front of him into his sleeve. Batman was always prepared, and Percy was too. He can hack up any creepy guy and protect Mom any day of the week.

The landlord smiled wider, even worse. “Sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. My name’s Luke Castellan, and I’m the supervisor here. Running into Annabeth first thing’s pretty bad luck, huh?” At Percy’s unimpressed eyebrow, he quickly added, “Annabeth keeps the whole place running, really. She’s...pretty convinced that this complex rests on her eight year old back, so she’s a little stressed out all the time. If she gets frustrated at you, don’t take it personally, okay?”

So she does help shelve books. Percy was a keen judge of character. “Why does she do it? You can’t make her be the superintendent. That’s child labor.”

Luke Castellan stared at Percy unblinkingly. He blinked about as often as a snake, but five times as quickly: as if he didn’t want to let you out of his sight for even a second. Finally, he said, “I’m fifteen.”

Percy gave Mr. Luke the stink-eye, clearly communicating that he did not trust even fifteen year olds (who were high schoolers, and even less trustworthy than adult-adults) as far as he could throw them. Especially fifteen year olds like Luke: who were too tall, with too-mature eyes and a particularly unhappy expression. Percy communicated perfectly that there was nothing trustworthy about this family of juvenile landlords, but he was just too polite to say so.

But that just made Mr. Luke sigh, as if he was tired instead of angry. “Annabeth’s my...ward, I guess. I just look after her. But she doesn’t like being looked after, so she makes up for it by looking after everyone else. I’m not saying I do a good job.”

He’s a landlord and he has a ward? Percy finally perked up. “So you’re like Batman?”

Mr. Luke stared at him unblinkingly, before finally saying, “Yes, except Batman doesn’t have superpowers.”

Percy had the sense he was being made fun of. “You don’t have super powers,” he accused, crossing his arms. “Nobody has super powers.”

Mr. Luke smiled, wan and weak. “Not even you, Percy?”

Percy froze.

Five seconds too late, Percy made himself laugh stupidly. People were quick to believe that Percy was stupid, and sometimes Percy helped them think that. It got him out of trouble sometimes - not always, but enough that it was useful. “If I had superpowers, I’d run super fast everywhere just like the Flash!”

But Mr. Luke just hummed, and flipped through some of the papers in a folder in front of him. Percy abruptly began sweating. Mom had given him those papers. They were records. This was like every time a principal had drawn up ‘proof’ against him in a court of law. “Your mom said that you both had to move out of your Queens apartment because it flooded.”

“I didn’t unscrew the taps,” Percy said reflexively. “They just came loose! I didn’t even touch them! I didn’t touch the boiler either!”

“The boiler?” Mr. Luke flipped back a few pages. “Oh, right. Your school.”

Percy slouched in his seat and folded his arms across his chest, stewing. He always sounded guiltiest when he denied it. He should go back to playing dumb. Pretend that he had no idea what water was. He had gotten away with it when he was six during that one birthday party at the aquarium, but something about being a third grader meant that people expected that you have basic observational skills.

It was stupid. There was no way to win. If he said that he didn’t do it then he sounded guilty. If he tried to point out how it was impossible for him to break the boiler and destroy the gym or whatever, using facts and logic and a rhetorical argument like the Youtube videos taught him, then they just told him he was making excuses. Sometimes Percy had the impression that everybody just wanted him to supervillain cackle like the Joker and brag about how terrible he was. Maybe he’d give that a shot once he entered middle school. It seemed like an evil teenage thing to do.

Percy Jackson was a liar, a thief, a cheat, a menace, and a bad kid. There was nothing more to be: not for someone like Percy.

But Mr. Luke didn’t threaten him, or give him ‘one last chance’ or anything. He just leaned forward, hands folded on the desk. His thumb was worrying at a small starburst scar on his hand, betraying a strange nervousness.

“Percy, can I talk to you man-to-man?”

Percy, who did not like men, squinted at Mr. Luke suspiciously. “Why.”

“Because this isn’t a topic for a kid. It’s a topic that...kills children, and turns them into little adults. I wish I didn’t have to broach it with you. But I think that you haven’t been a kid for a long time, Percy, and I don’t want to insult you by pretending otherwise.” Mr. Luke frowned, and Percy found himself involuntarily straightening. What was he talking about? “You were right. There was no way for you to have flooded your apartment, much less twice. There was no way for you to ruin your gym, or damage that aquarium. Much less...everything else in your file. No kid is that much of a miniature hurricane when he isn’t even trying. It sucks. It’s not your fault. And now your Mom’s credit score is so bad that she can’t afford another apartment. If it wasn’t for the fact that she saw our really generous listing in the paper, she would have had to move you two away from her home.”

She was thinking of moving them both to New Jersey. Percy’s lips tightened, and he knew that Mr. Luke saw it.

“This is an apartment building that provides shelter to a lot of special cases, just like you. It’s...full of kids who break things when they don’t mean to. Kids with a parent couldn’t handle them, or who couldn’t protect them. We have a lot of ways to keep families like yours safe, and to give you a home.”

Percy stared at Mr. Luke. He seemed deadly serious, as serious as anybody had ever been to Percy, despite the crazy stuff he was saying. Safe? Safe from what?

Safe from those weird, giant dogs that chased Percy and tore off half his jeans? Safe from that old lady in the deli with the slobbering bag and beady eyes? Safe from broken water pipes, from ruined floors and busted walls, from Percy himself?

Finally, all Percy could think to ask was, “How do you know that I’m a special case?”

“Because not just anyone could see that listing,” Mr. Luke said. “And - uh, no offense - but you are one of the most obviously inhuman children I’ve met in my life.”

Percy’s jaw dropped in complete, unadulterated rage, and without even stopping to think through his actions he withdrew the ballpoint pen from his pocket. He uncapped it, fully intending on doing something dramatically yet harmlessly violent with it, but he didn’t get the chance.

The ballpoint pen turned into a gleaming bronze and silver sword. Percy screamed. Percy fell out of his chair. Percy did not get the opportunity to look cool and dangerous at all.

****

And now Percy had Greek god stuff to worry about!

Didn’t Percy have enough problems? He couldn’t stay in a school, they couldn’t keep an apartment, their new landlord didn’t blink enough, and now he was the kid of a Greek god? Apparently he had been spending his entire life running from monsters and he just hadn’t noticed? That explained the stupid scary dog!

Percy knew much more about Greek gods than the average kid, since Mom was a huge fan. Yeah, Mom! Apparently you were a big fan! Jesus, Mom!

What’s this dumb stuff about Poseidon! That had freaked out Mr. Luke, and made him ask a lot of questions like ‘are you sure’ and ‘there’s a lot of minor gods who like to pass themself off as someone more impressive to mortals’. Then Annabeth, who had been listening at the door like a sneak and who ran in all heroically when he almost accidentally stabbed Mr. Luke, freaked out and called his mom a liar. His mom!

Then Percy tried to stab her with his new sword. Mom made Percy apologize for trying to stab Annabeth. Mr. Luke made Annabeth apologize for insulting Percy’s mother. Percy was beginning to worry that he and Annabeth may be mortal enemies.

Mr. Luke had tried explaining a bunch of stuff about monsters and ‘the Sight’ and why Percy’s life was terrible to him, but Percy already knew his life was terrible and he wasn’t interested. Percy ended up furiously swinging his new sword at a tree outside as Mom signed a bunch of forms and talked with Mr. Luke some more, but she hustled him home pretty quickly afterwards.

Percy didn’t give the sword back. Mr. Luke, wisely, did not ask for it back.

Mom kept on making a face on the subway back to the motel like she had been waiting her entire life for Percy to ask all of these questions, and she was preparing herself for it. She kept on glancing at him out of the corner of her eye, watching Percy kick his feet against the hard plastic seat. It was obvious. But Percy didn’t have anything to say to her. They spent the rest of the day in silence, just focusing on packing up and getting everything ready to move. Jacksons were practical, Mom said.

Jacksons were practical. Percy was practical, too. It was only in the deep pits of night, as Percy lay in bed holding up his sword and watching it reflect the soft lamplight above the creaky wooden table where Mom was doing work, that he asked.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

The sword was really cool. It was pure bronze, with the middle gleaming pure silver. There was some Greek writing inscribed down the center that Percy had no idea how to read, although he had spent an hour scouring the internet looking for a translation. The handle was tough white cord, stiff and starchy but fraying a little at the edges.

Mr. Luke said it was named something, but Percy forgot what it was. He had been a bit busy almost impaling the guy.

Mom’s fingers froze over the keyboard. Her back was turned to him, so he couldn’t see her face, but her spine was stiff and rigid.

Finally, after a long silence, she said, “I didn’t want you to think that there was anything different about you.”

“So what?” Percy asked, his eyes pricking rebelliously. Stupid water. “You let me think that I was a bad person who ruined your life?”

“Percy, no!” Mom turned around, expression crumpled. The dim light showed the heavy bags under Mom’s eyes in sharp relief. “You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me, baby. None of this is your fault, you understand? That’s what this business with your father means: that none of it was your fault. That’s all it means.”

If that was true, Percy thought, then why couldn’t she have told him before?

But Percy was afraid that if he said that, then he would start crying, and Percy was way too old to cry. Only weak little babies cried.

“I’m sorry my dad’s a loser who ruined your life, Mom,” Percy said.

“Percy…”

But Percy refused to answer her, putting his sword down next to him and pretending to go to sleep. He kept it next to him in bed all night, gripping its hilt tight, and the firm and cool pressure of the steel in his hand soothed him when the thought of a father didn’t.

***

They moved in the next day.

The next day! Percy was livid. He barely had any time to pack up his toys into his backpack, and Mom didn’t even have time to help him back up his blue Spider-man suitcase. He had to do it all by himself, and then Mom came in and told him he was folding everything up wrong and that he had to redo it. If she had so many problems with it, she should have helped him and gave him more than one day to move out of their dumb motel!

When people moved on TV there were always moving vans and buff dudes in baseball caps. But Percy was much better at moving then any of those idiots: all it took was a suitcase (of clothes and toiletries and stuff) and a backpack (of toys and school supplies and stuff).

Percy’s backpack had the Power Rangers on it, in glossy plastic. Its contents were always the same, through every move: Batman, Golduck, Bulbasaur, Blue Eyes White Dragon, Raphael, a stegosaurus with a missing tail named Hedward, and a little book full of pictures of him and his mom and some cards and stuff. There was a picture of him and Grandma in the apartment in Staten Island that he lived in until he was six, and a 5th birthday card she had given him six months before she died. Written inside, in her looping and faded script, was a sentence Percy had read over and over and over again. ‘Tu angel de la guarda trabaja horas extra por tí. Así que acuérdate de decirle gracias ¿Sí, mi niño?'’

Percy was inclined to agree with her. God should pay his guardian angel overtime. That, or pay one to go to Olympus and collect child support.

The image was funny to Percy - the idea of his angel with her wings and halos showing up at Poseidon’s door and tapping her watch as she held out her hat. It was so funny, it was the first thing he told Mr. Luke when they met him at the gates to the apartment complex. Mom was huffing behind him with her two suitcases, while Percy was busy juggling his own backpack, suitcase, and sword.

Mr. Luke looked alarmed to see the both of them, although Mom had called ahead and arranged to meet him here. Worse, Annabeth was next to him, still holding a clipboard. She didn’t look alarmed, just mad.

“Did you bring Riptide onto public transportation?” Annabeth squawked. “You have no sense of discretion!”

Was Riptide the name of the sword? Whatever. Percy would have named it Hurricane. “I know words you don’t know too, you don’t have to brag,” Percy said flatly.

“Yeah, the gods are filthy little child support evaders,” Mr. Luke said easily, instantly endearing himself to Percy. Mom rolled her eyes as she put her suitcases down, but she was clearly fighting a smile. “Don’t worry, I dragged them to court. Sued them for all they’re worth.”

“How on earth did you do that?” Mom asked, interested.

“Trickery and rhetoric,” Annabeth said proudly.

“Swords,” Mr. Luke said.

“What did you squeeze them for?” Percy asked, excited.

Mr. Luke winked. And he still didn’t ask for his sword back. Maybe he wasn’t all bad.

The apartment complex itself wasn’t nearly as big as a lot of Brooklyn complexes, looking more like the little apartment complexes in Queens that Percy was used to. It was three separate three-story buildings arranged in a square, with one side holding the small leasing office and a parking lot. It was open-air, with the apartment doors opening directly outside. There was a really big courtyard in the center, and despite himself Percy got a little excited.

It was awesome. There was a huge, sprawling tree right in the center of the courtyard. It was gigantic, bigger than any tree Percy had ever seen in his life. It seemed like it didn’t even belong in New York, like it was a transplant from the California Redwoods or Canada or something. Its leaves were waving in a nonexistent breeze, and something about it just seemed so magical and otherworldly to Percy.

But that was only half of the awesome things. The other awesome thing was that there were kids everywhere.

The tree provided shade to a couple scattered gangs of kids, sitting around and laughing. There was a rusty set of monkey bars, which some kids were playing on, and there was a big dirt rectangle where other kids were hitting each other on the head with wooden plastic swords. There were groups of girls eating lunch, and a gang of boys playing soccer in the corner that made Percy immediately want to jump in and play too. Percy dominated at soccer.

“The East and South buildings are where we all live,” Annabeth informed Mom. “The West building is where the training rooms and storage rooms and administrative rooms - that’s my office - and everything is. It also has guest units for the local spirits that like to visit. We just had ten Bacchae stay for a week. They were backpacking to Woodstock. We have very good inter-community relationships here.”

“That’s amazing,” Mom said faintly. Mr. Luke was smiling faintly, eyes fixed on the big tree. Percy found himself staring at Mr. Luke, watching with interest the soft but firm pride in his eyes. “Luke said that this property’s safe from…”

She glanced at Percy quickly, cutting herself off. But Annabeth just huffed.

“I almost got eaten by monsters twenty times when I was seven,” Annabeth informed Mom imperiously. “We’re not babies. Connor Stoll says if you’re old enough to get eaten by monsters then you’re old enough to know that they exist.”

Percy decided immediately that he liked Connor Stoll, and maybe even Annabeth too.

“The tree protects us,” Luke said. “Wherever the tree is, we’re safe. Not even the gods date step foot beyond the leasing office here.”

“Because of the tree?” Mom asked.

Luke smiled - sharp, piercing, and strange. “Sure, let’s say that.”

But Mom just frowned. She looked over the courtyard of kids - some of whom were already starting to whisper and stare. Annabeth waved at a gaggle of identically blonde children, and for the first time Percy wondered who she was the daughter of. Probably the bossiest god. Maybe Athena. Or, like, Hephaestus. Definitely Hephaestus.

“You said that there’s nobody over eighteen here,” Mom said to Luke. “Luke, there’s a six year old on those monkey bars.”

“If you’re under thirteen, you live with someone over thirteen,” Luke said to her. Annabeth was still frowning in disapproval at Percy’s sword. He stuck his tongue out at her. “Two people to a unit, we try to pair the oldest with the youngest. Lucy lives with Henrique, he’s seventeen. It’s the best we can do.”

“Surely there has to be someone…?”

“Adults have never helped us. They never will.” Luke looked away sharply. “We’ve been in Brooklyn a year. You’re the first adult who’s made her way here. Most other parents with a kid as powerful as Percy would have -”

He cut himself off sharply, glancing at Percy, and Percy scowled up at him. He thought that Luke was being honest. Maybe he was just another old guy afraid to say what everybody else knew.

“I’ll help Ms. Jackson settle in,” Annabeth said suddenly. She held out her hands to Percy, who reflexively hugged his luggage to his chest. “You guys are in unit 5. It’s on the bottom floor. If you flood it, then we can fix it okay. Give me your luggage, I’ll put it in your unit.”

Percy stared at her, overwhelmed with that simple signal of care. No threats about if he flooded it, no warnings or sickly sweet faux-concern. Just understanding, and acceptance.

He silently gave her his bags.

She seemed surprised when she felt how light they were. Percy shrugged awkwardly at her face, crossing his arms tightly around her chest. “Don’t touch my stuff, okay?”

“Sure,” Annabeth said, before pausing a beat. “We have a TV in our place. #1. Do you want to come over tonight and watch Winx Club?”

“Yeah,” Percy said, overwhelmed. “Sure.”

Mr. Luke put a hand on Percy’s back as Annabeth guided Mom to a corner unit. Percy couldn’t help but notice that the door to the unit was already propped open. Wait - there were people going in and out!

There was a tall, buff teenager, carrying two chairs underneath each arm. There was another group of three teenage girls, carrying a table between them. Two other younger kids were carrying boxes and laughing. They were bringing everything into the unit, and other younger kids were running in and out with cleaning supplies.

From a distance, Percy saw Mom stop in her tracks. Annabeth tugged at her shirt and got her to bend down, whispering something in her ear. A boy with sandy brown hair ran up, taking Mom’s suitcases from her and bringing them into the unit.

“Your Mom mentioned that you were missing some furniture,” Mr. Luke said. “The Hermes and Aphrodite kids all pitched in to get your home looking like a home. I hope you’ll like it.”

Percy clutched his sword to his chest, speechless.

Mr. Luke smiled down at him, that same wan and weak smile, and put a hand on his back. He gently pushed Percy forward, towards the tree. “Come with me for a minute?”

They silently approached the sprawling, ancient tree. As they came closer, Percy could see that its bark was gnarled and knotted, with perfect handholds for climbing and perfect boughs for resting in the summer sun. He could already see a few kids resting in high boughs, taking a nap in the humid and sticky sun.

