Percy Jackson

I don't know why, but I didn't expect Annabeth's house to be so big.

Like sure, she lives in a house, which is already massive on its own. I'm from New York— people don't live in houses there. It's just not the norm.

However, her house had multiple stories. 3, I think?

I was in awe when Grover confirmed for the driver that, yes, this was the right place.

"Thank you for the ride," I said to Rachel Elizabeth Dare as we got out of the car. I handed her a little piece of paper that I'd taken from Grover's notebook not long before we got here. "You said you're from New York, right?"

She nodded her head, hesitantly taking the paper.

"I am, too," I said, which has her attention. "I live with my parents in Manhattan— if you ever have any questions or need a place to run away from a monster, just swing by, alright? My mom will probably send you home with a platter of sweets."

Rachel Elizabeth Dare smiled, as confused as she still seemed to be.

"I'll... Keep that in mind." She figured, thinking to herself. "Are you guys sure you don't want me sticking around? Even to just bring you from here to wherever your friends are?"

"You are sweet to offer, Rachel Elizabeth Dare, however I refuse to allow another person to risk their life joining us on this mission." Zoë interjected, which was a fair point. "You have done more than enough getting us from Nevada to California, and we thank both you and your lovely driver. Please, let him rest before you return to Nevada as to not raise suspicion."

"Pfft, I'm not even staying at the same hotel as my parents." Rachel insisted. "It's just me and my driver— my parents wouldn't notice for another day or two. I get what you mean, though. Travel safe, guys! It was a fun ride!"

Waving to the two of them as they drove off, the five of us turned to the Chase house and took a moment.

"Remind me again why we're stopping here?" Phoebe asked.

"To see if Mr. Chase has anything that might help us possibly fight against a Titan," Grover clarified as we approached the door. "Annabeth said he was a history professor, and I believe he specializes in military history, and since he knows who Annabeth's mom is..."

The door swung open, revealing a women that was slightly older than my mom, wearing a black and red pantsuit. Her hair was a dirty blonde, but not natural— some of her dark roots were showing.

She also didn't look very happy.

"Can I help you?" Who I presumed to be Mrs. Chase, the stepmom that Annabeth has yet to leave a positive review for, asked, leaning against the doorway and crossing her arms. "I've never seen any of you before in my life, what are you doing in my front yard?"

"We— apologies, Ms. Chase, I know it's early." Grover spoke because I'm sure he knew it'd be a bad idea to let Thalia or I speak with this woman. "we're friends of Annabeth—"

Mrs. Chase scoffed.

"Andrew doesn't have any friends, but regardless, he's not home. Left like two weeks ago for some family emergency in New York with his mom. So sorry, but I have no idea when he'll get back— the last time he left that suddenly, it took him years to get home."

What if I commit battery before breakfast?

Sensing my thoughts, Grover squeezed my hand.

"We're aware that Annabeth isn't home right now," Grover responded, pointedly using the correct name and pronouns like a decent person. "We were hoping to speak to her father, your husband. Is he home?"

Letting out the biggest, most inconvenient breath in the city of San Francisco, Mrs. Chase looked in to the house and rolled her eyes.

"FREDERICK!" She called for her husband. "I'M LEAVING FOR WORK, THERE ARE GUESTS HERE FOR YOU!"

"Drive safe," Frederick Chase said as he came down the stairs to the entryway, looking a little less ready for work: wearing a pair of black sweatpants and a hoodie from... I'm assuming a college, but I'm dyslexic so I can't tell you what one. "Who is..."

Annabeth's father raised an eyebrow, cautious as he approached the door.

"Here?" He finished his question, holding a cup of coffee in his hand. "Hi. Are you guys friends of Annabeth? If so, she isn't..."

And then the history professor noticed something about my boyfriend— I'm not sure what.

"Are you Grover?" Frederick questioned, a nervous undertone in his voice.

Is Annabeth's dad clear sighted?

"Am I— yes." My boyfriend confirmed for our friends' dad. "my name is Grover Underwood— I'm one of Annabeth's friends and also her protector. Next to me is Percy Jackson, a demigod and friend from camp, and behind us is Thalia Grace, another demigod and basically older sibling to Annabeth."

"O... Kay. Come in, please." Frederick insisted, moving out of the way so we could enter their mansion. "so if you and Percy and Thalia... Is there a reason Luke isn't here? Or is he old enough to be done with camp now? Is Annabeth okay? She said she was going for some sort of emergency or... I mean, she wanted to go for the solstice meeting anyways, but she left early because of an emergency."

