tushanshu_logs | the world's a beast of a burden//you've been holding up a long time

"Yeah? Well I think--" Percy sighs mournfully, holding the trident out in front of him and squinting at it. He doesn't feel great, exactly, but things are better than they've been in a little while. Which is why he's not snapping back at Annabeth. "--that you're probably right. Why couldn't I have gotten one of those?"

He nods at her xiphos. Except that he already has a sword that he wouldn't replace for the world, and he's always kind of wanted a trident. But in the back of his mind had been the thought that learning to use it would be as instinctive as picking up Riptide had been. Apparently not.

For a moment, she expects him to snap at her, the anticipation born out of how they've been around each other. So it's something of a relief when he doesn't, and she takes a few steps towards him, less close than she might usually have gotten but close enough to manipulate around his hands.

Which she does, adjusting to where she thinks might be more appropriate. She tucks the xiphos under her arm in the process, crushed to her side, so she can use both hands to move his. "You already have a sword," she says easily, glancing briefly at his pocket. "Variety is the spice of life, haven't you heard?"

There's a faint flicker of a smile at her when she comes closer, and he lets her move her hands however she wants without complaint. The position she puts them in feels weird, but not wrong. Just not what he's used to.

"I know, I know. But I'm pretty sure we've both had enough variety to last a lifetime." He looks down at the trident. "So now that I'm holding it maybe-right, what do I do with it?"

Annabeth takes a step back once she's satisfied with his hands as they are, takes the xiphos handle back in her own hand. "If you had a net, you could use that, and then stab with the trident, though - you know, that's usually for the kill shot, assuming you get the net in place first. It has a long reach, so you could probably use it similarly enough to a spear." She pauses. "Or throwing it, too, but your aim's never been the greatest with projectiles. You could still try, though."

There's another brief pause, as she keeps looking over and trying to make calculations, because tridents were never really anyone's weapon of choice back home. It helps distract her from everything else, though, with something like to focus on. They can do it, they can get back to normal things. "How does it feel holding it? You should probably get used to that first, move it around instead of just standing there."

He makes a bit of a face at that, almost like a flinch. There's something about trapping an enemy and stabbing them while they're helpless that makes Percy - well. Uncomfortable, maybe.

What makes him more uncomfortable is the thought that he'd do it, if it was necessary. "Yeah? Tell that to he gu with three chests." But he grins a little, because she's right, and they both know it.

He should probably be looking at his new weapon, but he's watching her instead, the way her face takes on that look that means she's working through something. "What?" Give him a second here. "Oh, right. Uh...you think trying it like a spear is a good place to start?"

She never really expected him to go for that first option - that's not the kind of person Percy is, that's not his first choice - but she's Annabeth, so she needed to throw it out there anyway. She can tell he's uncomfortable, but there's something about the why she can't quite place, and it's vaguely frustrating. She stamps on it though, because they're not out here to start yelling at each other.

"Geryon," she says with an eyeroll, because of course she remembers. "And you know you so appreciatively have Hera to thank for that shot."

Annabeth steps back a little further, moves so she's more to his side than in front of him, shaking her head over his distraction. "If you think you can, yeah, try it like a spear. See if you can handle it like one. The end might be a little heavier, though."

Edited 2013-10-22 23:25 (UTC)

He points at her with the trident. "That was seriously unnecessary." His face screws up. "Man, can I just say that's really depressing? The one awesome shot I made, and Hera of all people gets to take the credit."

Percy shifts his grip a little on the trident, getting used to its weight. It's kind of a compromise between where Annabeth placed his hands, when where he'd started off. It feels sort of okay. "...Maybe step back another foot or twelve," he cautions as he starts to move through an old spear-training drill. Things he is not confident about: this.

She throws one arm up in a shrug. "I'm just saying." But then she makes a face to match. "I'd say we could pretend otherwise, but something tells me not even you could get away with that." Because ha ha ha Annabeth certainly couldn't. She's pretty sure she has a permanent high spot on Hera's shitlist.

At the warning, though, she does take a few steps back, a little more than a foot but definitely not twelve. She's seen him throw a spear before; she has a general sense of where it might end up should he throw it, though not exact because the shape and weight of the trident is different. And she can tell as easily as the difference between Doric and Ionic (well it's easy for her) that Percy's not feeling confident about this. "It doesn't have to be perfect, remember. You're just seeing what you can do right now, how it feels."

