Me Too, Me Too

i guess it was just easier to give him the Okino

I just noticed that in the shot where Jay/Rouge takes off his hat and mask, his hairstyle is very different from his hair for the rest of the episode. The ponytail is much shorter, and tbh, it looks way better. I wish they had given him a hairstyle like this instead of the one he actually has.

Reblog If you Like...

• Ninjago • Miraculous Ladybug • Anime • PJO/HOO • Fall out Boy • Panic! at the Disco • Voltron

Those are my main Fandoms, and I want to find some more blogs to follow.

If I see another video slandering Lost Hero, I'm going to take a brick and slam it into my face so hard that my nose falls off.

I always thought Pip was the bully. He was just so mean all the time, especially to Bets. From what I remember, Larry was pretty chill. Maybe I need to reread the books, too

Fatty IS the best character tho, no arguing with that

Rereading the Five Find-Outers by Enid Blyton and I’m remembering why I don’t like Larry.

I swear his personality is just arrogance and fat shaming. He’s almost like a lead bully and Pip just goes along with him, I don’t get why we’re meant to root for them.

Fatty, Daisy and Bets should ditch them.

yeah cause like wdym AGAIN? Why does this keep happening? Why do I just wake up to new seasons being leaked? A WEEK AFTER THE LAST ONE

I just woke up WTF do you mean DR season 3 part 2 was leaked??!! How did this happen AGAIN??!!

#to be fair Cole was a lumberjack #A LUMBERJACK #IT COULDN'T GET MORE RANDOM

You leave Cole alone and he gets kids and a husband.

You leave Jay alone and he somehow:

-Becomes a Gameshow Host

-Makes a bad wish with a Djin and erases the whole timeline

-Plays a sentient game and gets a cult (Bonus points he relates with said sentient game)

-A sacrifice to an ancient deity (If you even call Wojira a deity)

-Goes into a lighthouse to mourn his dead wife.

-Becomes a manager at an evil administration in the Realm of Madness.

-Joins an evil furry cult.

SPOILERS FIR DR SEASON 3 PART 2!!!!!!!

They did, actually, but Jay still didn't believe them. He said that the Administration also had photos of him and they turned out to be liars, sooo

Can’t the ninja just show Jay a photo of all them together?? I know they have those. It’d make it all so much easier. I mean Jay could claim it’s fake but they should still at least try!

Arrio my dearest beloved what the FRICK do you mean by this???? ahgsdgfhdgshdhfg

anyways hes my fave so he can do whatever he wants forever<3<3<3!!, criminal charges arent real <3<3<3

Jupiter-men webtoon link :3

AAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNND WE'RE LIVE! STRINGS OF FATE IS OFFICIALLY OUT IN THE WORLD LIKE A LITTLE BABY CHICKEN!!!!! I'M SUCH A PROUD MAMA DUCK!!!!!! WHOOOO!!!

Anywho, I am sosososo very pleased to announce the debut of the newest installment of the Fate Spun Heroes verse, Strings of Fate! I chucked Piper and Leo in Tartarus for funsies back in October, and now it's time to actually deal with that lmao.

NOW, without further ado, PLEASE allow me to present to you Chapter 1: ANNABETH Tells a God To Kick Rocks

“So, that just means we have to fly to Venice, make it to Epirus, navigate the House of Hades, fight off the monster hoards that are almost certainly waiting for us, out-magic the mystery woman, and set fire to a Giant made of shadows,” Percy summarized. He glanced over at Hazel. “When did you say Hecate scheduled Gaea’s homecoming party?” “August first,” Hazel reported. “The Feast of Spes. It’s a celebration of hope.” “Let it not be said that she doesn’t understand irony,” Annabeth said dryly. * After a devastating loss in Rome, it seems as if there's no end to the list of challenges faced by the crew of the Argo II. Hecate sent them on a wild goose chase across the Italy while expecting Hazel to learn magic from a mustelid. Annabeth is failing to find a use for the statue she risked life and limb to retrieve. There's an extremely volatile son of Jupiter prowling around, threatening to blow the ship out of the sky, assuming one of the dozens of monsters don't get to them first. Cherry on top, Piper and Leo are currently trapped in Tartarus, and their only hope of rescue is their friends managing to make it to the bottom floor of the Necromanteion. Piece of cake. A House of Hades Rewrite

Annabeth was tired. 