“Percy, I’d like to introduce you to someone.” Mr. Luke’s voice was quiet, like he was in church. He looked up at the tree, peering far into the leaves as if he was trying to find something hidden within them. “This is Thalia. Thalia, this is Percy. He’s the newest member of the family. He’s also your cousin.”

Cousin? Percy looked up at Mr. Luke, eyes wide. “I’m related to a tree?”

Tilted up at the tree, Percy couldn’t see Mr. Luke’s expression. Maybe that was on purpose. “Thalia’s a kid, just like us. Daughter of Zeus. I used to think that she was the closest thing to an adult I knew, but...I’m as old as she is, now. I guess one day soon I’ll be older than she ever got to be.”

Oh. The tree was, like, from the ashes of some dead girl. Awkward. Percy stared at the thick and arching roots of the tree, feeling weird.

“Thalia, please protect Percy. I can already tell that he’s going to grow up to be very strong and brave. Please help us make sure that Percy never has to be strong. That he’s never brave. I can already tell he’s going to need a lot of your help.” He looked down at Percy for the first time, and for the first time Percy could see just a little warmth in those icy blue eyes. “You’re going to have to work overtime for him. So make sure to say thank you, Percy. Okay?”

“Thank you, Thalia,” Percy said obediently. He bowed awkwardly, uncertain what to do. The sword scraped awkwardly against his thigh. “Thanks for letting me into your home.”

“Welcome home, Percy,” Mr. Luke said, and for the first time Percy almost believed it.

#pjo #percy jackson and the olympians #percy jackson #annabeth chase #luke castellan #pjo fanfic #percy jackson fanfic #I'm bouncing between a lot of different projects right now and trying to decide which one to dedicate time to #I promise I DID take a break and I will CONTINUE TO DO SO because work's been exhausting #but sometimes that means just writing low-effort self-indulgent stuff #anyway my friend had to sit down and explain the worldbuilding of pjo to me and I was like WOW THATS FUCKED so I wrote this #I also dislike some of the ways that pjo handled percy's backstory so that's being addressed #my writing #I FORGOT THE CUT LOL

164 notes · View notes

golden-holland · 2 years

Text

thoughts

this whole the little mermaid thing has me very confused. why do so many people care that she isn't white? her skin color isn't relevant to the story. I would be mad if they got someone who couldn't sing or someone who didn't have this “ethereal” look but Halle Bailey has both of those. if anything this trailer only confirmed to me that whoever did the casting did a great job. do people realize that they don't need to watch this new version? like, if you dislike this version so much, you can just stick to the old one. and while I do understand that maybe we should start thinking about creating new black characters in media instead of just changing the characters´ skin color, I think that all of this outrage is just ridiculous... just don't watch it.

also, a new trailer for the Percy Jackson show came out and I feel... weird. I was 11 when Percy was 12, and now im 20 but Percy is still 12. and the kid who plays him is 13. I feel so old. and I know that I am not. but I get so envious of kids who are now 11/12/13 and will grow up with this show and the cast itself. like, I wish I had that. I had Harry Potter growing up, but I was too young to actually feel like I grew up with the movies (I mean, I was 9 when the last movie came out. that is the only one I watched at the cinema.) Same with Twilight. I was like 10? when the last movie came out. The one saga I feel I grew up with was The Hunger Games, but then again, the last movie came out when I was 13. (yes, I read those books when I was fairly young.)

I guess I now regret not getting into any kind of books or shows from the ages of 15 to 20. I used to read so much when I was young. I am now getting into books and shows again, but they make me feel so old. main characters used to ALWAYS be older than me. the fantasy and dystopian books, which used to be my favorite type, now only make me feel like im too old to do anything impressive or fun. mainly because I have already experienced what it was like being those ages, and I can no longer imagine what my life would be like at that age. like with The Hunger Games, I now look back and think about how 16-year-old-me would have never been as courageous as Katniss. but 9 year old me could only imagine what it was like being 16... I don't know if im making sense. I guess I just tend to feel like my life is so boring. well, not boring, but never fulfilling.

11 September, 2022

#the little mermaid #Percy jackson #life sucks

4 notes · View notes

jackredfieldwasmyjacob · 3 years

Note

how have you been kind to yourself this week?

what were the books that shaped you most from your childhood?

any favorite song that is not in english or spanish? :)

ay thank you for all those questions 💖💖

how have you been kind to yourself this week?

i've tried to not push over my limits a lot, i still can't listen to much without my ears hurting so i'm trying to take things slow even though i hate being like this. also i'm trying not to rush my writing, i honestly haven't been doing much since the surgery and i would want to be more active and write way more now that i have time and stuff but i just gotta deal with how i am right now i guess.

what were the books that shaped you most from your childhood?

memorias de idhún 100% like i don't think i've ever been more obsessed with anything ever than i was with those books, people who've been following me for a while must be tired of me writing how obsessed i was with them but it's because i miss that genuine feeling of basing your whole personality and life around one thing. like, from ages 11-13 it was literally everything i thought of.

also, and i suppose they count as books, the w.i.t.c.h. comics were really huge for me as a kid and they greatly influenced a lot of my thinking and personality. those are the two books that come to my mind, precisely because i was younger when i read them (i started with w.i.t.c.h. comics when i was 6 and memorias de idhún when i was 10), but almost all laura gallego books and other sagas i read when i was a bit older like percy jackson or the hunger games also left a great impact on me.

any favorite song that is not in english or spanish?

i have to say nandemonaiya by radwimps! it's a song in japanese from the your name original soundtrack and it's so good, it really transports me far away. the whole soundtrack is phenomenal, this one is just my favourite but i could've chosen any other really.

#ask #this was so lovely thank you so much 💕

8 notes · View notes

today-only-happens-once · 4 years

Text

(un)claimed

Title: unclaimed

Summary: Virgil is a demigod. The good news is that he is not alone. A Percy-Jackson!AU fic. Platonic/found-family DRLAMP dynamics.

Word Count: 4217

Warnings: some violence and weapons, Greek mythology, passing mention of curses, feelings of anxiety, some self-doubt and self-deprecation, parent issues (of course, it’s a pjo!AU), no Side is a bad guy but there’s some tension between Remus and Roman, I play a little loose with PJO timeline stuff woops, Janus has done some light antagonizing of the gods.

A/N: Honestly, it should surprise nobody that I wrote this. Heh. Just for fun to release the happy chemical in my brain. Not that deep or involved. Just a light little diddy. <3 Hope you enjoy! Edited by yours truly so all mistakes are mine. No tags because it’s a fandom-specific AU, not because I don’t love y’all. <3

///

“See that tree on the hill?”

Virgil quirks an eyebrow at the boy beside him, taking in his bright orange t-shirt and the three beads on his leather necklace. He has what Virgil would swear was snake scales across the left side of his face. Janus, he had said his name was. (Like the god? Virgil had asked. No relation. Not unless Athena has some explaining to do, the boy had told him with a wry smile as if that was somehow supposed to make sense.)

He’d met Janus four hours ago in New York in Central Park after a very weird encounter with a cyclops. Though if he’s being honest, the cyclops had only been the most recent run-in with vicious creatures out of his mother’s old Greek myth anthology. He’d been ducking and dodging and outrunning them for nearly a year at this point. Janus had appeared seemingly out of nowhere, sliced the cyclops with a dagger and it vanished in a puff of gold dust.

Then Janus told him he knew a safe place to go. Perhaps he was an idiot, but Virgil had followed without much objection. The idea of a place that was safe was nearly too good to be true, but Janus had just dusted a cyclops. And Virgil figured there was at least some power in numbers, if nothing else.

Virgil follows where the other boy is pointing and sees a tall pine tree at the top of the steep hill. He nods.

“Go there. You’ll see a camp in the valley. Chiron will explain.”

“Chiron?”

“Yes. Activities director. You can trust him.”

“You’re not coming too?” Virgil looks at the boy beside him again. Janus is looking in the opposite direction of the tree back the way they’d come and he yanks the dagger out of his belt.

Janus’s mouth twitches. “We’ve got company. I will hold them off. The border is protected. You’ll be safe once you cross the tree line.”

Alarmed, Virgil looks over his shoulder and sees a winged creature in the distance. It looks almost a like a bat, if a bat could be the size of a human person. “What is that?!”

Janus gives a slight shove to Virgil’s shoulder. “Run, Virgil!”

“I can’t leave you behind—”

Janus mutters something that sounds foreign, and yet Virgil understands it. A curse word in… was that ancient Greek? Virgil isn’t given time to process it before Janus grabs Virgil’s arm and takes off at a sprint up the hill. Virgil stumbles but he manages to keep his feet under him as he takes off at a run for the looming pine. As they get closer, Virgil chances a glance over his shoulder. The winged creature is maybe twenty yards away. It’ll be on them any second.

Janus whistles sharply. “Hey! We got incoming!”

Seemingly out of nowhere, three other kids appear from near the tree. One of them notches an arrow in an honest-to-gods bow. He aims, then releases. Virgil watches, stunned, as the blow strikes true and the winged creature vanishes in a puff of gold dust that gets caught in the breeze.

Virgil rests his hands on his knees as he catches his breath. Janus, beside him, is breathing hard as well but he nods to the kid with the bow and arrow.

“Nice shot,” Virgil tells him.

The kid looks to be maybe a year older than Virgil, and is wearing a t-shirt that matches Janus’s. He’s also got a necklace of beads, though his has five of them. Virgil realizes that some of them match Janus’s, plus a few more. He slings the bow across his back and flashes Virgil a bright grin.

“Thanks! I’m Sloane.” He extends his hand.

“Virgil.” He shakes the kid’s hand.

Sloane nods to the other two kids that had materializes near him. One of them is a girl that looks a little younger than Virgil, maybe 14, with dark hair pulled back into a ponytail. The other is a guy in a backwards baseball cap and a plaid shirt over the orange tee that looks about Sloane’s age. His necklace only has one bead on it.

“This is Valerie,” Sloane introduces. “She’s from Cabin 10. And this is Kai. He’s from Cabin 9.”

“Sloane,” Janus interrupts. “Where’s Chiron?”

Sloane jerks his head down the hill. “In the Big House with the lead counselors.”

Virgil watches Janus’s brow furrow. “Seems unusual. Did something happen?”

Valerie sighs. “Kind of. Dionysus gave one of his kids a quest. Counselors are meeting about the prophecy to see who is going.”

Janus’s eyebrows shoot up in surprise. “Which one?”

“Jack. The prophecy mentions a death. That never bodes well, and kids aren’t exactly lining up to work for Mr. D.”

Janus hums thoughtfully, his eyes trailing over the crest of the hill. Virgil watches as he shoves the knife into his belt. Kai cocks his head slightly, studying Virgil closely. Then, he looks at Janus. “Has he been claimed?”

Virgil frowns. “Claimed?”

“No,” Janus tells Kai, then looks to Virgil. “Follow me. I’ll explain as we walk.”

Janus nods to the other three and Virgil follows him down to the valley below. From this vantage point, Virgil sees the cabins Janus has been talking about, forming something like a horseshoe shape. In front of it is a large building that Virgil assumes is the ‘Big House’ that Sloane had mentioned. He sees other buildings and structures, but decides to wait to ask about them.

People mill around, most of them wearing the orange t-shirt that has a winged horse and the words Camp Half-Blood printed on them. When they notice Virgil, most of them throw a curious glance to Janus. Janus doesn’t even seem to notice.

“Welcome to Camp Half-Blood,” Janus says as they walk. “It’s one of the few safe spaces left for demigods like us.”

“Wait,” Virgil says, certain that he heard Janus incorrectly. “Demigod?”

Janus glances at him. “Hm. I gather you really don’t know very much. Yes, demigod. Half-god, half-mortal.”

“And you think I’m one of these, uh, half-bloods?” Virgil shakes his head. “Listen, I think you’ve got the wrong guy.”

Janus looks almost amused now, an eyebrow arching almost like a challenge. “You couldn’t have gotten across the border into camp if you weren’t. Let me guess… you have ADHD and dyslexia.”

“Wh—I mean, yes, but—”

“You were raised by either a single parent or no parent at all,” Janus continues.

“My mom, until—”

“You see things others either don’t see or don’t remember.”

“I—”

“Please. Do stop me if I’m wrong.”

Virgil falls silent, his chest a bit tight. He crosses his arms over his chest as they walk.

Janus waits for a beat before he elaborates, sounding like it’s a spiel he’s given a dozen times already. “The ADHD is the battle reflexes. Dyslexia is because your brain is wired for ancient Greek, not modern English.”

Virgil’s mind is reeling. “But—”

“The things you see are because you’re a demigod. You are able to see things as they are. Mortals—most mortals—get deceived by this thing called the Mist. Someday, with training, you’ll be able to manipulate it as well. It’s a useful skill.”

Virgil feels suddenly way too hot, and yet still has the sudden desire to pull the hood of his hoodie up over his hair. “Demigod,” he repeats, though saying it aloud doesn’t help it make sense. “Are… Are you telling me that my dad is a god? Like a Greek god? Zeus? Apollo? Those guys?”

Janus glances at him and looks, for a split second, almost apologetic. “I understand that it’s a lot to take in at once. This is why Chiron usually takes the initiation. He usually has a more, ah, sensitive means of broaching the subject. But since he’s meeting with the lead counselors, I’m afraid the responsibility falls to me.”

Virgil blinks. He can feel the pressure in his chest building and he forces himself to take a breath. It doesn’t help as much as he’d been hoping it would. “Which one?”

“Hm?”

“Which god is my dad?”

They’re passing in front of the Big House now. There’s two people standing on the front porch—a blonde girl holding a Yankees cap and a boy with a goatee leaning against the railing—seeming deep in conversation. The blonde girl offers Janus a small wave. Janus nods back.

“To your question, the answer is that we don’t know,” he says. “Since you haven’t been claimed yet, your guess is as good as ours. But you might be claimed any minute now, or never claimed at all. I was claimed three days after arriving at camp by Athena. But we have several campers who haven’t been claimed at all. Remy Short is one such example.”

“Athena. Goddess of wisdom and strategy,” Virgil remembers. He’d read that name in his mother’s library when he was younger. And he has a vague memory from sixth grade social studies.

“Indeed,” Janus replies. They circle around the house and Virgil realizes that Janus is leading him towards the semi-circle of cabins. “Since you haven’t been claimed yet, you’re designated to Cabin 11. Hermes’ cabin.”

“Janus!” A bright, cheerful voice calls from behind them. Janus stops and turns, and Virgil follows his gaze. A boy that looks about Virgil’s age, maybe a year older, is running towards them from the Big House. He’s got a flop of curly hair and big round glasses.

“Patton,” Janus greets as the boy slows to a stop near them. “Virgil, this is Patton. He’s the head of the Hermes cabin.”

Patton grins and holds out his hand. “Hi, Virgil. Welcome to Cabin 11. I’ll talk to Chiron about getting you some supplies—”

“I’ll talk to Chiron,” Janus interrupts as Virgil shakes Patton’s hand. “I need to ask him about some things anyway. Patton, could you—”

“For sure,” Patton agrees readily. “I’ll show Virgil around!”

Janus excuses himself and starts towards the Big House. Virgil rubs the back of his neck and offers Patton an awkward smile. Now that he’s closer, Virgil realizes that Patton is maybe an inch or so shorter than him. He’s got four beads on his necklace.

“How ya doing?” Patton asks him, startling him out of his thoughts. Virgil meets his eyes. Patton’s are a warm brown, and his smile is sympathetic. “I remember my first day at camp. It’s always overwhelming.”

Virgil huffs. “Yeah, you could say that.”

“You’ll love it here,” Patton says with a surprising amount of confidence.

Virgil arcs a skeptical eyebrow. “I’ve heard that before. I don’t seem to, ah, stay in one place very long.”

“Kicked out of school?” Patton guesses. He starts walking around the cabins and Virgil follows, slipping his hands into the pocket of his hoodie.

“Yeah. Several times.”

“We all have,” Patton says, not unkindly. “That’s the best thing about camp. In the mortal world, we’re all labeled as weird or outcasts. But at camp? We’ve all been through it. Oh! This is Cabin 10. Aphrodite’s cabin.”

Patton walks Virgil around the semi-circle, explaining each cabin’s assigned deity. He adds that Cabins 1 through 3 are empty, though apparently there was a girl that used to be in Cabin 1—Zeus’s cabin—who joined the Hunters of Artemis and left camp. Cabin 2 was Hera’s, and since she didn’t have children, the cabin was mostly honorary. Cabin 3 usually had a kid in it, but he apparently was on some kind of recon mission and wouldn’t return for another day or two. Cabin 8—Aretmis’s cabin—is also, usually, empty except when the Hunters visit.

“Since you don’t know who your dad is, you get to bunk with us at the Hermes Cabin,” Patton explains. “We take all unclaimed kids, since Hermes is the god of travelers.”

“I thought he was the god of thieves,” Virgil says before he can think about it.

Patton smiles sheepishly. “Yeah, that too. If you’ve got anything important, maybe keep it with ya. Just in case. I try to dissuade stealing, but old habits die hard for some of these kiddos.”

Patton leads him around the camp, pointing out the strawberry fields, the armory, and the forge that mostly gets used by the Hephaestus kids. A few of them wave at Patton, who eagerly waves back and calls a few of them by name. He shows Virgil the arena, where two kids are sparring. Patton takes a seat and Virgil sits beside him, watching the two boys circle each other.

Both of them are wearing matching orange t-shirts—Patton had told him that he’d be getting one too—and some armor. One of them has dark hair and square glasses. He’s got two knives, one in each hand, and even from a bit of distance Virgil can sees the slight sheen of sweat to his forehead. The other one’s hair is a couple of shades lighter. His sleeves are rolled up and he wields a sword and a shield.