His tone is laced with bitterness, almost unconsciously. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure they're all going lord of everything we've done as actually being their idea for the rest of our lives."

Her last comment just gets a nod; his focus is shifting, becoming hyperaware of the weapon in his hand, how it feels. Sometimes it's just easier to get lost in the physical than to be constantly apologising, or stopping himself from feeling things that are totally legitimate just because they're not positive.

It's not exactly like a spear. The trident requires more stabbing motions than something tha just has one point, and he fleetingly wonders how a weapon like this even evolved before it demands his attention again. Slowly, he begins o pick up speed, moving with more confidence, altering the drill to better fit the weapon.

"How's it looking?"

"Good thing they can't take everything," she mumbles, but there's not exactly disagreement in her voice over it either.

But he starts on it, and Annabeth watches studiously. It's not like she really knows how to work a trident either, but she does know how Percy works a weapon in general, and she can pinpoint the moments he feels more and more comfortable with it. It's such a small thing, but the faintest hint of a smile ghosts on her face, because it's a sign of them. The normal them, that she can still easily do that.

"All things considered, not bad," she says. "Though I've never actually seen someone use a trident before."

Edited 2013-10-31 18:49 (UTC)

It's only when she replies that he realises the dark edge his thoughts have taken; his jaw clenches for a second, and he has to take a moment to just sort of force past it.

"I have," he says after a moment, still moving. "Finnick used one. I only saw him use it on fish, though."

Her smile fades when she catches his jaw clench, but she tries not to dwell on it. To maybe keep his attention from drifting elsewhere, for the worse. If he wasn't still moving around, she might've reached to touch his arm.

"You could try mimicking what he did, a little bit." She keeps watching his movements, with carefully trained eyes. "Alter it from fish to monsters. Invisible ones. It just - needs to work for you, even if it's not entirely proper."

He doesn't do proper most of the time anyway.

She doesn't indulge that dark edge, and after a moment or two it passes. He doesn't quite give her a grateful look, but something in his body language offers it up towards her anyway.

"Right," he says distractedly. They have enough real monsters to deal with without imagining more, but they have to be killed somehow. Practice is important. "Not entirely proper. I can do that."

And he does, focussing on the weapon as an extrension of himself, the same way he does with Ripide. The practice might be different, but the theory is the same. His awareness of his surroundings seems to both slip away and sharpen as his ADHD puts itself to good use, hyperfocussing on the relevent details and letting the rest become so much noise. The only constant is Annabeth.

He feels like he's building up to something as he moves, killing invisible monsers, but he's not quite sure what. "Do you know what I'm doing?" he calls after a second or two, because he has no idea.

Edited 2013-11-06 23:08 (UTC)

Something like relief flutters through her, with the way his body shifts in response. Success, for now, at least. Even though they've made that decision to go to the Emperor, she still feels the need to just - make sure he doesn't relapse, for lack of better word, to the way he completely fell apart in her arms.

Annabeth doesn't respond as he starts up again, just kind of slowly ends up hunched over in a squat, her xiphos resting across her thighs. It's a good sign that he can focus like that, she thinks

She snorts, because she can't help it. "Do you?" It's half teasing, because clearly he doesn't. But it's only half, because even though it's still a new weapon and she doesn't really know what he's doing, she can tell when he's got a handle on something. And he's getting there. She wonders if it's a son of the sea plus tridents equals automatic skill sort of thing.

It's still kind of awkward, for Percy standards though, and she knows what he's like at his best. "I've never used a trident. But I mean, it looks like you're getting a handle on it from my end. Just not quite there yet."

Percy flashes her a brief grin, pure instinct. It's starting to get to him, the simple joy of a physical workout where he's not actually screwing things up. "I was hoping you could tell me, Wise Girl."

He continues going through the motions, but he can feel the urge to throw it building. Which is stupid, his aim sucks, but it's there anyway, and - what could it hurt? He's not so bad that he'll hit Annabeth if he aims in the opposite direction. "I think I'm gonna throw it."

A grin threatens to break out on her own face. "Children of Athena? Don't usually do the whole trident thing, considering whose symbol it is."