She’d gone into this whole thing thinking she was more than ready. She’d spent basically her whole life training to fight monsters and go on quests and save the world, after all. She was sure she could do this. Unfortunately, what they don’t tell you is that no amount of summer camp can really prepare you for a months-long quest, even if your ride was ‘the baddest, most luxurious bitch in the sky.’ No, she was getting to learn that lesson first hand now that it was nearly three in the morning and she was working on hour twenty of no sleep, and she could confidently say that she was tired. 

It had been four days since they’d left Rome, and she’d been dedicating everything she had to keeping the Argo II and her crew airborne while also trying to decipher the magical mess of gears and wires that Leo had managed to install in the ship’s control panel. Frank and Hazel had explained that it was an Archimedes Sphere, and in the short time Leo had gotten to fiddle with it, he’d been able to make it do basically whatever he wanted. Annabeth hadn’t had nearly that level of luck, though she liked to think she was making some progress. She’d tried praying to Hephaestus and Vulcan both for guidance and got exactly zero help from either side. She figured that was likely because the god didn’t really feel inclined to help the demigod who was the reason his son was in Tartarus. She could picture Hephaestus with his perpetually smouldering beard and his scowling expression saying something like, I gave you an answer for this puzzle, and you went and threw him in a pit. You’re on your own.

But right now, she was mostly tired of having rocks thrown at her.

“That’s the third time!” she shouted, leaning over the railing and shaking her fist at the mountains below. A giant man with a crazy beard, wearing a fluttering white toga shook his fist back at her. “Quit breaking the fucking mast!”

In response, he just chucked another boulder. 

The ourae were an annoying bunch, dead set on making life as difficult as possible for Annabeth and her crew. Getting to Epirus was supposed to be the easy part. All they had to do was cross one measly little mountain range and they should have been home free. Unfortunately, Gaea, mother of the year, apparently had yet another set of kids, and these ones were more than happy to do mommy dearest a favor and keep the Argo II from crossing said mountain range through any and all means. Annabeth jerked the red JoyCon in her hand hard to the side to avoid the incoming attack, flicked the blue one like she was casting a fishing pole to fire a volley of cannon balls in response, then flipped the mountain god off for good measure. She didn’t really think that the last bit would help much, but it certainly made her feel better. 

As the boulder sailed overhead, she whirled around on her heel, fists clenched at her sides, just in time to see Hazel helping Nico up from the mess of canvas and rigging he’d been buried under when the mast collapsed. “This is all our fault,” Hazel fretted. “Mine ‘n’ Nico’s. We’re children of the Underworld, so they can sense us.”

For the briefest moment, the least helpful part of Annabeth’s mind, the one that thought it was a good idea to flip off mountain gods, wanted to suggest tossing the both of them overboard, in that case, but she refrained. Hazel had been the last person to speak with Piper and Leo, aside from Jason, and Annabeth knew she’d been a mess over the whole thing since. Every last person on the ship, Annabeth included, had found a way to blame themselves for Piper and Leo’s fall, but Hazel was taking it particularly bad. The thought of making the poor girl feel worse made Annabeth’s stomach tie itself in knots, even if she only meant it as a joke. So, instead she squeezed Hazel’s bicep and gave her a gentle smile. “It’s not just you, Hazel. We’ve got Percy and Jason on board, too, plus Frank’s ties to Poseidon. This boat smells like a traveling demigod buffet, I can assure you.” Hazel giggled softly, and Annabeth’s smile widened. “Besides, even if they were just hunting down you and you alone, I’d still want you around. We’d have been shot out of the sky a dozen times by now, if not for your warnings.”

Hazel opened her mouth to reply, but instead her eyes widened and she shouted, “Veer left!” Annabeth instantly did as she was told, and the ship narrowly avoided yet another projectile. She arched her eyebrows at Hazel as if to say, See? Told you so.