“The one with the glasses is Logan,” Patton explains. “He’s a child of Athena. The other one is Roman. He’s a child of Apollo. I met both of them in Seattle before we made our way to camp together thanks to some help from a satyr.”

“All three of you have been claimed?” Virgil asks, watching as Roman charges at Logan who rolls out of the way and then nimbly jumps back up to his feet. He slashes at Roman’s back but Roman parries the blow with a well-timed flick of the sword.

“Not immediately,” Patton says. “Logan was claimed as soon as we got to camp, but it was a month or so for me. And Roman was nearly a year before Apollo claimed him during a campfire song. It certainly surprised a lot of people.”

“Why?”

“His brother was claimed by Ares three months before him, so most people thought Roman was Ares’ kid too.”

Virgil glances at Patton. “Roman has a brother?”

Patton’s mouth presses into a thin line for a moment, and Virgil gets the sense that it’s a touchy subject. “Yeah. Remus. It’s unusual for two kids of the same family to both be demigods, and the fact that their father are two different gods led to some… tension. Roman and Remus don’t exactly get along.”

Virgil nods his understanding and turns his attention back to the sparring pair. Roman blocks a quick slash from Logan with his shield and swipes at him with the sword, but Logan parries the blow with the other knife in his hands. Then in a series of quick movements—Virgil isn’t sure how it happens, exactly—Roman is flat on his back and Logan is on his chest with the knife to his throat.

Roman says something that Virgil can’t make out, and Logan says something in kind before he climbs off Roman and helps him up. Roman flashes a grin and shoves Logan’s shoulder before he glances past his sparring match and sees Patton and Virgil sitting on one of the benches.

Roman waves. “Heya, Padre!”

Logan glances over his shoulder and quirks an eyebrow at Virgil but stores his daggers as Roman jogs over. Patton stands and Virgil follows him down to meet Roman halfway.

“Hey, Roman,” Patton replies. “I didn’t know you started using a sword!”

Roman grabs a towel off a nearby bench and mops the sweat off his forehead. “It’s new. I’m still trying to get used to it. I think the balance is off.”

“The balance is fine,” Logan quips, stepping up beside him. “You just need more practice.”

Roman rolls his eyes but doesn’t argue. “Either way, Specs. I’ll take archery any day over waving a sharp stick around.”

“You are definitely a son of Apollo,” Logan rejoins back without malice. “And it would be unwise to only be versed in ranged attack.”

“And you are definitely a son of Athena.”

“Correct.”

Virgil snorts, and then a part of him regrets it as Roman and Logan both look over at him. Virgil flushes slightly, uncomfortable with the sudden attention, but Patton seems to only perk up more.

“Oh! Sorry, this is Virgil. He’s a new camper. Janus ran into him on his way back and brought him along.”

“Which cabin?” Logan asks.

Virgil shrugs. “For now, Cabin 11, I guess.”

“Unclaimed, then.” Virgil listens for the judgement in Logan’s voice, but he doesn’t hear it. It sounds more like a flat statement of fact, as if reporting the weather. Logan nods once. “Very well.”

“I was just showing him around,” Patton supplies. “You guys wanna join?”

Logan starts shrugging out of the armor he’s wearing. “Regrettably, I said that I would assist Harley with some blueprints when I had finished sparring with Roman.”

Roman slides the sword into the scabbard at his side. “And I’m overdue for a Pegasus lesson. I can’t miss it again. The last thing I need is Mr. D giving me another earful.” Roman gives a quick two-finger salute and rushes out of the arena.

Virgil blinks at Patton. “Pegasus?”

Patton grins brightly. “Come on. I’ll show ya.”

…

Patton spends the rest of the afternoon showing Virgil around the camp. They go to the stables (where Roman offers to take Virgil for a ride but Virgil immediately declines because he’s never been a fan of flying). They swing by the beach on their way to the climbing wall. Virgil watches, amazed, as two kids climb with impressive speed and narrowly avoid the magma that starts to pour down it.

One of the kids has a Morningstar gripped between his teeth, a green bandana around his upper bicep and a matching one around his head. He’s fast, scaling the wall with a well-practiced ease. Virgil hears him laugh delightedly when his hand slips and he almost gets burned by the lava. It’s somehow both impressive and disconcerting.

“That would be Remus.”

“That’s Remus?” Virgil repeats, though when he looks a bit closer he sees the similarity in hair color and skin complexion. “I guess I see the resemblance.”

“Don’t tell Roman that,” Patton says lightly. “C’mon.”

They pass the amphitheater where, apparently, there would be a bonfire tonight. Patton shows him the volleyball court where four kids are playing one another. They wave at Patton as they pass.

“You seem popular,” Virgil supplies. He’s lost track of how many kids have waved at them as they walk around.

Patton lifts a shoulder modestly. “I dunno. Since Hermes is the catch-all cabin, a lot of camp knows me since they come to our cabin if they haven’t been claimed yet. Sometimes we get kids that get claimed right away, or kids that already have been claimed, but otherwise? I get to be their lead counselor for at least a little bit.”

“Sounds like a lot of responsibility.”

“I kind of like it,” Patton admits with a smile. “It’s like I’m everyone’s honorary camp dad.”

The conversation cuts out as dinner is called and they head to the mess hall. Patton explains the offering to the gods prior to the meal, and Virgil scrapes part of his plate into the fire. He doesn’t know what to ask for.

It’d be nice to have a family again, dad, he thinks, unsure of who he should even direct the comment to. Patton waves him over, offering a seat beside him.

Virgil chances a glance around the mess hall as they eat. The Hermes table is certainly the most crowded, though Virgil can’t say he finds that surprising. Athena’s table has several kids reading while eating. Two kids at the Ares table are in the middle of an arm-wrestling competition. One kid at the Hephaestus table is pouring over a blueprint, and Virgil wonders if that was the Harley kid that Logan had mentioned.

Towards the end of the meal, a few kids at the Apollo table starts singing “Bohemian Rhapsody” and it’s not long before most of their table is doing the entire song with harmony. Someone from the Demeter table tells them to ‘save it for the campfire’, but it does nothing to deter the Apollo kids. Virgil catches Roman laughing as he sings, one of his sibling’s arms slung around his shoulders.

Virgil glances over and sees Logan at the Athena table sitting next to Janus, watching the chaos unfold and the faintest quirk of his lips betray his amusement.

Virgil feels some of the tension in his chest relax just a little.

…

The bonfire starts around dusk. Virgil is making his way to the amphitheater from dropping supplies off at the cabin when Roman comes up from behind him and loops his arm through Virgil’s, chattering excitedly about how much he loved this part of camp. Virgil sees an ukulele case slung around his shoulder.

Logan appears a second later on the other side of Virgil, commenting dryly that the Apollo kids had done their vocal warm-ups during the dinner. This only served to lead Roman to do actual vocal warm-ups—trills and scales, specifically—as they walked. Patton and Janus were already sitting down, three rows back. Patton waves when he sees them file in. Remus is sitting beside Janus, seemingly trying to goad him into some kind of competition that he was having no interest in. The firelight glints of Janus’s scales.

“Hey,” Virgil says to Roman and Logan. “Can… I ask what happened to Janus?” He immediately regrets the question, cursing his lack of a filter, but neither of the other boys seem perturbed by the question.

“A curse from Aphrodite,” Logan answers. “Janus had gone on a quest for our mother, and it led to some… unsavory tension between himself and Aphrodite. From what he’s told me, he accused Ares of being a snake in the grass while in the presence of Aphrodite, and… well. The love goddess didn’t take kindly to that. But it’s purely cosmetic.”

Virgil arcs an eyebrow. “Remus seems chill with him.”

“I’m not sure that Remus is aware of the accusation Janus leveled at his father,” Logan muses. “And Janus is not one to hold the children accountable for the actions of their godly parent.”

“It doesn’t benefit him,” Roman adds in, using his free hand for air quotes. “Or something like that. Janus is all about himself and how he can improve his own standing.”

“Sounds like someone else I know,” Logan quips dryly.

Roman scoffs, but when Virgil looks at him, there’s a teasing glint to his eyes. “Well, I wasn’t going to say it, but you guys are half-brothers for a reason.”

Logan looks at Roman over the top of his glasses, but Roman just shoots him a cheeky smile as they approach the other three. Virgil slides into the seat beside Patton, followed by Logan and then Roman. There’s a few kids—Virgil isn’t sure what cabin they’re from—trying to lead a call-and-response chant as campers file in. Down the row, Remus enthusiastically calls out the responses at the top of his lungs.

“Roman!” A new voice calls out from the end of their row. A tall guy, a couple of years older than them, is holding a ukulele and jerking his head down towards the bonfire. “You ready to help me kick this thing off?”

Roman grins and jumps up. “Would be an honor, Thomas.” He rushes off and he and Thomas start playing a song together with practiced ease. He and the other Apollo kids start singing, and before long the vast majority of campers are joining in. A few of them, including Patton, sway a little. Virgil doesn’t sing, but he listens and tries to remember the words.

The sky grows dark. The Apollo kids eventually cede the floor to some Ares kids who start up another chant. More songs are sung, some snacks get passed around, and Virgil is starting to think that maybe, with time, he could get used to this.

“Oh! I almost forgot!” Patton says beside him, as the next song starts. He drops something into Virgil’s lap. “I got this for ya.”

Virgil looks down. It’s two camp t-shirts. The black winged horse and the Camp Half-Blood print stares up at him. He looks over at Patton.

Patton just smiles. “Claimed or not, you’re one of us. We claim you.”

Virgil feels like maybe that’s good enough for him.

#sanders sides #sanders sides fanfiction #sanders sides au #platonic drlamp #virgil sanders #percy jackson au #pjo!au #fighting #weapons #violence #found family? in my fics? its more likely than you think #janus sanders #remus sanders #patton sanders #roman sanders #logan sanders

411 notes · View notes

thatonegreyghost · 2 years

Note

Ohh, how about 11, 25, and 51 for the fanfic writing asks?

Hi Salamander!!!! Taking this one question at a time;

11: do you write scenes in order, or do you jump around?

Honestly it depends on what's most convenient at the time. For example, I have that snippet from Hunger that you saw, plus an entire chapter for 4's Company that comes much later on(maybe. I'll probably get there in the next few chapters). So when I have story elements that I know I want, I use them as general outlines and plot my story around that, which helps organize the flow. Other than that, the chapters happen as they want to. I just write them down.

25: What is your favorite part of the writing process?

WORLDBUILDING MY BELOVED!!!! I love worldbuilding so much; just the fun that comes with constructing a society, a city, even just a small group of people. A great example of this is from my short story Trouble(P.S. please let me know if y'all wanna read that I'm super proud of it), where I had to construct a society where every citizen had a superpower(think My Hero Academia if it was centered on a grown man and the kid he accidently adopts). I had to do a lot of thought exercises to get the world and society and laws to fit, and most of the time I found myself planning out really specific details that wouldn't even make it into the final story! I love constructing a world and understanding how the world I'm writing works.

51: Does what you like to read differ from what you like to write?

Not drastically. I grew up falling in love with science fiction, thriller novels, and mystery books; the holy trinity for me was Percy Jackson, Encyclopedia Brown, and Goosebumps. And my love of science fiction and all it's sub-genres is what influences my writing so heavily, along with other authors! I believe I've mentioned this in another post, but my writing style is heavily influenced by authors who made a serious impact on my worldview through their writing, and that includes fanfic authors! I will say that I didn't particularly like romance novels(and for the most part still don't), and that's because of two things; 1, my parents are genuinely in love and treat each other with respect, so the typical straight romance novel showcases a completely different relationship type than what I grew up exposed to and 2, I'm queer. Traditional romance novels have a bad habit of putting the partners on unequal footing, and making one completely dependent on the other. That never sat right with me, even when I was too young to understand why. Getting older, i realized it was for the same reason I didn't understand the 'deadbeat dad' stereotype when I was younger, and when I figured out I was ace, everything else clicked. THAT BEING SAID... romance in fanfic? Top tier, 10/10, best romances in existence!!! Partners who actually care about each other, have equal footing in the relationship, communicate, and aren't dependent on each other while still managing to show their affection clearly? That's the shit I grew up with!!!!!

#ask game #Ghost answers #this was fun!!!#thank you!#Shameless plug for Hunger and 4's Company #please read those I like them a lot

3 notes · View notes

snooziep · 2 years

Text

Challenge Game (Now 55 Questions)

Rules: Answer all questions, add one question of your own and tag as many people as there are questions (not happening)

Tagged by @katsdisturbed (hey kat *waves*, just realising we have known each other coming up 10 years!!!!!!)

1. Coke or Pepsi: bleurgh neither

2. Disney or Dreamworks: disney

3. Coffee or Tea: tea

4. Books or Movies: oof it’s like sophie’s choice (of which i prefered the book!) too hard.

5. Windows or Mac: windows - never tried a mac though

6. DC or Marvel: like kat, I am a marvel girl

7. Xbox or Playstation: playstation i guess. i don’t really do gaming. i had an original playstation and used to play tomb raider and hogs of war but we are talking 30 years ago. gave it to my nephew as a retro gift a few years back

8. Dragon Age or Mass Effect: no idea what those are

9. Night Owl or Early Rise: early riser

10. Cards or Chess: cards

11. Chocolate or Vanilla: chocolate (taste) vanilla (smell)

12. Vans or Converse: converse but i can’t wear them anymore due to requirement for orthopedic footwear hahahaha

13. Lavellan, Trevelyan, Cadash or Adaar: huh?

14. Fluff or Angst: even after 10 years on here, i don’t really know what those terms exactly relate to

15. Beach or Forest: forest i think. i love the sea and the coast but not so much sitting on the beach.

16. Dogs or Cats: rats

17. Clear Skies or Rain: both

18. Cooking or Eating Out: eating out.

19. Spicy Food or Mild Food: spicy

20. Halloween/Samhain or Solstice/Yule/Christmas: christmas (sorry @ladyk23 and @fishcustardandclintbarton)

21. Would you rather forever be a little too cold or a little too hot: too cold every time

22. If you could have a superpower, what would it be? agreeing with kat once more, teleportation would be nice - i like the idea of being on a nice holiday, but sleeping in my own bed.

23. Animation or Live Action: live action

24. Paragon or Renegade: *shrugs*

25. Baths or Showers: baths

26. Team Cap or Team Iron Man: team cap

(oops i deleted 27)

28. Do you have three or four favourite quotes? If so, what are they: “they don’t know we know they know we know!” “knowledge is power and france is bacon” “i said “fuck that”” (tom petty to his doctor on being told he’d have to quit playing the guitar)

29. YouTube or Netflix: netflix

30. Harry Potter or Percy Jackson: never seen or read percy jackson, and i do love a bit of harry

31. When You Feel Accomplished: hmm, when i have put all my washing away?

32. Star Wars or Star Trek: star wars i guess

33. Paperback Books or Hardback Books: paperback (although these days, audible)

34. Handwriting or Typing: i can touch type and my handwriting is awful but i do like to read hand written things.

35. Velvet or Satin: velvet

36. Video Games or Movies: movies

37. Would you rather be the dragon or own the dragon? breathe fire and fly!!! yes please

38. Sunrise or sunset: sunrise

39. What’s your favourite song? the impossible question again. i do love david bowie’s version of wild is the wind beyond words. but when i start thinking about it i can add another 100 to that list. right now i am flipflopping between “ode to billy joe” and “yes sir i can boogie” that may give an indication of my tastes!

40. Horror Movies yes or no: sometimes. more psychology than gore please

41. Long hair or short hair: on me? short

42. Opera or Theatre: theatre

43. Assuming the multiverse theory is true and every story ever told has really happened somewhere, which one of the movie/book/tv show/game/etc worlds would you pick to travel to first? hmm i don’t watch/read a lot of fantasy so i don’t have a lot of references here, but the planet in “the book of strange new things” would be fascinating to see

44: If you had to eat only one thing for the rest of your life what would it be? cheese

45: Older guys or young guys? hmm the pool of “older” is dwindling haha

46: If you could erase any show from TV history, what would it be? anything with ricky gervaise

47: Singing or dancing? singing

48: Instagram or Twitter? instagram. i don’t do twitter

49: What quote or saying do people spout but is complete BS? it’s like taking candy from a baby 1. it’s mean 2. they can grip on pretty tight 3. who wants candy a baby has been drooling all over?

50: If there was a time period that you would gladly time travel to to live or visit, what would it be? stealing ancient rome from kat - yeah that sound kinda cool

51: If you could take one fictional character into this world to live with you and what not, under the contingency that the movie/book/tv/game universe they came from acts as if they never existed, who would it be and why? not sure i understand the question - i take a character and they are removed from the thing i took them from? hmm let’s see i shall take aaron cross from the bourne legacy for plenty of whatnot

52: What’s the story behind your tumblr account? i developed an interest in jeremy renner (i was in need of a rebound guy and couldn’t be arsed with the stress of finding a “real” one) and kept finding links to tumblr so decided to join. and am very glad that i did. it’ll be 10 years this autumn and it still makes me smile. delighted to have met some of you irl and who knows, one of these days someone may compliment me on my shoelaces!!!

53: If you were suddenly rendered invisible for the day (your clothing also, you don’t have to be naked… unless you want) what is the most mischievous thing you would do? now you have mentioned the naked thing, i think just strolling around naked and unnoticed. that sounds kind of freeing

54: If you could travel anywhere (cost is not a factor), where would you go? new zealand, at the same time as kat!!

