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

[kelpful]

Characters: Percy Jackson and you!
Date: October 4-8
Location: All around Keeliai
Situation: Percy is trying to cope with the prospect of literally going to hell, and failing miserably. Sparring, Water Sector fun and getting your head bitten off (not literally) are all options. If you want a specific thread starter, lemme know!
Warnings/Rating: None for now

Starters are in the comments!

Comments

[sophos]

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."

[kelpful]

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."

[sophos]

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."

[kelpful]

"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."

[sophos]

"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."

[kelpful]

"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.

[sophos]

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?"

[kelpful]

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?"

[sophos]

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.

[kelpful]

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?"

[sophos]

"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.

[kelpful]

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?"

[sophos]

Annabeth adjusts the direction of the sword without even thinking when Percy sweeps in, making sure it's pointed away from them both, smiling into the kiss as she returns it. The flames can't burn them anyway. "Not with actual words."

His expression tells her that most of the day, though.

[kelpful]

"I love you," he says happily, and actually feels happy. Even with the weight of Tartarus crushing them, it's a relief - more than a relief - to know that moments like this are possible still.

He shifts away a little, squinting at his trident, still all aflame. "Okay so, now we know how to turn them on, how do we turn them off, exactly?"

[sophos]

Her smile deepens, and the realization of how nice that feeling is deepens it even more. "I love you, too," she says back easily, just as happily.

She makes a face at their flaming weapons though. "You're the one with your own personal ocean. Splash them, maybe?"

[kelpful]

A self-satisfied look comes over his face, because Annabeth loves him and Percy pretty much considers that one of his greatest achievements.

It slips away almosty immediately in favour of pulling a face at that. He steps away, and when a blast of water drenches both the xiphos and the trident, it's no coincidence that it gets Annabeth a little bit, too. "Huh. Guess that worked."

[sophos]

Annabeth huffs, glaring a little, but at least she's not soaked. She does lightly smack him in the arm, though. "I said them, not me."

And she knows he's good enough that hitting her was totally on purpose, no matter how little.

[kelpful]

He nudges her with his hip, careful not to get their weapons tangled. "I think the important part here is that it worked, don't you?" Even as he speaks, the water is rolling off her, leaving her as dry as she was before he got his power on her. "Come on. Let's go see if we can test your theory some more."

Time to find Leo and set some more fires.

[OOC: THIS IS DONE NOW I DECLARE IT SO]