“We need to get out of here,” Nico said quietly. “We’re never going to make it anywhere in one piece at this rate.”

Annabeth begrudgingly agreed, and returned to the ship’s wheel to steer them away from the mountains. They were retreating north west again, just like they’d been doing for the past three days, and Annabeth was, well, tired of it. With their new course set, she returned to Nico and Hazel. “We need a new plan.”

“Should I go wake the others?” Hazel offered. Annabeth considered that, then shook her head. Her mind drifted down below decks to her cabin where she’d left Percy curled up and snoring on her bed. Even in sleep, he still wore the deep creases of exhaustion between his furrowed brows. He needed every moment of rest that could be afforded to him, and she doubted Jason and Frank were in much better shape. 

“Is there a pass in the mountains farther north?” Nico suggested. “Somewhere we could sail through without being in range of the ourae?”

Annabeth pursed her lips, pulled out the Archimedes Sphere, and started fiddling with it. Fortunately, it behaved this time around, and a holographic 3D map of Italy and the mountains they were fruitlessly trying to cross flickered to life before them. “I don’t see anywhere like that,” she said, slowly walking her fingers along the projection as it rotated under her. “See, this is where we tried to cross the day before yesterday, and that’s the biggest gap I can see.”

“What if we went by sea?” Hazel piped up.

Annabeth personally wanted to agree. She felt much more confident when they were on the water and she knew Percy was there to, well, be Percy and all that entailed. 

Unfortunately, Nico vetoed the idea. “We can’t. If we’d been retreating south this whole time, maybe, but it would take too long for us to go all the way around the end of Italy at this point. We need to make sure we’re waiting for Piper and Leo in Epirus. If they have to spend any more time in Tartarus than they have to, well…”

Nico didn’t have to finish. It wasn’t exactly a secret that nobody had Piper and Leo as their top picks for “Most Likely to Succeed – Tartarus Edition.” Considering Jason was currently in possession of Katoptris, Annabeth was pretty sure the only weapons they had were Leo’s fire powers and Piper’s Horn of Plenty. According to Nico, he couldn’t sense their souls (though he admitted that he wasn’t entirely sure if he even could sense if they’d died, all things considered) but nobody was all that interested in testing to see if that would change. 

“I suppose we could try camouflage?” Annabeth said, though her tone was thick with doubt. They were carrying four children of the Big Three, a legacy of Poseidon, and the Athena Parthenos. She hadn’t been lying when she’d told Hazel that every monster on the planet could smell them. She was pretty sure that even Percy’s horrible dead ex-step-father, Smelly Gabe, wouldn’t be able to mask them with his stench. 

Nico narrowed his eyes. “I could maybe–”

“You are not shadow traveling anywhere,” Annabeth cut in firmly. Nico scowled at her, but she just scowled right back at him. “There’s no way you would be able to make that jump with the whole ship. Right now, you don’t even look like you could make it by yourself. You’re not allowed to kill yourself for a plan that wouldn’t even work.”

“Am I allowed to kill myself for a plan that would work?”

“No.”

Hazel was quiet, her eyes shut and her head bowed slightly, as if in prayer, and Annabeth cut her gaze away. She hadn’t prayed to her mom in months. Not since that awful meeting at the museum when she’d been given her mission to retrieve the Athena Parthenos. Now, with the giant marble statue of her mother tied up in the stable, she still couldn’t bring herself to call on Athena. She’d spent months tormented by Minerva, then gone on the most grueling quest of her life, crushing the bones of her siblings with every step, then lost her friends to Tartarus, all in an attempt to soothe a goddess’s wounded pride. Even if the Parthenos managed to knock everyone’s socks off in the fight against the Giants, she couldn’t help but think that it wasn’t worth it. How could she possibly call on Athena for help, knowing she’d consider Piper and Leo’s sacrifice a suitable price? She’d almost rather call Hera than bite her tongue while her mother dismissed her friends like that. Almost.