55: What are your 3 favorite book character? harry hole, jackson brodie, jack caffery

#random shit #about me #bored yet?#thanks @katsdisturbed #we have a lot in common

2 notes · View notes

platonic-prompts · 3 years

Note

What fic(s) are you currently working on? :o

On Ao3 there's The Succesor and then The Sea's Warrior

The Succesor is a MHA fanfic in which I give Izuku many dads, and also an older brother. Because why not?

The Sea's Warrior is PJO/Young Justice Crossover, set in the first season (female percy. fun fact I mainly started writing these types of fics when every one I read was like Persephone Amphitrite Aphrodite Hestia Jackson, who loves ballet and no im not joking this is something I actually read for like 2 seconds and then noped out of). It's actually crossposted on Wattpad too, and is the edited (and much better version) of the original

And on wattpad......weeeeeeeell

Let's just say when I mention I have a new idea, there's a reason someone threatens to drive 10 hours to stab me

I have like 30 works published on there, and about ten are completed, no I don't have self control, and that's not even counting the collab account I have with my friend. Or the drafts of stories that aren't up

But writing Female Percy stories is my niche on wattpad, and I am more than happy to sit there and shove content into the world. I do have a few more MHA stories, and while most of my stories are crossovers (tip: on wattpad crossovers or certain tropes are your best bet. Because the tagging system is garbage and so is the search system) I have a few like the affectionately nicknamed weasel, which is just me shoving so much angst at Percy

~~It's cheaper than therapy~~

And then there's Flightless, which is Young Justice Robin, which is me being like, I hurt the bird, the bird gets hugs, Bruce be trying, but he's not the best parent, Alfred is the best

Right now, I'm working on a few chapters for Sea's Warrior and then next one for Aquagirl. And I love Aquagirl so much and its my baby and it makes my friend wish she could no longer feel emotions sometimes.

And uh, just take this line from WIESL (yeah, see where the nickname comes from?) Cause it is after midnight, and i have to wake up who knows when

"Do you want anything from the store?" she asked.

"Why? Trying to fatten you up so you can eat me?'

"I have coupons."

#not a prompt #ask #i have so many fics #i try to rotate my updates of them #the seas warrior one is already over half of the original #and im nowhere near the halfway point in terms of chapters

12 notes · View notes

notfeelingthyaster · 4 years

Text

Imagine (Son of Hades! Percy; Godswapped! Big Three's kids) Mark of Athena AU Pt. 1 (3/7) or (8/12)

Hello!! MoA is freaking extensive, so you're getting it in two parts. What are y'all thinking about this AU? Do you like it? Do you have suggestions? Anyway before reading this, check on the masterpost - all parts are essencial for the understanding of this - PJO or HoO - and check on the warnings before proceeding :))

Before everything, everyone's ages. Malcolm is 20, Reyna and Octavian are 19; Percy and Annabeth are 18; Frank and Jason are 17; Piper, Leo and Nico are newly 16; Will and Hazel are 15 - everyone is older, because I can.

Perseus is on a very uncomfortable toga praetexta, and he is late to the committee he has been organizing for at least two weeks now.

Planning for the greek commission - that he really hopes has planned a decent diplomatic mission, come on, Annie - is a very difficult job.

Mainly because Octavian is being a pain - and his direct superior, the Pontifex Maximus, is his grand-uncle, so nepotism is, of course, making Perseus life very hard.

They don't have any real say about the subject - the Vestal Virgins outrank them, and they're all for it because their Lady said so - but they still can protest every single one of the Alliance Committee decisions. Every single one.

They don't know how the greeks are getting here - it seems to be by ship, so they are keeping people at the closest bay, but no one is sure, so they are preparing for everything.

Hera gave him a date - July 8th, a Sunday - and they're working with that. Saturday is a day of rest, to the Roman people, so they organize everything on Friday - food, beverage, accommodations. Will they need garments? Perseus is not letting them walk around in those orange monstrosities.

Well. Hazel and Frank organize those - mainly helped by Questors and Magistrates - while Reyna and Perseus lock themselves up and review all the paperwork.

Because if they're not coming with their own mountain of paperwork, Perseus is kicking their asses, from Jason Grace - the previous Praetor - to Annabeth - she is supposed to be smart.

He also works on the mess that is the patrol rotation, the defense plans for the city, in the reconstruction efforts and in rising the wall at least 10 feet - getting it thirty feet tall, an impenetrable fortress for the upcoming war against the Giants.

Perseus has also made time for Iris Messaging his mother, - who is always overjoyed to hear from him - Persephone, - who he was only able to talk to once - Rachel, - who was not surprised to hear from him, and keep suggesting that he goes to the college closest to Parsons instead of staying in Nova Roma - and Calypso - who no Iris Messaging has been able to connect, nor can he find her location, so he guesses she is also in Olympus.

So back to the present - Perseus is late. It's 9h22 - he doesn't think that the greeks are getting here in the afternoon. He passes by Reyna's villa - with a cup of coffee and half their paperwork - and she is also late - a first when it comes to Praetor Arellano. Because they aren't Perseus and Reyna from now - they're Praetor Jackson of Styx and Praetor Arellano.

So they go to the courtyard - where the whole army is waiting, swords and shields gleaming with Frank in the head, plus the Consul, his two assistants, the Pontifex Maximus, Augur Primus Octavian, the six Questors and Perseus, and Reyna's assistants.

Perseus was never so grateful for someone as he was for Commander Sabina Artorius - the legacy of Pomona had been injured in the battle against Polybotes and lost her right leg and an eye - didn't make her any less valuable for him - but in the eyes of the prejudiced Roman people, she was a burden - so Reyna appointed her for the job.

She did everything Perseus wasn't able to - including proof-reading everything he wrote, teaching him the intricacies of Roman Politics, and giving him paperwork to sign.

Everyone who called her a useless servant was lying - Sabina was an amazingly competent P.A. and diplomat, and Perseus was very grateful for her, and her salary reflected that. Even if the Romans found weird a Praetor was paying for work - weird slaver fascist culture.

Reyna also has an assistant - a boy called Aeneas Nerius - a son of Virtus - who was born blind, so was relegated to poor-paying (or not paid at all, because housing and food aren't payment) jobs. Because Nova Roma is not only queerphobic and racist, no. It's also ableist.

The Pontifex - his name is Septimus Gavius, and he's a direct son of Phebus Apollo - looks at them angrily when they arrive late - but the Consul doesn't even notice the time - the man is too afraid of their conjoined power over the masses.

The Consul plays for the people as if Perseus would be a good successor - calls him Augustus and Imperator - even when everyone knows Reyna is the obvious choice - the man is as misogynist as all the older Senators are.

While Reyna tries her best to make her purple stola less constricting and Aeneas corrects Perseus toga with the practiced movements of someone who has been trained to do it - and that's when Perseus remembers that Aeneas was a servant to Octavian's family.

He pointedly avoids looking at the boy's hands - the demigod is no older than Percy, and his hands are burned and scarred. Perseus doesn't pity him - he rages internally against Octavian and his bigoted, slaver, prejudiced family.

They are talking - he is still seething from his realization - when the Greeks appear. And Perseus wants so much to kick their butts.

He has no words. He wants to scream. Reyna massages her temples with the face of a resigned person, and Sabina - the bloodthirsty woman that she is - snorts in amusement.

"Praetor Jackson. I fought beside you! I didn't expect your people to be... well... barbarians!" Whispers Reyna in his ear, in utter exasperation.

"I wasn't expecting this either! They have Grace, who is a roman! Why are they doing this?" He whispers back, as lost as she appears.

It doesn't matter - he tells Frank - Legatus Legionis Zhang - to make the troops stand down. This is not a fight - not yet, Lady Lupa whispers in his mind.

Hazel - Centurion Levesque - looks at him worried. She has been frenzied since her brother's disappearance the day after her birthday, but this is just the cherry on top. Are they fools?

The ship crosses their wall - and hovers in the air as, one by one, six people climb down. Perseus recognize almost all of them - there's Annabeth, Malcolm, Will, Jason Grace, and two other demigods, who he doesn't know.

At least Grace is wearing a toga. A makeshift, purple toga picta - as if he was a Triumvir or an Imperator - but a toga nonetheless, even if pretentious.

The Consul is the first to talk - the Greeks approach slowly, wary of the army behind them. The man welcomes them to Nova Roma - looking at Grace's toga with something akin to disdain - and then promptly passes the torch to the Praetors - the organization of this whole thing has been in their hands from the start.

"I am Praetor Urbanus Arellano" Reyna starts, in an official tone that no one questions "And this is Praetor Peregrinus Jackson of Styx. These are Pontifex Maximus Septimus and Augur Primus Octavian, Legatus Legionis Zhang, and the Twelfth Legion of Nova Roma. Please, follow me - let's continue our talking in a more private setting, I'm sure you're must be exhausted."

It's just an excuse to avoid the mocking looks the bigots are throwing them - Perseus can hear their voices in his head, calling him an ape, a savage bringing barbarians into their home.

The greeks - with their orange T-shirts and faded jeans and mocking purple toga - look as out of place in Nova Roma as Perseus feared they would. Reyna and he take them to the Praetor Villa - is as much as they can restrain themselves.

Annabeth - who knows him longer than anyone here - doesn't jump him - she just looks a little overwhelmed - Nova Roma is probably a bit much for her Athenian brain, which is now possibly being overridden with possibilities. It's Jason who makes the first move - and what a weird move at that.

"Reyna" He greets, and they hug briefly - and as manly as possible, for some weird roman reason about feminization - before the blonde turns to him "Perseus Jackson"

"Jason Grace" He answers back, and they exchange a handshake, but there's something weird in the inflection of his voice that Perseus doesn't necessarily care for "Annabeth"

Her greeting - when she gets off the subspace she dropped to - is much nicer - and warmer - he even gets a hug out of it.

They introduce him to Leo Valdez - who Perseus looks at once, remembers Charles Beckendorf, and swears to never let any harm come upon his baby brother - and Piper McLean.

"I know you!" They say at the same time - because that's where English gets you.

They explain that they went to Yancy together - two years, doing the same English tutoring. They give each other a high five for surviving the highs and lows of high school as monster bait. Malcolm and Will both hug Percy and greet Reyna with the same respect they give Annabeth - Praetor Arellano is terrifying.

The conversation eventually goes to how - how did they find Nova Roma, why they aren't surprised to see him here - and the answers are kind of obvious.

"I dreamed of you," Says Grace, still with a strange tilt to his voice. Perseus guesses he probably isn't okay with losing his place as Praetor - but he was kind of lost for eight/seven months. It's the gods' fault, really.

"Me too. Kind of - Lady Juno... I mean, Hera, she sent me dreams for about a month or so? It was all very weird - like basically the training I was doing at the day, you were doing at night. I think she was trying to tell me to follow in your footsteps. Helped me a lot - thank you, man."

Jason - and all of the greek entourage - seems a bit downtrodden - like he just gave a big miss. But Perseus has more important things to care about.

"Who had the brilliant idea to come for an alliance in a military flying ship?!"

Jason Grace wants to punch Hera, or Juno, or whatever is her name in the face. He wants to punch himself either - the gods never did anything good for him, why would they now?

He talked - like a creep - about the dreams. And turns out? He is the only one having deep, emotional dreams about Perseus' past for months. He got a crush on someone he knows, like the palm of his hand - but that doesn't know him back, because really, why make this easy? Why give him those dreams at all - if they were doing this one-sided?

So he stays quiet, as Leo apologizes for the worst idea ever - coming with a warship to a military city - and, while Perseus and Piper trade stories, Reyna beacons him for a quick walk - to show him the development of plans they did together - their own way of catching up.

"You're infatuated with him," Jason says but is not an accusation, is just the truth, in the worst time possible.

"Can you blame me? You were gone." She retorts "Wait... It's not me you're jealous of. But how do you? You never met before."

He explains the dreams - the seven months of dreams, the only link to his past, the way Camp Half-Blood worships Percy - the way that they don't have rules about who you lay with. Jason feels Nova Roma around him - the decadence of water everywhere that CHB simply lacked.

"Well, we should open a club. Me, you, that blonde girl, Di Angelo, half of Nova Roma..." And they laugh, for it seems impossible to not fall for Percy's charm, just as impossible as making him notice any of them. "Now can you explain to me why are you wearing purple of all things?"

He is apologetic - it was the only toga they could find in short notice without leaving Camp. Then, she shows him the plans - Reyna can do multiple things at once, and her best friend's love life is merely a blip in her radar.

Reyna loves differently - she has known that, all her life. It doesn't make a difference where it comes to Perseus - she loves him, even if she can't imagine ever laying with him. Maybe that's why she hasn't made any moves under the course of three months. She should let him go - he has so many options, anyway.

When they go back, is to see Perseus and Annabeth in a heated debate about she wearing a chiton or a stola - anyway, no greek can go to Senatus in jeans and a T-shirt.

Eventually, they manage to get them all in togas - the girls refuse the stolas, but they are convinced to put on the chitons for diplomacy.

They didn't come with mountains of paperwork. But between Malcolm, Will, and Annabeth, by lunch they have outlined most of their possible contributions and what do they need - and what they're unable to give up.

Perseus and Jason - and possibly Nico di Angelo, who's missing - are the only ones who know the full information - how many battle-ready people both sides have, how many disabled people, how many children, healers, resources.

Nova Roma is winning - in everything. Except for power - because Camp Half-Blood only has, maybe, five legacies out of more than 150 campers, while Nova Roma is mainly composed of legacies, second-generation demigods, or minor gods' demigods.

The Greeks are composed of 63% Olympian's children, 36% minor gods' children, and 2% legacies - all children of two demigods, so second-generation demigods. They don't have Nova Roma's training - but they have powers the Romans could only dream of.

The Romans are composed of 12% Olympian's children, 39,5% minor gods' children, and 48,5% legacies - most who are at least a few generations diluted. They don't have Camp's power - but they have techniques and numbers the Greeks couldn't even hope to have - if you counted the able non-fighters - the ones who would fight either way for the sake of Rome - it was a number bordering on 700 hundred strong.

It is a gamble that could only bring destruction - for both sides. So Perseus and Jason exchange looks - and decide not to divulge all information. Egos are so fragile - especially between the older generations - so it's best they don't have material to plan in accord.

The Greeks and Roman heed together to the Forum Romanum. Is still weird to see the Romans - especially for Leo.

You see, Leo has been surrounded by a cult of Perseus Jackson over the last few months. Half the people he knows are infatuated with the guy - including the meticulous Annabeth Chase, his best friend, and even scary as hell, Nico "I'm bringing the thunder" di Angelo.

He is expecting a Batman-esque character. He is expecting the heroes from legends - the ones destined to fall. Leo is half-waiting from an automaton - or perhaps Lucifer himself. He isn't sure.

But the guy is... easy-going. He bears a striking similarity to Charles Beckendorf - with surprisingly green eyes. Perseus is wearing sheets - why, Leo can't phantom - and making jokes with Malcolm Cage like the guy wasn't perpetually boomed by something.

It isn't the only thing that surprises him: All his ships (the romantic ones, not the literal one) crashed and burned worse than Helen of Troy and Paris. Perseus is seemingly oblivious to romance - he is all about the job, making friends, rebelling against the traditions and their superpowerful angsty parents.

Well, Leo can get behind this. He can't stop looking at Nova Roma - a whole city, directly taken off a good Gladiator reboot. Leo is not an architecture crazy like Annabeth - but oh, the aqueducts!

Leo wants to take a peak at the place the chimneys are poking of - maybe a two or three hour walk from where he is - but Piper keeps a hand in his wrist, leashing him like a unruly puppy.

Annabeth is in a similar state of amazement - she came here for her best friend and crush - and is surprised.

Not by Perseus becoming some kind of military political person - he always had the potential - and the way he grew, somewhat, harder and prettier at the same time. Annabeth is only eighteen and still on sophomore year - blame the hormones.

But she is amazed by Nova Roma. They have such an intricate society, with traditions the greeks have long forgotten - who still uses clothes like that - and a military formation worthy of Julius Caesar.

Her best friend turned out to kind of be the Julius Caesar to Reyna's - Praetor Arellano - Augustus. Perseus - Praetor Jackson of Styx - is militar and rigid, a political conqueror - while Reyna is infinitely more dangerous - she is a king, a leader to be worshipped as a goddess for centuries to come.

Annabeth came in this mission for three reasons: Her best friend, the war, and the mission her mother gave her. But now, she looks at the politics, at the city - and wants to stay.

They enter the Senatus - Perseus and Reyna upfront, followed by Jason and the greeks - and take their places. Jason - for the anger of most romans - stay with the greeks.

The session starts as normal - titles, names, rankings, people bringing their issues, strifes, budgets, ideas of infrastructure that were authorized by the Censors, marriage licenses and research projects.

Jason thinks they are scarily good together. Reyna works most of the civil front - she is a master at law - but it's Perseus who separates most strifes and solves the money problems - he is the son of a fair judge himself.

He can see the looks - he is Propraetor now. Why doesn't he sit in his side of the Senatus, between his pairs? Does he think himself above them now - even between barbarians?

But Jason can't let his friends to the mercy of the romans - not alone. After all people come - some redirected to the Consul, some with their issues solved for better or for worse - it's their time, to state the case.

The Alliance of Ephesus - for a city that was both greek and roman in nature - is still in it's initial states. But they make their cases - the way Camp Half-Blood could help in the upcoming war against the giants, their own roles in the previous war against the titans.

It is a convincing argument - both Perseus and him are unmovable objects, and Reyna is an unstoppable force - but they do hit a rock in the way.