But she can just about tell what he's itching to do, even before he says it. A quick scan of the area, then she replies, "Better do it now, while there's no one else around."

"PLease. You can't tell me that no child of Athena went, you know what I could do better? Tridenting."

His breath is starting to come a little faster now, working up a sweat.The more sensible part of him knows that he's never thrown something so top heavy like this before and that he's not exactly sure how to do it, but he ignores that. His body moves on automatic, arm drawing back and then snapping forward, letting it fly.

It heads in the general direction that he wanted, which is good. But he might have over-compensated, put a little too much power into his throw, because it sails past the point he was aiming for and through a nearby torch. A snort escapes him as he runs forward, after it. "Oops."

"Honestly, they probably never saw much use for it." She's still trying to do that herself, beyond fishing or stabbing.

She's completely unsurprised when he overshoots though - from the moment he started the throw, she could tell there was too much power in it, but that's just sort of who he is at the same time. A short laugh escapes her, too, and she rolls her eyes when he goes to retrieve it. "Little less oompth next time. You don't want to lose it before you even get the hang of it."

"You know what, when you try to do this, then you can laugh!" he yells back towards her, but he's grinning as well. He stops short when he reaches the trident, though, staring at it.

"Huh. That - okay, weird." He pitches his voice back to his girlfriend. "Hey Annabeth, catching on fire isn't really a thing that tridents do a whole lot, right?" Not fearing the flames, he picks it up and gestures with it to show her.

Annabeth stares at the trident, not quite believing what she's seeing at first. She scrambles to her feet and hurries over, mouth slightly open.

"What the hell?" She already knows the flames don't hurt (having tested it via literal hands on experiment in her first days here o o p s), so she reaches out to touch the metal through them, but then hesitates just shy of it. Just in case. The weapon is literally ablaze, flames flickering with no signs of going out, and she steals a glance at Percy before going back to staring at the trident. "Uh, considering they're aquatically based, no it's not really a thing. Is it - are the flames hot? Does it feel any different?"

He passes the trident from one hand to the next, testing. He's gotten a little more comfortable with it, at least. Even if it's covered in fire right now. "No, it feels pretty much the same. And they aren't hot, but that could be because the fire here isn't hot." He thinks for a moment, before holding it out towards her. "Hold this for a second."

Trusting that she'll take it, he lets go and fishes in his pocket for Riptide. Uncapping the pen, he passes his sword through the flames. Nothing happens. "Okay, so it's definitely the trident. I wonder if it works with other fire?"

Annabeth reaches for it without hesitation, temporarily distracted by watching it on fire in her own hands. She waves her free hand through the flames, squinting at it. She looks up just in time to watch him swing his sword through the same way, without the same effect.

She makes a grunty thoughtful noise, her eyebrows scrunching up as she stares back and forth between the trident and the fire it passed through. "The fire here's always been a little special, but maybe," she says, almost quiet enough to be a mumble, though it's distracted, too, a sure sign of a thought process on the go.

"But why a trident- ?" She cuts herself off with a small sound of an idea. She idly holds out the trident for Percy to take back, fumbling around for her xiphos at the same time.

Percy can't help the way his lips twitch up, taking the trident back. "Had an idea?" He doesn't even expect an answer, and doesn't need one - that's her idea face and her idea sound, all at once. It takes him a couple of seconds longer to figure out what she's doing, blinking at her xiphos.

"Wait, you think it's a Sinbrilee thing?"

"Shut up," is her response to the first bit, but it's distracted, like she hasn't really heard him. Which, to be fair, she doesn't really know what she's actually replying to, but shut up is a good default.

Then she swings the xiphos through the flames, eyes widening as the blade catches fire in the same way the trident had. She lets out a pleased sound, lips curling up in a grin, before she looks back over at Percy. But it's a sort of pleased-with-herself-smile that hasn't really been on her face lately. "Yeah, I think it just might be a Sinbrilee thing."

But she'll need to track down other people's weapons from there to test and be sure.

And that gets an outright laugh from him, although he obliges and waits for her to carry out whatever her plan is before speaking again.

Even then, he doesn't actually end up speaking when she turns to him with that smile, the faintly smug one that says she's happy with herself. Heedless of the flaming sword in her hand, he steps in close and kisses her. "Have I said that I love you, today?"

the world's a beast of a burden//you've been holding up a long time

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