Then, as if answering Hazel’s prayers, a cloud of dust came flying over the mountains. Hazel’s face lit up and she flung herself at the railing with a delighted shout. “Arion!”

Nico looked interested as well. “You mean your horse?”

Hazel nodded eagerly. “Yeah. I wasn’t expecting to see him again so soon, but if he’s here, he’s here to help. I need to get to him.”

Annabeth considered that, worrying her bottom lip. “I’m not too sure, Hazel. We agreed to not land the ship anymore, remember? Trying to stay as far away from Gaea as possible.”

Hazel was determined. “Just get me close and I can use the rope ladder.” Her eyes shone with a kind of eager desperation Annabeth recognized. She’d seen that look on dozens of Campers, and even in her own mirror for years when she’d been begging Chiron to let her go on her first quest. That desire to prove herself, to make the people who mattered proud of her, was a feeling Annabeth knew well. 

Annabeth still wasn’t entirely convinced, but she exchanged a glance with Nico who dipped his head once. “If you’re sure.”

“I can do it, I know I can,” Hazel said, nodding eagerly. “Just get me to him. I think he’s got something important to say to me.”

*-*-*

Festus was not happy with her. Annabeth had somewhat sheepishly informed the dragon that the mast had been broken again and she needed him to run the repair sequence. He'd let out a series of groans and creaks that she couldn't understand – he only broke out the Morse code when he had something important to say – but she could tell that he wasn’t implying anything flattering. Buford, on the other hand, had been far more vocal about his displeasure, loudly imitating Hedge and shouting “You think masts grow on trees, or something, cupcake?” while he scuttled around making sure repairs went according to plan.

Annabeth heaved a deep sigh and sat down to watch them work, tinkering with the Archimedes Sphere in her lap. Her gaze wandered over to Nico, who was standing a good distance from her, arms crossed and his usual scowl on his face. Still, she could see that under his frigid exterior, he was mystified at the sight of the ship knitting itself back together, even though he'd seen it twice already. Silence hung heavy and tense between them like it always did, and Annabeth resisted the urge to awkwardly clear her throat. She figured that whatever was going on between her and Nico had something to do with her dating Percy, and Nico’s issues with him. She wanted to grab the younger boy and shake him by the shoulders and demand he at least judge her by her own merit before writing her off and deciding she wasn’t worth his time, but she doubted it would help or make her feel any better. Instead she hummed thoughtfully and said, “He really is something else, isn't he?”

Across the deck, Nico stiffened like he'd been zapped with lightning and he turned his scowl on her, his cheeks suddenly pink. “What do you mean by that?” he snapped defensively.

Annabeth furrowed her brow in confusion and gestured at the self-repairing mast. “Uh, Leo? He really did think of everything when he was making this boat. Well, actually, the repairing thing might have been Piper’s idea, but I'm pretty sure she was just messing with him when she’d suggested it.”

“Oh.” For some reason, Nico actually seemed to relax the tiniest bit at that. He gripped the sleeve of his jacket and looked away from her. “I… actually don't know. I never really met the guy.”

“Oh,” she echoed, running through the timeline of events. Everything from the past year had kind of mixed together and distorted around itself. Some events that were merely minor inconveniences in hindsight stretched out to be years long ordeals, while the harrowing tribulations managed to squish themselves down into tiny little marbles of moments. Nico hadn’t been with them that long. He wasn't there for the Charleston fight or Shrimpzilla or Hercules. “I guess you didn't get the chance to properly meet them.”

Nico shrugged. “Piper and I were in Bacchus's booth together, but I wasn't really up for playing 20 questions at the time.”

Annabeth let out a bright snort of laughter and hunched over the Sphere. “I can tell you about them, if you'd like.”

She didn't expect him to say yes. She’d made the offer under the assumption that her only answer would be a dismissive scoff and a cold glower. She was quickly learning that she should never try to anticipate Nico DiAngelo.

He sat down in front of her, his face completely devoid of any expression. “Sure. I tried to ask Hazel about them, but she just started crying. No one else has offered to tell me who it is we're trying to save.”