"If the best your camp has to offer is a healer of Phebus Apollo, a bulla-wearer of Flamen Vulcan, a daughter of Venus Verticordia and two children of Minerva - a virgin goddess - this Alliance is highly unfair for the people of Rome!"

It had to be Octavian, Jason thinks. It is good, then, that Perseus has the tongue made of steel and looks like a Basileus - sat on a throne, overlooking them, with a bored look upon his face, he could demand a crown and they would give him.

"You overestimate yourself, Augur Primus Octavian. You see yourself so mighty that you have no need for allies?"

It is mocking and there's a message behind it - "This is where I come from and I am your Praetor - do you challenge my power?" - it makes Jason shiver.

Perseus - Praetor Jackson of Styx - is his father through and through. Jason only met the god once - in the post-war council in Olympus - but he had the same imposing voice, the same luxury that seduced Proserpina to the Underworld.

Just like he looked leading the greek forces against Kronos, wielding his weapons of choice with a roar that made Manhattan tremble.

It seemed to work - for Octavian shut up pretty quickly. Jason is no longer in a position to do it - he is respected, technically, as a Propraetor, but he barely reached half of his term - after spending a year as Legatus Legionis - a position which Frank Zhang more than deserved.

Everything is going well - too well, for Piper's liking. Perseus is cool, Reyna is cooler, they have a whole government (!), Jason is making heart-eyes at dream dude and even prejudiced guy recognized her as a girl.

They have a feast - where they are introduced to Frank Zhang and Hazel Levesque - and Piper sure isn't keeping all those titles straight in her head, this is Annabeth's job.

Centurion Levesque - Hazel, a girl a little younger than them, but apparently already a general - keeps looking at Leo as if he is about to implode - a normal reaction to him. She stops once they are introduced - there's a forlorn air about her.

She catches up a little with Perseus - who is the most oblivious person to ever grace this earth, for so many look at him and he barely looks at anything but his paperwork - who finds it mightly funny to slowly eat a pomegranate while everyone freaks out at the implications.

Well - he thinks they are scared. But Piper knows they're just horny and waiting to pass winter cozying up in hell.

Perseus explains to her (finally) why they give the gods different names - Venus Verticordia, Genetrix, and Victrix; Juno Moneta, Regina, Lucina, and Populona; Mars Ultor, Pater, Quirinus, and Gradivus, etc. He explains they are epithets - different forms of each god.

Different from the greek to roman transition, these are the same gods - in very different facades. Like, for example, her mother could either be Venus Genetrix - the maternal one - Victrix - the war one - or Verticordia - the romantic love one.

Greeks used to have this - but some of their aspects got too jumbled, so they started rebirthing - evolution. Zagreus became Dionysus. Hermes split from Pan. Helius merged with Apollo, Selene merged with Artemis. As their cult changed - so did they.

Children of Venus Genetrix and Verticordia are different from Children of Venus Victrix - still brothers and sisters, but their powers are different - where the first lean towards priesthood and the second towards charm speak and magic - almost all the third's are warriors of the same caliber of Mars Ultor's children.

Everyone here is so different though- Perseus' P.A., Sabina, is a total badass and Piper would be all for her... but wouldn't that invalidate her? She spent her whole life trying to prove she is a girl - to now go pursue sex with other girls? Piper is confused - she should IM Ariel before sleeping

It is all going very well - minor accident when someone mentioned Perseus' decision to send the harpy Ella away days ago - probably to Rachel - until Octavian decides to see the ship. And, of course, Leo just has to go.

Jason is proving to be very smart - for while Leo is occupied above with Octavian, he insists to also be on the ship, with Will and Malcolm as his backup - no one here trusts the drowned rat.

They take with them Frank and Hazel Levesque - two possible candidates for the mission on the Roman side - evening the sides - three Romans, three greeks, and Jason - a medium.

Perseus stays on ground - he is the host and can't leave the party - with Reyna - who is talking to Annabeth in hushed whispers - and her - who is starting to get a little tipsy.

Well. She should've known better.

Leo attacks the camp - it's not him, but it's enough. Perseus - at the first cannon bomb - whispers something in Reyna's ear, and escort her and Annabeth to the ship before Roma can react.

He jumps on board, pops an unconscious Octavian out of the ship, and tells Annabeth to get out of there in the next ten minutes or he won't have an alibi. They do - but look at him like he is either crazy or drunk, still in laurels and a toga, a goblet of wine precariously between his fingers.

"I'm Praetor Peregrinus Jackson of Styx - and this is an espionage mission with the objective of rescuing Legatus Legionis Zhang and Centurion Levesque while finding who is the greek traitor. At least, officially - I'm here because I am not a big fan of the woman encroaching in my territory, trying to kill my friends."

Leo - who is still disoriented of what Frank explain is an eidolon, they had a run with those when the attacks on Nova Roma started - starts laughing and takes Annabeth's place steering the Argo II. After a minute of silence, everyone starts laughing - the man is a genius.

So they go after decent clothing - because just Hazel and Frank are in battle appropriate clothing, and Perseus just noticed that they're floating and he can almost see the equations around his head - he wants so bad to talk to him because he has the same numbers around him all the time.

After everyone is in pants and shirts - Perseus, Frank, and Hazel take the loose shirts - Annabeth brought a stash of clothes in more or less their size, in Jason's word - but, while Frank tugs on a pair of sweatpants, the other two look at each other.

Leo is not really surprised when Hazel is in a skirt - but he gasps when Perseus walks in Frank's roman military skirt. He looks uncomfortable at the mere idea of pants.

No one says anything - not only they lived in CHB, but he has the Minotaur dagger that pair perfectly with Rachel's strapped to his tight, while his ax and Warhammer are crossed in his back.

Leo can see Jason drooling - he isn't the only one. Leo is newly sixteen - the youngest bar Will, and, perhaps, Hazel - and generally more interested in machines but he is not blind - the guy is hot.

Perseus gets hotter when he comes to Leo - still with a resting bitch face that would give Chiron a run for his money - and starts asking questions with the excitement of a puppy - about the ship, about the plans, how the aerodynamics work.

Hazel is roped into the conversation when they try and test if she has any control over the wind - almost nothing, but Perseus thinks he can hone her eventually - while Will and Malcolm start grilling Frank and Jason over Nova Roma.

Perseus mentions Nico - which Hazel supports. He hasn't be seen in either Camp since Perseus recovered his memories - said he was going to make up for it, but Percy knows the guy is a little self-destructive - he is too prideful to know when to just stop.

Piper and Annabeth are on patrol - no one is really sure the Romans aren't going after them. It doesn't serve for much: they are attacked.

Not by Romans, but by griffins. Between Jason, Piper, and Annabeth, Perseus and Leo don't even move. The ship does suffer some damage - which prompts Leo to give the Romans a tour of the Argo II.

Perseus is fascinated by Festus - while Hazel is fascinated by Leo - And Frank is seriously just marveling at the greeks by now - Nova Roma is pleasing to the eye, but they don't have automaton dragon ships.

They go to Salt Lake. Jason, Frank, and Piper go get tar, while Leo, Hazel, and Perseus go to the Celestial Bronze. Annabeth, Malcolm, and Will stay, to protect the ship.

It's the first time Perseus has touched land outside of Roma with his memories back - and he can feel a pressure in his chest: His link of empathy to Grover, never completely off.

They encounter Nemesis - who talks to Perseus about Ethan and Domitia, for which he retorts she has no rights. She took Ethan's eye, and his choice was not worth it - she asked for too high a payment.

Nemesis, or Invidia, laughs. Says the world isn't fair - look at Perseus and Jason, Leo and Sammy, Hazel and Nico, the marks in Roman's backs. She doesn't explain anything - but they understand.

Perseus understands Hazel and Nico - it's not fair, that her brother is missing, probably captured if his dreams have an ounce of truth. Leo understands Perseus and Jason - for Jason confided in him for months. It's unfair that Perseus doesn't know as much about Jason - and that Jason knows way too much about him.

Both Hazel and Perseus muse about Sammy - the one from Hazel's flashbacks. They hold hands and keep silent - this is not the moment. Leo doesn't ask about the marks - he saw Jason bare-chested once. He doesn't need to know more.

Invidia gives the fortune cookie to Leo, and promptly disappears - Percy wants to punch her. For Alabaster, for Ethan, for Domitia and the punishments that she has to dole out.

They meet Echo - who Perseus pity and rages, for it's the gods's fault. She couldn't refuse to help Zeus - neither could she flee from Hera's punishment, or Eros' arrows. It's their fault, that she stands now, alive again, but incapable of happiness.

Narcissus is a dick. And Hazel thinks that both Sammy - Leo - and Percy - who looks just like Pluto, and not in a bad way - could surpass him in both looks and personality.

Percy and Leo distract the nymphs - in different ways. Perseus plays his father well, and the dryads flee to Leo, in search of protection from a hero. A black makeshift toga Echo gives them, and that's it: The god of the Underworld coming to kidnap someone else.

Hazel retrieves the Celestial Bronze - the energy in it is strong enough, with Perseus opening the earth sideways for it to pass. They don't need to run back to the ship: Percy keeps evoking skeletons, which scares the nymphs, and in a fit of fury for Echo, Leo breaks Narcissus' nose - which sends him into a panic.

While getting tar, Piper feels her dagger heating up - Katoptris shows her a man Jason recognizes as Dionysus, in Topeka.

When everyone is back to the ship, they relay their stories. Perseus briefly asks Annabeth about Grover - who she tells him is occupied in Maine this year, but never gave up on looking for Perseus. Then, they leave for Topeka - they have a god to meet.

"I know a friend who could help us get down" Starts Perseus, looking at the emptiness under them with worry. The daughter of Aphrodite sympathizes.

"I thought you couldn't shadow travel more than one person at a time" States Jason, with all the creepiness of the dream stalker that he is. Piper is laughing - while Jason flushes and tries to explain.

Perseus ignores it, for the sake of his sanity, and asks if Jason has a Pegasus: Thalia has Porkpie, and he is right, Perseus couldn't possibly get three of them down and up without draining himself.

Jason doesn't have a pegasus - he does have Arion, the son of his matron, Ceres, and Neptune, his father. It doesn't fly - but Hazel has a venti that does.

So it goes Hazel and Jason on Tempest, Piper, and Perseus on Blackjack. Bacchus is waiting for them, a two-liter bottle of Pepsi in one hand.

While many of the roman aspects of greek gods are mainly more rigid, Bacchus is the complete opposite. Dionysus is a god of madness and, in his older iterations, Zagreus, a god of the Underworld.

Bacchus is a god of drunkness, sex, excess, and parties. He has none of the darker sides of his counterpart - nor the austerity of his aspect as Bacchus Liber, a god of freedom, fertility, and protector of people.

No, this was Bacchus in his most simple form: a deadbeat drunk. Piper is so tired - why couldn't she be born in a serious pantheon? Egyptians seem pretty focused.

Bacchus wishes for Ceres' presence - says it's not his responsibility to deal with plants - this is the dominion of Liber, and he can't be Liber without Ceres here. He asks Jason or Perseus to call for the matron - she should listen to them - but Ceres doesn't answer their prayers.

Perseus is as done as Piper and just rolls his eyes. At the presence of a fertility god, even if he only has a bare connection to it, vines start growing around the son of Hades' ankles, like if they're coming to play. Perseus is not only a son of Hades', Piper remembers, but he is also a champion of Persephone.

And while Jason's only blessing is his magical horse, Perseus was trained and has some mild control over plants - Piper thinks he got the better goddess in the deal.

Bacchus - drunk in Pepsi, if that's even possible - don't answer much. He tells them about Phorcys, and paying tribute - Liber would probably answer to it. He then flees.

Jason and Perseus hold a brief conversation about holding evening prayers - Piper doesn't understand much, but Hazel is nodding along, so it can't be bad: The girl is pretty level-headed.

Perseus is a son of the Underworld, he cannot be possessed by spirits, and fight them off easily, and Jason does too - mainly because he knows Perseus way too much to attack him.

But then the spirits turn to the girls. Jason has to throw a wave over Perseus to wake him from Piper's charmspeak so that he can exorcise them. It works, but Perseus has a small panic attack over drowning, is immediately drained and faints on his arms.

So Jason hauls Piper and Hazel over Tempest, so the venti takes them up first, before he bride-carries Perseus into a hurricane and over to Argo II, and promptly passing out from exhaustion and scaring the hell out of everyone on board.

Jason thinks it's worth it - Perseus asks him to start calling him Percy, and, in the Mess Hall, each takes one head of the table. He feels like he should be bothered - he isn't one to share leadership, but they all know the true head of operations here is Annabeth, so.

Percy tells them what he told Reyna - to stop any from following them, for this was a special ops mission. It's his role, and, later, Jason and he can strategize what Perseus will say in the Iris Messages to the Senatus.

And how they're going to spin crossing the Mediterranean Sea without using Julius Caesar's journey as a comparative too much, least they think Jason and Perseus are planning a coup.

They totally are. The two of them and Reyna would be the first triumvirate to work.

That evening, they sit together on the deck and talk. Not about Jason's dreams, not about Perseus's fear of drowning. But the joke about the Forum, and trade anecdotes of campers both know - and it feels like something.

Perseus dreams of drowning on earth and trashes around in his sleep - just until he starts dreaming of Nico again.

Nico is locked up in a cage - like a bird trying to reach flight. Ephialtes and Otis taunt him - two eagles come and try to attack him. He fends them off - feeding off electricity in the sky - but Perseus knows he won't be able to keep this for a long time.

Perseus goes to the deeps of the ship, just close to the motors, and cuddles up to Blackjack - the Nico situation will have to wait until morning.

In the same night, Leo catches Frank sleeping as a dog - and his crush on the guy threatens to swallow him whole.

It's Will who finds him, twelve hours later. Everyone is pissed that Perseus disappeared - so they don't let him go search for Phorcys with Jason, sending the blonde boy with Frank and Will, claiming the son of Hades is still exhausted from the past day.

Perseus stays on board. He tries to decypher his vision with Piper and Hazel, while Malcolm and Annabeth trace the route to their own mission. Leo is steering the ship and finishing the repairs.

Hazel is worried about what Percy saw. The two eagles match a dream she had, a little over a week ago: Prometheus. If those eagles reach Nico, when Nico gets too weak, he will have his liver ripped off, and no magical powers to regrow it.

Jason's mission is also giving bad results. They meet Keto - who Jason is pretty sure he already killed once - and is uncooperative as she takes Will in a tour. Phorcys is much more open - after a little flattery, he tells them all about the twin Giants, the prisoner in a cage - bait for Perseus Jackson and Hazel Levesque - and a map that would possibly lead to the Athenas Parthenos.

They escape when Will kills Keto with a well-positioned arrow, before breaking the tank together and fleeing to Argus II.

In the way to Charleston, they discuss where could the map be. Perseus trade his first Iris Message with the Senatus - in his room, faking that both Frank and Hazel are helping him, and that the greeks have no idea what happened - that there is a traitor in their midst, but the Alliance continues.

Perseus hopes they can win this war with minimum bloodshed, and then he can claim the traitor was controlled by Gaia or something because that's not his main preoccupation. He trades information with Reyna - she tells him to go to Battery.

Annabeth remembers her meeting with her mother - for this time, she was accompanied by Malcolm. Athena told them they were failures - wasting their time searching for a son of Hades. But that they should have a chance at proving themselves - and gave them the small silver coin. To "avenge" her.

Athena raged and bristled about Annabeth and Malcolm helping the Romans, but that's where Annabeth would not relent. Would her mother prefer destruction over her pride? Oh, how wise.

Annabeth feels ashamed she still craves her mother's approval, while the goddess simply saw them as pawns, even after the war raged by the rejected children - she was one of the Olympians with most children on the opposite side.

This time, they play with the finger trap all together - in the mess hall - and Annabeth looks at them and decides this is her family, not a bitter goddess that never bothered with her. She wasn't doing this for Athena - she was doing this for Camp, and her friends.

Annabeth, Hazel, and Perseus go to the Battery, while Leo, Frank, and Malcolm go to the museum after the map. Jason goes to the bay with Will, to try and free the animals at Phorcys aquarium, and Piper stays on board to patrol the ship.

Aphrodite is flickering between her greek form and her Venus Genetrix aspect, but ends up settling as Venus Verticordia - the closest she can get to greek between a roman, a greek, and Perseus, who, according to her, is both.

"You shall tread carefully with love, Annabeth Chase, for your heart lays elsewhere; You are locked up between two ways of the heart, Hazel Levesque, and shall thread both; And you, Perseus Jackson of Styx, when it comes to the heart, you are my crown jewel."

Perseus would punch her, but he knows better: Verticordia means "the changer of hearts", she is a manipulator, a player. It's this aspect who caused the Trojan War, who tossed Aeneas right and left for Lavinia.

He much prefers Venus Victrix, who appears when they're about to leave, to warn then about the importance of the statue and the location of the map, in Fort Sumter.

Octavian - who was conspicuously missing from the Senatus meeting - is here - against the orders of both Praetors. He tries to attack them - but Perseus makes the earth tremble and they run away. Jason and Will join the fray, and they send a message to Leo's group for them to regroup.

Annabeth gets the map - again fighting against spiders and the voice of Lady Earth - but this time there's no Reyna to confront her - this time, Roma is on their side.

Perseus asks if killing Octavian would be so bad, after all, but Hazel stops him from making the earth swallow the Augur - he is still a person, after all.