"She's going to be okay." Grover promised the man as he led up upstairs to their living room. "She came to help recruit two powerful demigods, and that went well, but after it happened, she was somehow taken. We're not sure how— but we know where she is and the five of us are on the way to rescue her and the goddess Artemis. As for why Luke isn't here..."

"He's been out of camp for a year and a half now," Thalia picked up on the topic of his boyfriend. "When he heard that Annabeth was missing, he has a suspicion that she'd end up where she is, and basically he also managed to get captured. According to the visions Percy's been having, they're both there."

She gave me a speculating look.

"Right?"

I nodded my head.

"Yeah, they're getting held captive by Atlas," I confirmed. "Initially Annnabeth was being forced to hold the weight of the sky, but when Luke arrived he took it for her and she was chained to the ground. Not like— it's her hands and ankles, so she's been able to sit up and lay down I believe. Artemis is in the same thing, but her chains seem to be a little different—I'm not sure how. She's alive, though. All three are."

Frederick let out a sigh of relief.

"Oh, thank the gods," the history professor said, his body relaxing slightly. "I just... I worry about her when she's gone, even moreso now that she's slowly starting to transition and there's so many people out there so have so much hate and so is that and demigod stuff so I'm... Glad to hear that she's okay, all things considered. Do you think like... Would it be a good idea if I scheduled an appointment with her therapist for when she gets back home? She's been a lot already, but getting kidnapped and being held prisoner..."

"Therapy never hurts," Grover figured. "as long as it's a therapist that knows of the gods, but if you're able to make the appointment so quick, I assume that's already been figured out."

The mortal nodded his head.

"Annabeth has been seeing this therapist ever since she came back home," he confirmed. "It helps. I think."

"You think?" I asked, my tone maybe not the best.

I'm not known to have a great reputation with adults anyways. It's fine.

"My wife, Elizabeth, is still struggling to... See Annabeth as her daughter." But after meeting the bitch, it wasn't very hard to tell that much about her. "Their relationship has been rocky for quite a while— it was a major reason as to why Annabeth ran away. That and the fact that I just worked way too much and wasn't home enough for her. But my wife doesn't seem to want to understand that Annabeth being trans isn't just a phase because according to her and Chiron, this has been going on for multiple years and even before she ran away, there were certain things she would do that I thought were funny at the time, but now make sense knowing that she's trans. We're trying to get into a family therapist, but Elizabeth doesn't think it'll do anything, so..."

He shrugged.

"Sorry, that was a lot," Mr. Chase stopped himself. "I'm sure you guys hear enough about this from Annabeth, I don't need to make you feel bad for us or anything, I'm sure your families have their share of issues. You were... And pardon me if this rude, but you were also a runaway Thalia, weren't you? That's how you and Annnabeth met?"

Thalia nodded.

"Yeah, I haven't been home since I was around 10 years old." The child of Zeus confirmed. "I only stayed that long for my little brother, and then Mom gave him away, so I left. Met Annabeth like two years later. A little less than maybe.  Her and Luke are my family more or less, but I just reconnected with my little brother so we'll see what happens."

"Okay, so you do know Luke! I couldn't remember if you died and then she met Luke or if Luke was there beforehand. She's only told me the story once, after she told me you were alive again."

Thalia let out a hint of a smile and nodded.

"I knew Luke well before we found your little girl," the child of Zeus clarified.

"You've been eating his face off for just as long, though." I thought it was a whisper.

Thalia punched my arm, proving me wrong.

"Shut up, punk. What Luke and I do in private is none of your business."

"It is when you don't do it in private."

"Anyways," Grover said, forcing the topic change as Thalia very politely pinched me. "We were here wondering if you'd be able to help us out, Mr. Dare."

"If I— but I'm just a mortal." He insisted. "I mean, I can certainly give you all a ride if that's what you mean, taxis can be expensive for five people, but... How?"

"Annabeth mentioned that you're a history professor," Grover explained. "she told me when she was younger that in your office you had a bunch of stuff related to your work, but she specifically mentioned weapons because you specify in like, wars, right? Military history?"

"I— yes, World War I is what I wrote my thesis on— about the collapse of all of the old empires." He said, and I could sense him holding back a tangent on the topic, knowing that the longer he talked, the longer Annabeth was in danger. "And also like, the modernization with weapons and planes. Planes specifically. But I have some weapons. I'm assuming you're looking for celestial bronze?"