Annabeth nodded seriously and straightened her back. “Piper McLean. Sixteen years old. Daughter of Aphrodite and movie star Tristain McLean, who has the ability to use Charmspeak. Immediately after her first quest, she challenged Drew for her position as counselor, but they wound up running the Aphrodite cabin together instead.

“Leo Valdez is fifteen. Son of Hephaestus, but I don’t know much about his mortal parent. He’s got the gift of fire, which hasn’t been seen in a Hephaestus kid since the 1600’s. He’s the one responsible for designing and building the Argo II. Meaning he’s the one who did all of–” she gestured at the self-repairing mast with the JoyCon in her hand “–this.”

Nico’s expression didn’t falter. “Oh. Good to know.”

Annabeth looked away from him, chewing her bottom lip. What she’d said about Piper and Leo was true, and covered all of the basics, but she didn’t like the way she’d boiled her friends down to a handful of sentences like she was outlining their stat spread. She sucked her teeth for a moment before adding, “They’re also Jason’s best friends. They showed up to Camp with him after he woke up with amnesia on a school field trip.”

That actually got Nico’s attention, and he cocked his head to the side.  “Amnesia? Like Percy had?”

Annabeth nodded. “Yeah. Jason actually had even less memory than Percy, and he’s still not entirely recovered.”

“What about Piper and Leo? Did they also have amnesia?”

“Not exactly. Hera did play with Leo’s memory and made him believe that Jason went to school with them, but she wasn’t able to trick Piper.” Annabeth snorted and covered her grin with her fist. “Actually, when the three of them showed up, she hated Jason.”

“I can imagine that. She didn’t exactly have anything polite to say about Percy when we were together,” Nico said dryly, and Annabeth couldn’t help but let out a breathy laugh.

“I thought for sure she was going to try to fist fight Jason at their first campfire,” she admitted. “Fortunately, she got over it, and over the summer the three of them became inseparable.” She sighed heavily and looked back out over the mountains in the near distance, chewing on her lip. “I got to know them really well, too. Leo and I actually spent a lot of time together working on the ship, and Piper and I would spend hours studying mythology and just hanging out.” She swallowed around the sudden lump in her throat. “I hope they’re okay.”

Nico immediately sombered. “I’ve been trying to keep an eye out for them. As near as I can tell, neither of their souls have passed on.”

Annabeth grimaced. That’s what Nico always said. It wasn’t much of a comfort, but it was the only one he could give her, and she was grateful to have it. “Thanks.”

Nico cut his gaze away from her and stared out over the mountains as well. “I’’m sorry.”

She furrowed her brow at him. “For what?”

He shrugged, still not looking at her, and when he spoke his voice was clipped. “Just sympathy. Seems like you got a lousy deal in Rome. You lost a lot, and who you wound up with doesn’t really seem to measure up.”

“Don’t I know it,” Annabeth muttered bitterly. Had she been anyone else, she wouldn’t have noticed the way Nico flinched, but she did, though she didn’t mention it. “My mom very conveniently forgot to mention that getting her statue would involve losing two of my best friends in the process.”

Nico hummed contemplatively and stared out over the horizon, like he was letting everything she’d told him sink in. Then he suddenly stood, a serious look in his eye. “Do you have a way to send an IM on this ship?”

Annabeth frowned at him. “Uh, yeah. Leo installed a mist fountain in all of the cabins. I don’t know if he put them in the guest quarters, but if he didn’t, you can use the one in mine or Percy’s room.” He gave her a curt nod of thanks and turned on his heel to head below deck. “Wait! Who are you calling?”

He paused and looked at her over his shoulder. “An old friend of mine. I think he might be able to help.” Then he was gone. 

Annabeth watched him leave with no small amount of confusion, a frown pulling at the corners of her lips. Buford scuttled up beside her and she turned her attention to him. “How’s the mast?”

“Ship-shape!” Buford reported in a perfect imitation of Piper. Then he shifted slightly, and Annabeth wasn’t sure how she knew, but she could tell he was looking at where Nico had disappeared off to. “Odd one, huh?”