They change their minds pretty quickly once Reyna IM's Perseus, saying that Octavian poisoned the minds of the Senatus against the greeks and that she was unable to do much. She says the Augur is claiming that Perseus, Jason, Frank, and Hazel are mind-controlled by Piper - and that he tried valiantly to rescue them, but failed.

Perseus is pretty sure that he should've made the earth swallow him, send him directly to the Punishment Fields so he wouldn't be able to leave the Underworld never again, the lying rat.

It takes three days for them to reach the Mediterranean Sea. These three days are spent most with training and planning - while the children of Athena plan for their mission, Hazel and Frank train their powers, Perseus and Piper spar, Annabeth and Leo steer the ship, Perseus and Jason spar and patrol, Jason and Annabeth trade ideas about the two sides, Will mends a lot of people up.

Leo, especially, admires both Hazel and Frank from afar - since the Narcissus situation, he can't keep his eyes off the girl, and Frank is just adorable - he feels like he just watched Pirates of the Caribbean all over again.

The group becomes pretty tight - especially after Will walks in Percy without a shirt on, and immediately manhandles him into the infirmary. He does the same with all Romans - trying to figure an answer to those scars.

Will has a boyfriend - Jake Mason, seventeen - who has the same bad habit of hiding scars from him. But since he lost his foot - Will has discovered a thousand ways to find someone's health problems.

Piper and Leo are not surprised - they are the closest to Jason after all. Malcolm and Annabeth are up in arms - and they call the greeks barbarians?

Jason blames himself - for he has a guilty streak a mile wide, and apologizes to them - as if is his fault Juno had this godawful idea. Perseus punches him in the shoulder and tells him to stop with the bullshit - they have bigger problems than that.

They meet Heracles - and their best speakers are Piper, Perseus, and Will - the charmspeaker, the Praetor who actually finished high school, and the son of the god of poetry - maybe some flattery would help.

Heracles is a complete ass - no, he is a creep. He leers on Will - who is fifteen and he calls eromenos, yes, like a pedophile - then on Piper - who is utterly unimpressed - but don't try on Perseus - his eyes are as dark as the Pit, and he looks ready to punch Heracles.

They don't mention Hera - because the three are smarter than to mention the woman who turned the god's life miserable - but, after Piper refuses to kiss him, he gives him the mission to get the horn of Achelous anyway.

The Achelous is suitably afraid of Perseus - and it's easier to break his horn. They fight against the god - Will punches the guy in the face, while Perseus has no qualms about swarming him with skeletons and melting his armor.

Jason - who is keeping a keen eye on them from the deck - raises a wave for them to go onboard. Will - dripping and utterly mad - starts throwing curses at Heracles - he shines with the power of his father.

Percy is trembling - he hates water, he hates the feeling of drowning, he hates water in his face. He feels weak.

Hercules throws stones at the ship - but fail to hit anything, even if he almost gets Jason - who is pushed to the ground by Perseus, who grounded himself on the blonde.

For now, they have a cornucopia and managed to pass Heracles - so they just hug and laugh breathlessly at Will's increasingly ridiculous curses.

In the midnight patrol, while keeping watch for Stymphalian birds (Perseus hates those), they talk. Perseus tells him about drowning in his own element, about his distaste for both air and water - explains why he never gets close to the margins of the ship.

"Y'know, I dreamed of you" Percy nods, but Jason shakes his head "Not for a week or two, but for seven months. I thought it was Juno..."

Percy seems tense as if he is about to flee at any moment. High-strung. He looks anywhere but at Jason, and finally, he murmurs, almost too low for the silence that expands between them.

"How much?" "Everything."

He tells Percy about his dreams: Luke, Ethan, Alabaster, Persephone, Hades, Sally, Annabeth, Clarisse&Connor, the Labyrinth, the Sea of Monsters, Bianca, Nico, Zoe, Thalia, the weight of the sky, the Styx, the last defense of Olympus.

There are a lot of pieces missing - Percy Jackson is not a puzzle, but a giant Rubik Cube with ten sides - but Jason saw the worst parts of Perseus, his friends, the betrayals, the deaths, the bitterness that threatened to swallow him whole.

Percy doesn't answer - he flees. Back to his room, to conciliate that someone has dreamed about him, for months. That someone he is barely friends with knows so many deep details about him, things he never told anyone, and didn't plan to, ever.

It's not the only difficult conversation that night by far - Hazel and Leo are having a similar one.

You see, Leo is, by all means, closer to Jason out of all romans, and the least close to Frank - who is Hazel's best friend. Leo is pretty friendly flirty with Hazel since the Narcissus situation - because she is cute and just a year below him - but he also has been nursing this massive crush on Frank - who is a hunk of a man with the attitude of a puppy.

But seeing that Frank is straight as a board and Hazel only sees him as his grandfather, apparently, he is out of luck in this department - nothing new. At least he has a bunch of friends.

"Are you my friend only because of my grandfather?" "Of course not." Leo doesn't believe her, but he lets it go - it's the fatal flaw of Hephaestus' children: Lack of self-worth.

Perseus sleeps fitfully - and wakes Hazel to tell her about his vision of Otis and Ephialtes, for she is Nico's sister. They go to the deck, and he plays with her hair as they watch the sunrise.

Jason - looking at them from the other side of the ship - suddenly has a bad feeling - there's something coming in their direction. He makes Leo - who is steering this night - stop, but they are rammed and overrun by dolphin warriors.

Chrysaor disarms Jason - and his crew manages to tie everybody up - except for Perseus, who managed to flee into the shadows, and Frank, who hid away.

It's pretty simple from there - Hazel and Piper trash around when Chrysaor says he is taking them to Circe, Jason says their Captain is Dionysus, and Chrysaor says he is a roman, and Bacchus is weak in comparison to his greek form.

To prove Jason's point, Frank turns into a dolphin while Perseus makes vines appear and hold Chrysaor into place. Their enemies throw themselves overboard, including Chrysaor himself - and Jason sinks their ship by filling it with Diet Coke and Pepsi and burning it to Dionysus and Bacchus Liber - both of the serious sides of the god.

Perseus sleeps on the deck under the fickle rays of the midday sun and dreams of Gaea. Jason wakes him. They spend an awkward moment looking at each other before Jason hugs him.

"I'm sorry" "It's not your fault, stop blaming yourself for everything, Water Boy" "Sure, Death Boy"

They laugh - and for a second, they feel their own ages - eighteen and seventeen - without a care in the world. They mock-wrestle before giving up and just laying in the sun.

Perseus looks at Jason and thinks his beauty under the light of the day might be a good reason to tolerate the brightness.

It's Leo - with a knowing smirk - that tells them to come to mess hall - they need to plan.

Annabeth and Malcolm are going together to the Tiber River - but the children of Athena aren't leaving without a proper send-off - so they're having lunch together first, all together.

They pile around two tables in a little restaurant. This time is not Percy that asks for pizza - it's Leo and Will.

They eat and joke - and forget they are demigods in a mission that might bring the end of the world. No, for a second they're just teenagers - Malcolm is the oldest at twenty, and Hazel and Will are the youngest, both fifteen.

The group jokes and fools around, spending more or less an hour at the little restaurant. The old man who manages the place has a warm smile upon his face.

They go to the park close to the river to walk around - they are stalling the time they'll have to go back to their hardships. Annabeth and Perseus walk together, apart from the others - she says she wants to catch up.

Annabeth has a crush on Perseus since they were both fourteen. She studied with him for a year - he as a senior, she as a freshman - and this crush only grew. She looked for him for months, he is her best friend and she loves him.

Annabeth still remembers after the war - when she thought they would get together. They were both too caught up in mourning - Perseus even more than her - even if she always knew he corresponded. But this... this might be her last chance to tell him.

So, she kisses him.

Perseus is shocked. He is shocked, and speechless.

"Annabeth..." He says, but she takes this as iniciative and goes back to kissing him "Annabeth!"

Kisses have to mean something to him. And Percy only feels friendship with Annabeth.

She stops, and there are tears in the corners of her eyes. But Perseus just hugs her and says, slowly and as kindly as possible.

"Annabeth... We can't do this. It's been... it's been months. I-... I love you. But we-... I-... Not that way, Annie, not anymore. We spent months apart, and before that, I was too busy with school, and before that..." He takes a deep breath, and clear her tears with his thumbs "I'm sorry. I don't think I can do this."

Annabeth doesn't cry. She doesn't scream and rage with jealously and ask "Who else? Who else if not me?". She wants to because she knows, she knows he loves her, and Annabeth has never been wrong before.

Because she remembers Aphrodite. Her heart doesn't lay with Percy - her heart lays elsewhere. It still hurts - but she just nods and asks him if they can still be friends, for which he answers an enthusiastic yes.

There's a little voice in her head, that keeps comparing her to Reyna Arellano, Jason Grace, and Nico di Angelo, their powerful heritages and legacies. A sliver of poison in her heart, that shows her Rachel, Calypso, and Piper - their beauties far beyond hers.

Then she takes a deep breath, finds her brother, says goodbye to everyone, and leaves with Rhea Silvia and Tiberinus. Annabeth has a mission.

Annabeth and Malcolm pass by the same challenges - she with a broken ankle and him with a twisted wrist - and both fall again in the hands of Arachne.

While the children of Athena fight their way through the underground, Perseus, Hazel, Frank, and Leo embark on a mission after Nico di Angelo, and the rest of the demigods go back to the ship.

Hazel - who is almost sentient to Perseus moods at this point - takes one look at Annabeth's rushed departure and Percy's wistful face, and, when their group takes off, takes the demigod aside, leaving Leo and Frank to walk side by side.

"I'm telling you, Hazel, because you won't tell anyone else - and I don't have anyone else as close as you on board. I would've said yes, perhaps, had she asked this question before... before everything. Had she told me this when I was fourteen or fifteen, I would be overjoyed. But it has been two and a half harrowing years since... since Luke. And I cannot love her - there's too much history."

He tells Hazel what she cannot remember from what Perseus told her in the Fields of Asphodel, and she nods and calms him - she became a kind of his little sister in the short four months that they have known each other alive - and the year and a half they knew each other dead. Closer than most, aside, perhaps, from Rachel (who he still managed to talk to once after this mission started), his mom, Calypso (who he still hasn't be able to contact) and Persephone.

Leo and Frank are behind them - far behind them, so to not accidentally eavesdrop in their conversation. They talk - a little stilted - but it quickly picks rhythm, as Leo is such a charming person - and Frank is a weak, weak man.

You see, while Leo pines from afar for both Hazel and Frank, Frank himself is dealing with the fact that, since leaving Nova Roma, those improper feelings towards inappropriate people resurfaced - now, together with something even worse.

Frank doesn't want just men anymore, like the clear aberration that he is. He wants a boy and a girl - and at the same time, at that! Not only improper - for he is two years older than Hazel and Leo is a boy - but they are clearly infatuated with each other.

And Frank doesn't really think he could be happy with one of them - he wants both, together. Selfish, something in the back of his mind says, so selfish. Let them be happy, they don't need you.

So he hoards this little conversation with Leo in his chest, like a precious treasure he won't ever get the chance to hold again.

Perseus and Hazel eventually go to the underground - while Frank and Leo still talk - about life, about their mothers, even about Frank's stick. Leo wants to hold the boy and never let go.

The Eidolons appear, forcing Leo and Frank down the hole, where they meet back up with Hazel and Perseus. They find a workshop - full of stuff that makes Leo salivate.

While exploring the workshop, the Eidolons take control of the automatons, quickly knocking out Hazel and Frank. Perseus is able to banish them - but by now, the automatons are out of control - it's the Bianca situation all over again.

He and Leo escape into a control room and lock it. Leo finds a control sphere for everything in the shop but they're unable to find the right password. Leo uses the fortune cookie Nemesis gave him to ask for the password, allowing him to take control of the machines and deactivate them forever. Perseus seethes inside - the little manipulative bitch.

When Perseus questions why his efforts with Hazel lead them to this workshop, they find Nico's Celestial Bronze and realize it was a trap.

Gaea appears in a mirror and taunts them, but Leo burns the mirror - "I thought Mother Nature was supposed to be cool but this is what we got? Sheesh, this is almost Aztec-levels of crazy man" - and they leave to go search for Nico.

75 notes · View notes

thechosenburrito · 3 years

Text

Intro to Love: 1.1-Free on Sunday

Word Count: 1,555

Summary:

Xochi gets partnered up with some guy named Carson for a project only to be reminded that she has no social life.

Author’s Note:

This is my first original writing! I’ve been wanting to write fiction geared towards actual young adults, 18-25, since I grew up on stuff like Percy Jackson and Harry Potter. Unfortunately, I’m not 12 anymore so I need something geared towards an older audience. Hope you enjoy!

When you hate going to class as much as I do, you learn to turn off alarms in your sleep. Once you figure that out, it's all downhill and you'll always be late to morning classes. You'll end up like me: throwing on a hoodie over your pajamas and running to class in flip flops.

Being late to my morning class wasn't that big of a deal. It was an intro-level psychology lecture. A "gimme" class compared to my others. Plus, the class was so big that no one would notice if I came late or even showed up at all. Except for Fridays. Fridays were quiz days and if you weren't in class in the first 10 minutes, you didn't get a quiz AND you got a 0. No makeups. No dropped quizzes. I was running full sprint across campus and with no breakfast in me, the only thing keeping me going was the sheer fear of dropping a letter grade because of one quiz.

I made it to the building where my lecture hall was and threw the doors open. This was a mistake because they were way lighter than anticipated and I ended up scaring the shit out of myself and anyone who was responsible and wanted to spend their morning studying in the common area. Their piercing glares and furrowed brows were completely warranted. I felt my face flush red, but I'd have to be embarrassed later because the clock on the wall read 9:07. The elevator doors closed right when I looked at them. If only I had telekinesis powers. I booked it for stairs and after about 10 stairs I remembered that I forgot to take my asthma medication the night before. Not exactly a great technique.

This time, I didn't throw the doors open. A TA walked up to me and handed me a copy of the quiz.

"Just in time," she whispered with a raised eyebrow.

I was not even remotely prepared to speak to a human being this morning. I managed half a chuckle and muttered something along the lines of "Yeah, I know.".

I quickly looked around the back of the lecture hall for an empty seat, realizing that the only empty seats were at the front of the class. Because today couldn't get any better, the sound of the door was so loud I should've just thrown them open, to begin with. The whole lecture hall turned to look at me. The professor even paused to glance my way. My brain chose this time specifically to reflect on my current outfit choice.

My navy blue hoodie didn't exactly gel with my orange and black jack-o-lantern pants. And the flip-flops didn't exactly help my cause. I knew for a fact that I didn't brush my hair while I was running out of my dorm, which meant I probably looked like I lived in that elementary school lost-and-found bin with my wild black hair sticking out all over the place. Not to mention I was also red and sweaty from running here. I had only one thing on my mind as I made my way to the front row in my surprisingly loud flip-flops: "I need to get my life together.".

I sat down in the front row and quickly started my quiz, doing my best to avoid eye contact with either of the people next to me. It was easy enough and I finished fairly quickly. I started to pack away my things, but then accidentally made direct eye contact with my professor standing 10 feet away. I sighed a little. I couldn't leave early without prolonged awkward eye contact with my professor which was too much for me at the time. I sat back in my seat. 'Ok,' I thought to myself. 'This lecture end in 25 minutes. It should be fine".

I was definitely not fine. Sleeping 3 hours a night does not necessarily lend itself to early morning lectures. I started nodding off, snapping myself awake when my head hit the back of my chair. I imagined that this is what it was like to fight off a demonic possession. I definitely would have been taken over by the demon because I completely fell asleep.

I jolted awake with pain in my arm.

"Ow!" I said a little too loud.

The professor was looking right at me. Shit. I slept through the question. I racked my brain for something I could say that wouldn't make me look like a complete idiot in front of everyone.

"Um.. is it.." I felt a gentle nudge.

I looked over and the guy next to me gestured to his notes. The word "hippocampus" was written and circled at the bottom.

"...the hippocampus?" I wondered aloud.

My professor raised an eyebrow, "Yes".

I sighed and slumped back into my chair. I scribbled a note on my paper, 'Thanks, man. You saved my life.', and nudged him on the arm. He looked over, saw the note on my paper, and nodded.

"Alright before I let you go, I'll go ahead and assign partners for the Trust project," she announced, taking out a clipboard. "If you're in an odd-numbered seat, your partner will be the person to your left, or one number up from yours. Once you find your partner, check with me or a TA so we can get your names!"

God, why can't professors make things simple? I shouldn't have to do math to figure out who my partner is. I stood up to check my seat number, 17, and to the left was-

"Hey, looks like we're partners," He stood up and started grabbing his bag. "I'm Carson."

I finally got a good look at him once we were both standing. When we were sitting, I couldn't tell that he was 6 inches taller than me. It felt awkward having to look up to talk to him. He was wearing a red flannel over a black t-shirt and jeans. It was exactly something I would wear at any other point in time. His thin frame made me extra aware of my potential food-baby. His face did seem familiar. Maybe I'd seen him around campus? I wasn't sure. There were so many guys like him, I probably could've seen any one of his 'clones'.

I managed an awkward smile.

"I'm Xochi. Nice to meet you!"

I did my best to give a firm handshake. He definitely had a stronger grip than I anticipated, but 7 years of violin gave me strong hands.

We made our way to one of the TAs. Carson turned to me.

"I'm gonna be real, I have no idea what this project is about. Do you?" he whispered.

I sighed and felt a little part of me die. That statement alone meant that I would probably be doing this whole project myself. I figured I didn't get the sharpest knife in the Cesar.

"Uh... when's it due?"

He checked his phone, "Email says it's due on Friday. Same as Exam 1."