"Or imperial gold or stygian iron— any of the magical metals."

Nodding his head, Frederick offered each of us a banana muffin and told us to follow him to his study.

Answer me this: how is his office big enough to have a model airplane hanging from the ceiling like a chandelier.

Don't get me wrong, it was cool because he made it cool— it basically was a chandelier. It looked like a plane that the Wright Brothers made, so there was a lot of exposed beams or support rods or whatever they're called, and around those beams he had fairy lights and then where the person would sit he had a normal lightbulb so he could choose if he wanted the big light or ambient lighting.

I appreciated it when he put on the ambient lighting.

It's still early, okay? And my dream last night was just a mix of watching Bianca die and of Mom when she miscarried and of Mr. D and Dad being really mean so... I slept like shit.

I'm surprised I don't feel worse.

Maybe because I'm trying to not think about the nightmares.

Is that repression?

Maybe.

That's for my therapist to figure out.

"Okay, so I know this isn't common from what Annabeth has said, but if you are going against a Titan, it might be worth a mention," Frederick began, picking up a small metal box, opening it up to show us the last thing I expected to see, if we're being honest. "this is a box of bullets that I have that's been melted down all from Celestial bronze— it's how I kept monsters away when she was little and the boys were newborn. Since the gun is also made from celestial bronze, they never have seemed to notice it— even Annabeth. She knows now, but she didn't when she was younger. I just use a handgun typically, but there's some more heavy duty stuff if that's what you're looking for."

I looked at my boyfriend, at Annabeth's father, then back at my boyfriend.

"They make celestial bronze guns?"

He nodded his head.

"Yeah, of course they do, sweets." He insisted. "They're just not common at camp. There's like, one Apollo camper who uses a sniper, but because bullets are deadly, he can only use it in an actual battle."

"Oh yeah, I suppose you can't really train with a gun during things like capture the flag," Thalia commented, humming. "Hm. Never thought about that— I guess you could use a paint gun or something, but still. Weird."

"It would be useful to have a handgun against Atlas, though," Phoebe commented. "he isn't the strongest, but he's still a titan, and he won't let us leave without a fight. If we could have something like that to pull out..."

"I'll take it," Thalia offered, which surprised me because they seemed like the type of person that would be anti-gun. "I'm not a fan of guns, but Phoebe is right— we'll want to give ourselves every possible chance if we end up fighting a titan. Also, I'm the only one who looks anywhere near old enough to have a conceal and carry. We're not getting stopped by the cops again."

"What... Is a conceal and carry?" Phoebe asked.

"I'll... Explain later, we don't have time," Thalia insisted as Mr. Chase carefully handed her the unloaded gun, holster, and a pouch of bullet rounds that clipped onto his belt. "Would you happen to have any extra knives?"

Supplying us with a few other supplies— some that can cause harm, others for healing or snacking, Frederick Chase seemed torn between thinking of more and more things to give us or ask about so he didn't have to send us to our possible demises and getting us out as fast as possible because his daughter was in danger.

I can't say I blame him— he's lost her once, so I'm sure he'd feel guilty sending us and putting other parents through that.

Well, okay, putting my parents through that— but I'm (well, my brain is) working really hard right now to have them go through that anyways, it's just not by choice.

My brain is a cruel thing.

"Are you sure you don't need anything else?" Annabeth's father asked as we put our shoes back on. "I can still give you a ride if you'd like— we have a big enough car, it seats 7 people."

"It's alright, sir, we'll make it on our own— Annabeth is already in danger and we don't want to put you in danger, too." My boyfriend insisted. "We appreciate everything."

"Of course! Is there... Any way you could let me know that she makes it out alive?"

Thalia nodded, looking to us.

"You guys go get our rides secured," they insisted. "I'm going to talk to Frederick for a moment in private. I'll catch up with you."

"Are you sure? Zoë Nightshade challenged the child of Zeus' notion. "We can wait here for you. It's no issue."

But, my dreams coming back to me, I could sense what this conversation might be about, and I knew that nobody was going to be happy about it.

"Let's give them some space," I told the hunters, stepping outside into the cold December air. "I have an idea for how we can get to Mount Othyrs a lot faster than a taxi."

•••
Pro: Creative juices going insane (art, fanfic, and regular fiction)

Con: these items are all produced at a slower rate bc I am working on all of them + working a normal job