She scoffed, then opened and closed his drawer while he made a few noises of offended protest. “Find someone on this boat who isn’t weird. You’re a sapient side table, in case you forgot. Meanwhile, I’m sitting here talking to furniture. Normal isn’t really what we do.” Buford was still complaining quietly in that machine language only Hephaestus kids understood, so she rolled her eyes and held out the Archimedes Sphere for him to investigate. “What do you think?”

“That looks like a basketball,” Buford said in Jason’s dryly earnest voice. “A very weird basketball.”

“Well, you’re no help.”

“I never claimed to be helpful,” Buford said, echoing her own voice back at her.

She scowled and shoved him away. “Why don’t you wander off and gossip with Festus? Seeing as you can’t bring yourself to do anything of value.”

Buford made some very rude-sounding clicking noises before he turned around and scurried off, leaving Annabeth alone on the deck. She hefted the Archimedes Sphere up to eye level. “Well, I guess it’s just you and me again.”

Predictably, it didn’t say anything back.

*-*-*

Annabeth was so focused on the Archimedes Sphere that she didn’t even notice when Nico popped up right behind her until he gave her a flat, “Hey.” She flinched and gasped in shock, and he grimaced before glancing away. “Sorry.”

“No, it’s my fault,” she dismissed, scowling at her own carelessness and trying to get her heart rate back down to normal. “I should be paying more attention.”

He hummed in acknowledgement, then nodded at the Sphere in her lap. “Any luck with that thing?”

After a moment’s consideration, she pressed a few buttons, clicked a couple gears into place, then held it out for observation. “I can make it do this.”

Right on cue, the Sphere let out a loud, deeply unpleasant, high-pitched whistle and Nico clapped his hands over his ears until she deactivated it. “And that’s useful how?”

She shrugged. “It’s not useful, but I can do it. I’m choosing to take my wins where I can get them right now.”

Before Nico could reply, Festus cut in with his usual symphony of clicks and whistles, which Buford helpfully translated to, “Horse Girl, 11 o’clock!” in Hazel’s voice. Annabeth was more than happy to abandon her project in order to get the Argo II into position for Hazel to climb up, which she did after a brief goodbye with Arion.

Nico was waiting to help her back aboard, which was a good thing, as her knees fully buckled as soon as her feet were back on deck. “Hazel, are you okay? What happened?” he demanded, his voice soft and a little strained like it always was.

“I’m fine,” Hazel insisted, pulling him into a tight hug. “Promise.” 

“Did you meet with our father?”

Hazel shook her head. “No, it was Hecate.” Nico stiffened at her words and she shot him a look that very clearly said, I’ll tell you later.

Annabeth narrowed her eyes, but before she could press for more information, a furry little face popped up from the collar of Hazel’s shirt, throwing her off track. “Hazel, why do you have a weasel?”

Said weasel made some very angry chittering sounds as Hazel coaxed it out into the open. “This is Gale. She’s one of Hecate’s followers, and she’s here to help.” Gale squeaked and squealed in outrage until Hazel winced. “And she’s a polecat, not a weasel.” 

Annabeth wasn’t exactly sure how a cranky polecat was going to help them, but much like she was taking her wins where she could get them, she recognized that they didn’t have much room to be picky about their divine help. She took a deep breath and nodded to Gale. “Polecat, my apologies.”

“So, what happened with Hecate?” Nico asked. “Did she have any advice?”

“Boy did she,” Hazel said, her tone a little sour. “Unfortunately, it wasn’t all good news.”

“Well, if it’s not all bad news, that’s already an improvement,” Annabeth pointed out.

Hazel nodded. “She said that there’s a way for us to get to Epirus in time. She said that there’s a path we can take to get across Italy.”

Without a moment’s hesitation, Annabeth pulled out the Sphere and that same holographic map from before flickered to life. “Show me.”

“We have to keep going north,” Hazel reported dutifully. She scrolled through until she found the tiniest little gap. “There’s a pass, one that Hannibal took, where Hecate has some sway. She said she can help mask our progress, but trying to cross anywhere else is just going to wind up in disaster. For the ship and us.”