"Then I'll care on Thursday," I said dryly, already taking to account how much I was going to procrastinate.

I was being dead serious but I managed a laugh out of him. His smile was surprisingly infectious and I felt a little smile bloom. I quickly turned away.

I gave our names to the TA at the exit.

"Carson..uh.."

"Williams"

"Williams. And Xochitl Jimenez. It's X-O-C-H-I-T-L."

The TA nodded and Carson and I made our way down to the lobby.

"I thought your name was So-chee. You spell it with an X?" he asked curiously.

I grinned so he wouldn't know it wasn't the first time I heard this.

"Yeah... It's traditional. It means flower.", I replied with a half chuckle.

"Huh. That's pretty cool. Mine just means my dad's a car.", he smirked.

I couldn't hold back my laugh.

"Ok, you got me with that one!"

Caron smiled and pulled out his phone to check his calendar, "We probably shouldn't leave all the work to Thursday 'though, just to make our lives easier. I can't work on it today 'cause I have Tennis practice, or tomorrow because I have a tournament. Sunday works 'though! I'm free at noon, but at 6 I'm grabbing dinner with my friend. Does that work for you?"

"Let me check," I said in vain as I pulled out my phone, feeling a little pang in my heart.

I looked at my calendar and pretended to look through it intensely. My personal calendar was empty. No plans, no meetings, no activities. He seemed so lucky to have all that going on. Friends, a hobby, people to talk to. I could go days, sometimes, without speaking a single word until my parent's eventually called to check on me. I used to have lots of friends in High School. I'd known them so long, I didn't bother to make any new ones, and going to college left me all on my own. I couldn't even bring my instrument with me. Being a musician was my whole life and stopping cold turkey hasn't been doing my brain any favors. No new friends, no hobbies, no one. I really had nothing going on.

I gave a strained smile.

"Yeah. I think I'll be free then."

Next Chapter: 1.2-Clinic Crashers

A/N:

It has been so much writing this! The rest of the chapters I’ve already written will be posted soon! Chapter 2.3 Will hopefully be out tomorrow or at least some time this weekend!

#orignal writing #fiction

2 notes · View notes

yukippe · 4 years

Text

soft as she is

for @pjofemslashweek day 1: firsts (first heartbreak, first love, first kiss) | read on ao3 | word count: 7.4k

chapter one

the war is coming. that’s the whisper coming from everyone’s mouth. drew hears it in every one of her siblings' sighs, she hears it at all the tables at meals, she sees in it chiron’s always tired face.

years ago, before the fall of the labyrinth or the revival of thalia grace or even the claiming of percy jackson - drew used to use charmspeak for fun. she’d convince her friends to go on the tallest roller coaster with her, or get her dad to take her shopping, or get off scot free when prank calling someone. when she tried to convince the world to get her a visit with her mother her voice ran dry. aphrodite didn’t even bother to visit her dreams and her charmspeak didn’t work for months. drew doesn’t use charmspeak much anymore, no matter what others say.

silena’s had her practicing everyday. silena is the only sibling older than drew in camp. and silena wants them to fight in the war. when drew and silena were the youngest in cabin 10 they’d stuck together, though now drew can’t remember what it was like to know all of her sister’s secrets. but, silena had whispered that her charmspeak could be more when they were little. now, silena is doing her best to make it so.

silena believes they can win the war that ends on percy jackson’s birthday. drew doesn’t have her faith, but she can fight by her sister if that’s what silena needs. she thinks of charles beckendorf and how silena refuses to hear anything on breaking up with him - and drew thinks of katie gardner in cabin four who never remembers to touch up her chipping nail polish. if drew’s only big sister left can have the type of love that lasts - maybe drew can too. the war is coming. drew doesn’t have much time left to take a chance.

halfway through june, right after katie comes back to camp, drew decides to completely innocently take up hours at the strawberry farm. she tells silena she’s testing out how charmspeak works on plants (surprisingly well) and she tells her friends she’s testing out a strawberry aesthetic (it turns out so well she ends up making earrings and ordering a new flavour lip gloss). drew doesn’t need to do much, it’s not like anyone would ever guess why she’s there.

nobody knows she likes girls, besides silena, and silena would never guess she likes katie. because katie’s good. katie doesn’t turn down quests, or work and she always reports travis and connor stoll to chiron when they’re about to pull a prank. she runs her cabin with her half sister miranda and drew’s never heard anything honestly bad about her, except for maybe the stupid jokes the stoll brothers say. if everyone knew she liked girls they would expect her to like someone like herself, drew thinks. someone obviously pretty and not covered in dirt who never wears makeup and doesn’t bother to alter the camp t shirt.

but katie’s katie. katie’s one of the campers that’s been around forever. she’s been at camp one summer longer than drew, when katie was ten and drew was nine, katie showed her around camp while they both waited to be claimed.

katie and drew came early. they weren’t the youngest, that was annabeth who had years on them both. katie was a summer only camper, but drew’s dad had told her she had to stay at camp until high school when he dropped her off that summer. he’d known her mother was a goddess - the story he’d always told was that he prayed for a muse and he got something even better. he didn’t know which one though.

so drew tanaka was left crying in the big house in camp full of kids too big with no clue who her mom was and her dad off to get back to his world of models and galleries and trips to europe. chiron had left her with a box of tissues, but he’d been busy trying to keep some children of the war god from starting a fight, like that was something normal around camp. drew just wanted to go back to her room with her fluffy carpet and her plans with her friends and her dad who normally listened to what she wanted when she phrased it the right way. she couldn’t get the words to take the right sugary taste and the perfect soft roundness they had when people listened. no one ever seemed to listen without it. but it took so much work to get them to sound perfect and drew was tired of it.

and then katie gardner passed by with a potted cactus in her arms. she’d only had a summer and a year on drew, but she’d put down the pot at the bottom of the steps and walked up to wear drew was sitting on the porch swing and sat next to her.

“i’m katie gardner,” she offered. “this is my second summer and. well i guess i kinda know how you feel. i cried a bunch last summer, but this place is nice. there are people like us here.”

drew had wiped her tears away and crossed her arms and looked katie up and down. “i’m drew. what’s your mom in charge of?”

“i don’t know, i haven’t been claimed yet,” katie said. her face got a little screwy at that and drew didn’t want to have to try and comfort another girl when she was already upset so she stuck her hand out to shake katie’s.

“your mom’s stupid then,” drew said. katie smiled softly and teary at that and drew didn’t mention it.

“so,” drew said, still holding katie’s hand because it felt right. “what is there to do around here?”

katie’s smile grew a little bigger and she stood up, pulling drew with her by their still linked hands, “the strawberry fields are my favourite spot, but the arts and crafts centre is also nice. we could make friendship bracelets there, if you’d like?”

“sure,” drew said, trying not to sound too eager. “i um. i’d like that a lot. Thanks.”

the rest of the first summer was a haze of flower crowns katie made for them and sneaking to the waterfall without luke noticing and drew painting katie’s nails in the bottom bunk they shared - all the other bunks full - and katie and drew lying lazily on the beach and trading flavoured chapstick and hoarding the smelly markers during arts and crafts. it ended with drew and katie both being claimed after they helped the cabin win capture the flag. then katie left to go home and when she came back the next summer they were in different cabins.

different cabins mean more when you’re eleven and ten. at sixteen and fifteen they don’t mean much at all. drew’s closest with her half siblings, but she’s friends with malcolm from athena and sits at the campfire with lou ellen and butch who’re claimed but both still stuck in eleven with no place else to go. She still isn’t friends with katie from though, what she wants is more.

there’s war coming. drew can want more as long as she lives, but she only has two months guaranteed left. she does her hours in the field at the same time as katie and she does a free block in the stables when katie does, even though she’s never liked the pegasi much, and she just so happens to make it to the scarce few parties in the woods (far fewer than any other year, there are less campers to go and less energy to bring to them) that she knows katie is going to.

and then, finally, she gets a chance. the stolls get called away with percy jackson on one of the little skirmishes that are popping up too often for anyone's comfort and that leaves the camp store unmanned for a day. they signed katie up to do it for them without asking and she’s angrily packaging berries in baskets when drew goes for it. she’s closing the baskets wrong - though she’s normally perfect at it - so drew plucks the basket she’s holding out of her hands and closes it properly, her perfectly manicured nails clicking the lid into place, before reaching out to pause katie’s trembling hands.

katie’s endlessly pretty when she’s mad. drew understands why travis always tries to mess with her, as she has katie’s eyes on her. “hey,” she says. the word comes out round and pink and drew’s heart races - her charmspeak isn’t what she needs now so she pushes it down her throat. “i heard the stolls stuck you with their camp store shifts, do you want a hand?”

she hasn’t been this nervous since she was nine and had katie’s arms around her while they watched the end of summer fireworks. drew’s never liked to look vulnerable so she hasn’t let herself be since before she lived in cabin ten with half siblings she could never quite trust.

the look in katie’s eyes shifts and the tenseness that was taught in her skin relaxes and she smiles, “sure, drew. i’m in tomorrow at two pm - don’t be late.” the last bit comes out a little teasing and drew smirks back.

“i’d never dare be late to meet you, i’ll see you then,” she winks, carefully, and then she slips past and around katie, her heart still racing but her face carefully composed, as she heads to her cabin. she sneaks a look back over her shoulder to see katie watching her go and she turns back quickly to hide her blush. tomorrow at two pm. she won’t be late.

instead, she’s early. silena had asked her where she was going and lacy and val had watched her get ready from one of the top bunks, but she hadn’t let anyone slow her down. she’d fussed earlier in the morning but she didn’t let any of it show as she left her cabin to meet katie. lou ellen had the shift before katie and she rose an eyebrow at drew as drew took her place, but she didn’t say anything. that’s why drew liked lou ellen so much, she’d wait to bother drew later.

katie arrives at two pm on the dot and giggles when she sees drew is early. “i knew you wouldn’t be late, but i didn’t think you’d beat me here.”

“i didn’t want to miss any time with you,” drew says with a shrug. the words themselves are soft, but she makes sure she says them with an edge. she’s taking a chance, but she isn’t ready to soften all her sharp bits yet.

katie wanders through the aisles, still giggling. “okay, sure drew. i’m just gonna make sure everything’s stocked up in the aisles and then we can just hang out.”

drew nods when katie looks to check for her reaction, and doesn’t let it show that it maybe kinda hurts that katie doesn’t believe her. katie doesn’t have any reason to think she was being honest - drew’s always had a bite to her and if katie likes her back like drew thinks she might, then hopefully they’ll have time to learn when the other is telling the truth in the time they have left. drew tidies up the till in the meantime. she’s never liked things messy, beauty and love can be messy all they like but the aphrodite cabin has always gotten perfect on cabin inspections for a reason.

finally, katie walks back around to where drew is. katie hops onto the counter and grins down at her and drew finds herself playing with her bangles. “so,” katie says, her legs swinging on the other side of the counter. “what made you want to join me here today? i know you don’t typically take shifts here.”

yesterday when drew got back to cabin ten after talking to katie in the strawberry fields silena had been talking about how she and beckendorf got together. silena’s told drew the story multiple times, but it’s a nice story. it’s a good love story.

“okay, okay, shut up everyone!” silena says, half laughing in her bunk, pillow clutched to her chest. the cabin all quiets down. every single one of drew’s half siblings know to pay attention to a love story.

“okay,” silena says again, catching her breath. “i’d maybe kinda saved charlie from giant ants-” at this, drew and all of her siblings shriek, they can’t help it, it’s family pride.

“omg shut up!!” silena says, sitting up. “do you want to hear the story or not?”

“oh you know you love it, just keep going!” mitch calls from the bunk under silena’s. silena throws her pillow at his face and he laughs, but silena finally gets back to it.

“okay! okay, so everyone had known he had this massive crush on me for years and i thought it was kinda cute i guess - but he didn’t do anything about it! and you can like a guy forever, but if he never does anything nothing’s gonna happen. it was capture the flag and we were running out of summers together so i was maybe flirting-” wolf whistles interrupt her, but silena shushes them all. “anyways! it was capture the flag and annabeth and i captured percy - but then he pointed out that charlie had been kidnapped by the myrmekes and i was so scared - though don’t tell anyone i was scared! - but i got it together and the three of us not only put together the giant bronze dragon in the woods we also freed charlie from the ant hill he almost died in and then! we destroyed charlie and percy.”

“um,” lacy says. “what about him asking you out?”

“oh yeah,” silena looks at her nails. “hm.” drew throws her pillow at silena and silena laughs. “okay! okay, so we got back from saving charlie and charlie had just jumped on the dragon to turn it off and it was like. super brave and very hot, you know? anyways after turning off a dragon i guess he figured out how to be brave enough to ask me out so he asked me to the fireworks - and i said yes thank you very much! i told him i’d been waiting for him to ask me the whooole time-”

“get it!!” cam calls.

silena laughs, “yeah so i tell him that, and then i kiss his cheek - just his cheek we hadn’t even gone on a date yet! but i kiss his cheek and charlie reaches for my hand, and after i kicked his ass in capture the flag we snuck out that night to go stargazing and - no more yelling okay it’s late!! and we made out by the waterfall - no yelling i said - but the best part wasn’t even that. it was when he lead me to the waterfall and told me he didn’t know how long we were going to have together but he wanted every minute with me, because he said i was worth every minute and he wanted as long as possible to learn what love was with me. and well, now we know!”

drew’s siblings shriek and laugh at that, even though it’s late and silena just told them not too. drew lets herself relax back into her bunk after she steals silena’s pillow from mitch - they always end up trading pillows like this at night when they tell love stories - and she thinks of tomorrow. she’s never had the love silena has. And yeah, silena should’ve dumped beckendorf and broken his heart like they were taught by their long gone older siblings. but, if silena can get happy ever after with her first love… drew can’t see why the same can’t be true for her. she doesn’t have much time left, so she wants as much of it as she can get.

“katie,” drew starts. her voice is shaking so she pinches her wrist and starts again, katie’s listening with a smile, it’s just as soft as the day drew met her. “katie i like spending time with you. that’s why i’ve been hanging around the strawberry fields recently, too.”

“i like spending time with you too, drew.” katie says. katie reaches out and places a hand on drew’s wrist. drew’s eyes watch as katie’s chipped green nail polish glimmers against her bangles. katie’s fingers separate the bracelets one bye one and drew’s breath catches.

drew breathes, slowly, “katie. katie i should tell you something.”

katie looks up into drew’s eyes, face warm and drew screws up her courage and okay this is the most nervous she’s ever been. yesterday isn’t even close. “katie i like you. you’re cute and you’re sweet, and i think we could be something special.”

drew bites at her strawberry flavoured lip and titls her head at katie. she’s - hopeful. and then katie looks away. katie’s legs have stopped swinging, coming to a standstill that drew has never seen katie ever have. and then katie pulls her hand away from drew’s wrist and drew wants to cry.

“drew i. drew i’m sorry but, i just.” katie looks back at drew and drew knows katie’s sorry but it doesn’t help. Katie keeps talking, but the words wash over her and she shifts her dumb hopeful smile into a smirk. that’s stronger. she nods at the right things and waves it off.

“don’t worry about it,” drew says and she lets her voice turn sugary with charm. “it’s chill katie. anyways, i’m gonna go. byeee.” and then she walks around the counter and as she leaves she doesn’t look back.

the war is coming. it makes sense. to her it meant a last chance, to katie it means there’s no point in worrying about love. (to say that to a daughter of the love goddess - drew knows that that, at least, katie didn’t realize)

it’s drew’s first heartbreak. seeing silena after beckendorf is her second. her third is when she sees her sister's face, melted and scarred and unrecognizable and - still painfully beautiful. the fourth is when she finds the charm around silena’s wrist as she burns her shroud and learns silena was a traitor. the war comes and goes and drew’s heart broke and broke and broke and she learns her stupid lesson.

after that, drew closes the door to her heart and she closes it on her siblings as well. silena didn’t want to break beckendorf’s heart, but she was a traitor. she would’ve traded cabin ten for kronos’s army - even if it wasn’t where she was in the end at some point she would’ve. drew turns the cabin sharp. she doesn’t think about first loves and she doesn’t think about telling her siblings the shape her love takes - instead she spends her rite of passage with a boy from nike who made fun of her when they were younger and she smiles when she breaks his heart. she doesn’t think about katie gardner.