“Do not blow up my baby!” Buford interjected in Leo’s voice.

Annabeth nodded in agreement. “That’s not a surprise, really. At least we were already headed north.”

“That’s not all,” Hazel confessed. “She said we also have to go to Bologna and Venice, then we get to cross the Adriatic.”

Nico gaped at her. “Venice? Do you have any idea how far out of the way that is?”

Hazel nodded grimly. “Hecate was very insistent. She wouldn’t tell me why we needed to go there, but she made it plenty clear that it was the only way to save Piper and Leo.”

With that, Hazel and Nico both turned expectant and waiting eyes on Annabeth. Part of her wanted to scream. To insist that she was just a sixteen year old girl who had no business leading a quest to save the world, but that wasn’t a temper tantrum she was allowed to have. Really and truly, she’d never been allowed to have that temper tantrum. Instead, she dragged her hand down her face and let out a deep sigh. “At this point, we’re out of options. I’m almost willing to go to the moon if it has the best chance of getting us to Epirus.” 

“I offered a solution that could work earlier,” Nico reminded her. “I’m sure I could get us across.”

“No, what you offered me was a dead demigod,” Annabeth retorted. “I don’t exactly love this plan, and there’s no guarantee that it won’t end in dead demigods, but at least there’s no guarantee that it will. If Hecate is willing to help us, this is our best chance.” Nico didn’t really look any more thrilled about it than he did before, but he at least nodded in acceptance, and that was all Annabeth could really hope for at this point. 

She turned back to Hazel. “So, how is Gale meant to help us? Is she going to guide us through the pass or something?”

Gale chittered and squeaked like she was giving Annabeth a piece of her mind for even suggesting that she be reduced to a tour guide, but Annabeth couldn’t speak mustelid and she had no interest in learning any time soon. Fortunately for Gale, Hazel offered translation. “No, Hecate said we’ll know the pass when we find it; we won’t need a guide to get through that.” 

“Then why have you been given an animal sidekick?” Nico asked dryly. Gale squealed her outrage, only to be ignored yet again.

“She’s not going to be a guide for the ship, but she will be a guide for me,” Hazel said. Annabeth couldn’t help but wonder if being cryptic just came with the whole “Child of the Underworld” territory or if Hazel and Nico got together and practiced being infuriating. 

She decided an answer wasn’t worth her sanity and moved on. She turned back to the control panel and inserted the Archimedes Sphere in the big, gaping hole Leo had made for it, and traced out the path Hazel had directed for them on the holographic map. “You got that, Festus?” she called. Festus clicked out a confirmation in Morse code and she let out a somewhat relieved sigh. They could do this. They would do this. 

She gave Nico and Hazel a smile. “You two head below deck and get some sleep. I’ll stay up here and keep an eye out.”

“We can’t just leave you up here alone,” Hazel protested. “Someone ought to be helping you keep watch.”

“Well, it can’t be you, seeing as you look on the verge of passing out,” Annabeth countered, gesturing at the way Hazel had been swaying on her feet since she got back on board. “Besides, there shouldn’t be anything to be on the lookout for. We’re avoiding the mountains and the ourae, and Hecate is masking us. It’ll be fine. You two get what sleep you can while we’ve at least got a moment of peace.” Hazel and Nico both didn’t seem all that interested in arguing with her anymore, so Hazel nodded, and Nico offered up a lazy salute and a drawled “Aye, Captain,” which definitely didn’t make Annabeth smother a snort of laughter.

When she was once again alone (or as alone as she was allowed to be on this ship) she let out a soul-deep sigh and rested her head on the ship wheel. They could do this. They had a plan. They finally had the help they so desperately needed. They could rescue Piper and Leo, defeat Gaea, stop the war between the camps, and save the world. They would do it.

They didn’t have another choice. 

Quintin probably already has like 13 different conspiracy theories about Pepper. Most of them involve aliens

My first Jupiter-Mini comic! Valentine's Day version! (I want to make a series out of these) Mini comic is based off my Webtoon, Jupiter-Men! Link to that HERE <---