(no, thats a lie. she thinks about katie gardner way too much. she’s different, everyone is, and even as drew lets herself harden she can’t help but watch as katie kisses travis at the fireworks. katie gardner breaks her heart again when she kisses travis and drew looks away and turns to malcolm to make fun of one of the new hermes kids.)

chapter two

the war is over. drew barely believes it. the first war made drew close her heart. it and everything it caused made drew meaner than she thought she could be. the war is over. But it doesn’t feel any different. when piper mclean swings into camp and goes on that dumb quest drew bites her lip and she sharpens her words even more than before and she’s just so fucking angry all of the time and the war is over but another one is right there and-

(she spotted katie and travis kissing at the campfire jason was claimed at but she just made a mess of herself and she’s so fucking tired of that. she’s so tired of not being right)

piper mclean comes back from her quest and everyone knows there’s a second war on it’s way. the first war is something drew tries to forget. she lost friends to it. she lost her family. The war is over. their lives were supposed to reach some level of normal. the fates don’t seem to give a shit, they seem to want everyone to live through it again. the first war was a nightmare but it’s over. drew wants anything but another war. except - the second war is giving her another sister. piper is the first new aphrodite camper that wasn’t already in camp since before the titan war.

piper takes the cabin counsellor role and drew lets her have it. the war is over. does that matter when there’s another one? but - the second war isn’t like the first. the titan war was her siblings crowding in their cabin together, holding onto everyone and hoping they wouldn’t lose anyone. it was learning her big sister was a traitor the entire time. it was. it was full of death. the second war isn’t free from loss, but instead of taking everything it gives them a sister camp. drew does her hours in the combat arena for the first time ever and she lets her new half brother michael teach her how to use a sword and she only puts up a little fight. at camp jupiter they live together into old age. the only demigods drew knows that lived to old age have dispersed through the world, available to call once or twice, but drew will never get a city with them. stupid annabeth chase wants a city, drew can see it, but it will be for the campers now. not the ones who left because there was no other life for them. the war is over. drew doesn’t know what that means.

for piper mclean little ms movie star, it means her best friend is dead. piper needs her to soften her words and drew does. she tells lacy to start sharing love stories at night when piper starts shaking and drew remembers what it’s like to spend her nights laughing with her half siblings again. the war is over. drew stops waiting to see what it means and decides that herself. she does butch’s toes in the rainbow pattern he likes and runs jewellrey making sessions in the arts and crafts center and she even participates in capture the flag for the first time since before the last war. she doesn’t open her heart up but she relearns her mother's domain. and she practices her charmspeak because piper might be her sister and she might be hurting, but drew’s not going to make everything easy for her. it’s not worth it if it is.

the last few weeks of summer are spent like that. drew enters junior year and ignored bratty sadie kane who thinks she’s special now that she’s a sophomore. she takes the lead in all the drama productions that are school wide and even bothers to help lacy learn how the lights work when she signs up so she can hang out with sadie. It’s...fun. the war is over. drew is still learning what it means to know she’s going to survive.

drew’s a daughter of aphrodite, but more importantly she’s the oldest camper and the longest serving camper in cabin ten. she’s seen her half siblings leave camp and never come home. she knows where they went, though, when they left the strawberry fields and canoe lake in the dust.

“where are you going?” drew asks. she’s twelve and her head counsellor is leaving with no plans to come back. arabella sighs as she packs her bags and turns back to look at drew, slumping onto her bunk as she meets drew’s eyes.

“drew, baby, i’m too old for camp now,” she says it sweetly, not quite the way drew’s charmspeak sounds, but close. “i’m gonna be a star, drew. another one of our siblings got me a spot on a new show and i’m gonna be on it. remember camilla, the head counsellor from last year? she’s in europe now doing fashion shows. mom might not visit us, but she did give us something special. when we have the drive we can be the biggest stars in the sky.”

drew nods, carefully, and then she holds out her little address book she bought from the camp store. if arabella is going to be a star, drew is going to have her contact information. she tells arabella that and her sister laughs and fills in her information with no hesitation. “drew, i’ll do you one better. i’ll give you all of the contacts of our siblings that i have too. when you’re ready for the spotlight reach out to any of us and we’ll get you what you need.”

the smile on arabella’s face grows as she signs the bottom with a signature that is clearly well practiced and fitting for a star. drew takes the book back and holds it close to her chest. over the next few years as siblings leave, drew carefully writes down their information. later, she adds it to her laptop and phone and backs them up as many times as she can think.

she has siblings on magazine covers, broadway stages, oscar winning movie posters. and drew has their numbers programmed on her phone. drew never knew what her calling was, now she thinks she has an idea. before she boards the bus to go back home with lacy she calls up arabella and she promises her an agent when she gets back from camp. the war is over. she can set her roots down anywhere and….she can leave camp without being a traitor.

when she and lacy get in a shoving match as they walk past thalia’s tree drew doesn’t dig her nails in to lacy’s arm to get her to stop. instead, drew pops a stick of bubblegum into her mouth and offers one to lacy. this could be her last summer at camp. part of her wants her siblings to ask her for her contact information before she leaves like she did for all of the cabin ten campers before her that made it out alive. lacy takes it, examines it carefully, and shoves it in her mouth.

then, drew pauses. “wait a minute. hon, didn’t you have braces?”

lacy nods, and then she curls her lips up as she smirks at drew, displaying perfectly aligned brace free teeth. “i got them off three weeks ago!”

“hm,” drew says. “they look half decent. fix the pigtails and i’ll maybe let you borrow something from my closet.” she keeps walking as she says that, chewing her gum. it’s strange looking at camp and not recognizing most of the faces. new campers arrive every summer and fewer leave. she turns to ask lacy if she knows who the group clustered around the big house porch are -

lacy is still back where she was when drew gave her the gum. drew raises an eyebrow and lacy stumbles forward, looking a little lost. drew grabs her arm and steers her towards cabin ten. lacy snaps out of her haze after a bit and manages to get into the cabin by herself. drew rolls her eyes and claims her bunk. she finds a few papers waiting on the table the typically stick shared accessories on and picks it up. It’s a bunch of head counsellor information and drew skips over most of it up to - assignments for older campers. drew still has to do some activities with her cabin but she’s outgrown some of the others, in the space where she used to have monster 101 and ancient greek and the like, she now has hours supervising and running events at the arts and crafts centre and - drew drops the papers and turns back to her bunk.

she’s almost completely settled in when piper walks in, leading a new boy with valentina and mitch. the four of them claim their bunks, there’s only one bunk left. drew’s eyes stay on the bunk. cam’s bags are left unpacked on their bed, lacy is in the bathroom, the new boy is being shown the ropes by val and piper, mitch is a year rounder...sometimes bunks are empty.

the war is over. silena’s bunk is still empty. drew closes her eyes.

“drew?” there’s a new girl sitting on the top bunk by the closet. drew memorized every single one of her siblings' names and faces at the end of last summer after her claiming before they all went back home for school, so she knows this girl is new. she’s wearing a headscarf with a pretty flower pattern and her eyes are a glittery pink. and she looks like she’s the same age as drew. there hadn’t been any summer campers her age last year in cabin ten.

“yeah,” drew says. she doesn’t say anything else. the new girl doesn’t seem to mind.

“i’m silena beauregard,” she says smiling. “we’re sisters i guess. it’s nice to meet you, i don’t have any siblings outside of camp.”

drew eyes her carefully. and then she walks over to silena’s bunk and climbs up the ladder. she reaches out and shakes silena’s hands and carefully examines silena’s nail polish, now that she’s up close. “me neither,” drew says. “i like your nail polish.”

silena’s smile gets even bigger and her back straightens up, “i brought it with me! can i do your nails?”

drew shrugs, but she’s smiling too, “sure.”

drew walks over to silena’s bunk and lifts her hand to brush against the wooden rail that kept silena from rolling off onto the ground for years.

“drew!” piper’s voice calls. drew turns over to see piper holding the papers up. all of drew’s siblings are back at the cabin now drew drops her hand from the rail. “you have most of your shifts in the arts and crafts centre, but you also have a few in the strawberry fields. cool? cool. okay mitch you’re-”

“strawberry fields?” lacy asks, popping her head out of the bathroom to eye drew carefully. “piper are you sure about that one? drew doesn’t work in the strawberry fields.”

cam coughs awkwardly, “she did. once. with katie gardner.”

“uh,” piper says. “okay, well it says here you have your first shift with katie so i guess it’ll be fine. it’s thursday at two by the way, so you have a few days to fight chiron or whoever on it. um, anyways, mitch you’re on lifeguard duty during canoe lessons - that’s pretty cool mitch, i didn’t know you were a lifeguard.”

her first shift is with katie gardner. she knew that already of course. she had just hoped she read it wrong. drew decides to ignore it until it’s thursday.

on tuesday, her friends decided to crash her arts and crafts lesson. she has the nike and nemesis cabins so it’s really just turned into a race. drew maybe made it worse when she said whoever had the best earrings would win a prize. drew hasn’t decided what the prize is yet. butch starts making a pair next to her while lou ellen sabotages the kids she thinks are doing too well. malcolm asks her how she’s doing.

“i’m fine,” drew says. “i’m scheduled for the strawberry fields with katie gardner on thursday.”

malcolm hums at that, “you know, when i was trying to get connor to ask me out last week - shh i know he’s in love with your brother shut up - anyways he told me his brother and katie are over.”

drew doesn’t say anything to that. she just reaches over and straightens the wire on butch’s earrings he grins at her and bumps into her shoulder and she shoves him back into his seat. it’s been a while since her sister was the only one who knew she liked girls.

“anyways,” malcolm says. “is your brother going to ask connor out or not? connor’s so mopey over travis being gone, mitch will have to make the first move.”

drew rolls her eyes, “i don’t pay attention to my siblings love lives. anyways, i’m thinking about not coming back next summer.”

butch blinks at her, “what?” then he throws a piece of clay at lou ellen to get her to pay attention. “lou ellen, drew says she’s not coming back next summer.”

lou ellen mirrors butch’s blink. “drew, what the fuck?”

“well,” drew says, playing with the clay in front of her as she avoids her friends eyes. “one of my older siblings is getting me an agent, but she told me they film mostly during the summer. and it would be my last summer anyways.”

“an agent?” lou ellen says, her voice quieter. “that’s a big deal.”

“i know,” drew says. malcolm looks like he’s about to tell her why an agent is stupid and not coming back to camp is stupid and why she should just listen to the athena kid, when a tiny daughter of nemesis drops a perfectly made pair of clay earrings in the shap of bloody knives in front of drew.

“well,” she says standing up. “we have a winner!” the rest of the kids start shouting, but drew just holds up the earrings and they quiet down. no one really wants to fight with a child of nemesis who won fair and square (more or less, considering lou ellen’s interference) with knife shaped jewelry.

when drew sits back down the kid has her arms crossed and a glint in her eyes, “i want my prize.”

drew shrugs, “what do you want that i can give?”

the kid lights up. “i want an aphrodite makeover.”

“well,” drew says, beaming next to her friends who have started to crack up, “i cant happily arrange that.”

her friends have to filter out after that, but butch catches drew’s arm as he leaves and he looks her in the eye, “we’re still your friends, even if you don’t come back next summer. you know that, right?”

drew rolls her eyes at him, but it’s fond. “yes i know, you’ll get dibs on my autographs and everything.” butch smiles at her as he leaves and he dangles his new earrings in her face as malcolm doubles back to pull him to their next activity.

after that, drew manages to push the thought of her upcoming unavoidable time with katie to the back of her mind.

when the day finally comes, she pulls cam and julian over to her stuff in the closet after they get their hours and she makes them pick between her altered camp shirts for her. there’s the one she ripped the sleeves off of, the one she cropped, the one she made into an off the shoulder, the one she fringed the edges of, and the one she dyed and embroidered a heart onto.

cam sighs at her as she fusses, “what are you trying to do here? drew you know she had that thing with travis for like, ever.” julian elbows cam for that and tells drew to go with the cropped one. drew smiles at him, only mostly fake and then she turns to cam.

“why would i care that katie was making out with travis for the past two summers?” drew asks, her words sugary, her charmspeak slipping out gently.

“because you’re still kinda into her,” cam says. julian elbows cam harder this time. drew blinks at them both and the two of them shrug at her.

“well,” julian says. “cam didn’t have to be a dick, but yeah. we know you used to like her. you wouldn’t spend so much time in a field for anyone.”

“oh,” drew says. drew had thought this whole time that silena was the only one of her siblings who knew she liked girls. julian seems to realize what she’s thinking, because he slings an arm around her shoulder and squeezes as he directs her towards the bathroom so she can do her makeup. cam trails behind them, but is quiet enough so drew doesn’t say anything.

“now i don’t know if you actually want to win her over or whatever, but i do that eyeliner thing for you that i did when i got cecil to ask me out,” julian smiles at her as the two of them stare at the bathroom mirror and drew smiles back, sharper and small, but she smiles back. she’d heard rumours from lou ellen about him and cecil but she’d never asked.

drew looks at the carefully colour coded makeup products displayed in the bathroom year round and picks out her favourite pink pencil, “i don’t know if i want to win her over. but i want her to see me at my best.”

julian squeezes her shoulders and turns her around and does her eyeliner perfectly. when he’s finished cam passes her her strawberry shaped earrings and drew smiles at them both, softer than she normally does when they can see.

and then drew walks over to the strawberry fields for the first time since before the war. her pink eyeliner is perfect and her camp shirt is cropped to wear her high waisted denim shorts reach and her strawberry shaped earrings swing in the air. katie is at the edge of the bushes holding two wicker baskets in her arms. she’s wearing a flower crown in her hair and drew’s breath totally doesn’t catch.

she takes her basket from katie and they start walking through the bushes. they aren’t the only two in the fields, but they seem to be the only demigods. the others are nymphs and satyrs. drew reaches for a malformed strawberry. when she touches it it shimmers lightly, she plucks it and pulls it up to her eye. it’s in the shape of a heart.

drew swallows and puts it in her basket and turns to look at katie. katie’s busy plucking strawberries. drew blinks and turns back to the bushes, she must’ve been seeing things. except, it keeps happening. drew almost confronts katie, and then she realizes that she’s just going to stop getting the heart shaped strawberries if she says anything. it’s probably just their godly inclinations getting confused.

after the eleventh heart shaped strawberry they start to get bigger. when drew picks a heart shaped strawberry the size of her hand she stops brushing it off and she puts down her basket.

“katie gardner, what the fuck is this?”

katie stands up slowly and puts her basket down on the ground. “well,” katie says. “um.”

drew shoves the strawberry at katie and katie plucks it out of drew’s hands, “wait! wait, wait um.”

“are you trying to make fun of me? this isn’t funny katie gardner.” drew’s face is flushed and her fingers have curled into fists. she could put up with spending time with the girl she was halfway in love with once, but she’s not going to put up with her mocking her.

“no!” katie says, and katie’s face is so open and sorry that drew even believes her a bit. drew lets her hands relax by her side and she gestures at katie to keep talking. “well,” katie says. “i heard you were thinking about not coming back next summer.”

drew raises an eyebrow at her, “and?” she doesn’t know where katie’s heard that from, but she’s suspecting some convoluted train of malcolm and lou ellen and cecil and connor.

“okay, um. okay. we’ve. well we’ve known each other forever, since we were little, and at first i thought i was just upset because if you were thinking about leaving it meant our time was running out. and then i started thinking about our time running out and - and i remember what you said back a few months ago before the titan war,” katie takes a deep breath and drew sees she’s fiddling with a bracelet on her wrist. and. drew recognizes it. she has a matching one underneath her bunk pillow from their first summer at camp together that katie and her made for each other. katie clears her throat and continues, “and at the time - at the time i was dumb. i didn’t even know if i liked girls but i thought if i liked any girl i would like you, but i was so worried about the war and one of my little brothers had just gone to the other side and i didn’t want to lose anyone too close. and then i thought you might ask again after the war, but you didn’t.”

“i thought you didn’t like me at all,” drew says, quieter than she means to.

katie laughs a little, but it wavers and drew freezes as she realizes katie has started to cry a bit, “that makes perfect sense. ha. but, i didn’t know because i was dumb. and then travis was being sweet to me all day and he asked to kiss me and i saw yes because i just really wanted to be held. and everything with travis was so good, and i’m not sorry about it really, because i liked him a lot and i don’t regret being with him but. but we broke up when he went to university and i’m going in september, so we both knew it was coming to an end. but, but i never saw you anymore. and i’d missed you so much in the time between the summer when we were little and the months before the war and then you were gone again and. and then i heard you were leaving and i knew i had to do something and i saw you today with your perfect eyeliner and your really cute earrings and-”

katie cuts herself off, blushing and crying a bit and drew reaches out. she’s not used to reaching out and she’s not sure she can be as soft as she needs to be, but she catches one of katies hands and squeezes it. “yeah?” drew asks.

“and. and i saw you in that crop top and i wanted to scream a bit,” katie admits. “i really, really like you drew. and i know you probably don’t like me back, but i had to try-”

“wait,” drew says. “of course i like you back.” because of course she does. katie broke her heart, but drew would rather katie break her heart than let anyone else close to touching it in the same way. katie with her heart shaped strawberry plan and beautiful brown eyes and soft sweet smiles.

“oh,” katie says. “really? because you’re drew tanaka and you’re kinda the most beautiful girl ever. and you were the best friend i used to dream of when i was a kid that summer.”

drew links her fingers with katie’s and steps close, “your nail polish is still chipped.”

“sorry?” katie says, a little confused.

“nothing, ignore that,” drew bites her lip and tastes strawberry. “katie, will you go out with me?”

and then katie smiles the soft smile she’s had since they were little that drew’s been in love with for years and nods, “yeah. i’d like that a lot.”

“cool,” drew says. and she smiles back with the smile she’s only let katie have. katie steps closer to her, and with her free hand she presses her thumb up against drew’s mouth. drew hopes that katie can’t hear her heartbeat race, and then katie meets her eyes right on.

“drew,” katie asks. “can i kiss you?”

drew answers by taking katie’s other hand and leaning in. their lips meet, and drew tries to memorize the softness of katie’s lips against hers.

when they seperate katie giggles, “i always thought your lips would taste like strawberries. guess i was right.”

later, drew and katie will talk about their plans and the schools and programs they’re planning for and they’ll get to know each others friends and each others siblings. katie’s lips will taste like strawberries because she’ll steal drew’s lipgloss and they’ll make out in all the spots they frequented as kids.

now, drew laughs with katie and kisses her again, and again and again until all she can taste is strawberries. the war is long gone, and their future is starting.

#pjofemslashweek2020 #dratie #drew tanaka x katie gardner #drew tanaka #katie gardner #PLEASE read this on ao3 its so fucking long #rey's writering #(this was supposed to be like maybe 2k...)

26 notes · View notes